The idea that a lab leak was highly unlikely was promoted by the administration. If NPR didn’t push back sufficiently against that narrative, it doesn’t seem at all related to liberal bias. It could be that they are sometimes too credulous of official government sources, which I do think is sometimes the case.
The idea that a lab leak was highly unlikely was promoted by the administration. If NPR didn’t push back sufficiently against that narrative, it doesn’t seem at all related to liberal bias. It could be that they are sometimes too credulous of official government sources, which I do think is sometimes the case.
It is undeniably true, as you say, that NPR (as well as many other new outlets) were too credulous of certain government sources on Covid. It is a journalist's job to question and investigate the facts, poke holes in prevailing narratives and actively seek out credible, opposing points of view. Perhaps it was something other than bias that influenced NPRs dogmatic adherence to a flawed theory, I have no way of knowing. But whatever the reason, journalism's failure to objectively and doggedly investigate the origin of the greatest global health disaster of our time should be at the top of every journalist's "WHERE AND HOW DID WE GO SO WRONG?" list. This is the essence of what Berliner was calling for in his essay: he loved NPR and after repeated attempts internally, made a public appeal to restore NPR's culture of curiosity and inquiry. Unfortunately, rather than a reckoning or any soul-searching on NPRs part, there has only been deflection and denial as they turn and shoot Uri, the messenger. And oh the irony of Inskeep doing it in a newlsetter bearing the affected title "Differ We Must"? Shame on Inskeep, and shame on NPR.
The idea that a lab leak was highly unlikely was promoted by the administration. If NPR didn’t push back sufficiently against that narrative, it doesn’t seem at all related to liberal bias. It could be that they are sometimes too credulous of official government sources, which I do think is sometimes the case.
It is undeniably true, as you say, that NPR (as well as many other new outlets) were too credulous of certain government sources on Covid. It is a journalist's job to question and investigate the facts, poke holes in prevailing narratives and actively seek out credible, opposing points of view. Perhaps it was something other than bias that influenced NPRs dogmatic adherence to a flawed theory, I have no way of knowing. But whatever the reason, journalism's failure to objectively and doggedly investigate the origin of the greatest global health disaster of our time should be at the top of every journalist's "WHERE AND HOW DID WE GO SO WRONG?" list. This is the essence of what Berliner was calling for in his essay: he loved NPR and after repeated attempts internally, made a public appeal to restore NPR's culture of curiosity and inquiry. Unfortunately, rather than a reckoning or any soul-searching on NPRs part, there has only been deflection and denial as they turn and shoot Uri, the messenger. And oh the irony of Inskeep doing it in a newlsetter bearing the affected title "Differ We Must"? Shame on Inskeep, and shame on NPR.