# Breitbart/NPR equivalence? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [February 19, 2017, 3:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breitbart-npr-equivalence/780220 "2017-02-19T15:58:30Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![scabpicker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scabpicker/32/8268_2.png) [@scabpicker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scabpicker)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2017, 12:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breitbart-npr-equivalence/780220/41 "2017-02-24T00:25:03Z")
> [@puddleglum](#): > > NPR does not correct its fantasy laden commentary either. Actually, they [do](http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2012/03/16/148761812/this-american-life-retracts-mike-daiseys-apple-factory-story) retractions for stories that are factually incorrect. > [@puddleglum](#): > > NPR gives 4 minutes to a conservative for a special commentary and then spends the rest of the day promoting a liberal agenda. No, they don’t. As cited later, that’s obviously your imagination getting the better of you. > [@puddleglum](#): > > O’Reilly, Hannity, Beck, and Carlson were all commentary shows and never pretended to be all news. Except they’re on a station with “News” in the name. > [@puddleglum](#): > > NPR would have you believe that they are unbiased and it is just a coincidence that their board of directors are liberals, their reporters are liberals, and their listeners are liberals. I understand they have to lie about their bias to keep their tens of millions of taxpayer dollars, but I don’t understand why other people do as well. They’d have you believe they’re unbiased because, again, anyone without an axe to grind recognizes that it’s true. ---
**Author:** ![puddleglum](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puddleglum/32/137_2.png) [@puddleglum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puddleglum)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2017, 4:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breitbart-npr-equivalence/780220/42 "2017-02-24T16:11:27Z")
> [@scabpicker](#): > > Actually, they [do](http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2012/03/16/148761812/this-american-life-retracts-mike-daiseys-apple-factory-story) retractions for stories that are factually incorrect. > > No, they don’t. As cited later, that’s obviously your imagination getting the better of you. > > Except they’re on a station with “News” in the name. > > They’d have you believe they’re unbiased because, again, anyone without an axe to grind recognizes that it’s true. Do they do retractions for items that are biased? Of course not or else they would do nothing else. The way bias works is that they do a news story give the liberal take on it and ignore the conservative side. That way they can claim to not have lied but still deceive their audience by only giving one side. This is because most of the reporters are liberals and are rooting for the liberals as NPR host Bob Garfield put it to Ira Glass"you and I both know that if you were to somehow poll the political orientation of everybody in the NPR news organization and all of the member stations, you would find an overwhelmingly progressive, liberal crowd. Not uniformly, but overwhelmingly." The workers are overwhelmingly liberal so the station is overwhelmingly liberal. It is just like in sports stations that hire nothing but former team members and fans to cover a team. They have a home team bias. For NPR liberals are the home team. ---
**Author:** ![D\_Odds](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/d_odds/32/2882_2.png) [@D\_Odds](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/D_Odds)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2017, 5:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breitbart-npr-equivalence/780220/43 "2017-02-24T17:28:25Z")
> [@Monocracy](#): > > Yeah, you’re right. I don’t have cable channels so I just have the local “broadcast” stations. I didn’t realize that Fox News has nothing to do with the Fox local network. That’s not 100% true, according to some articles I’ve read. Roger Ailes and his team would let FOX affiliates know topics to avoid or push, but his fingers were only on the top layer, not deep into the roots as they were at Fox News network. ---
**Author:** ![scabpicker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scabpicker/32/8268_2.png) [@scabpicker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scabpicker)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2017, 5:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breitbart-npr-equivalence/780220/44 "2017-02-24T17:59:21Z")
> [@puddleglum](#): > > Do they do retractions for items that are biased? This statement doesn’t even make sense. You hate NPR. I don’t care. You haven’t cited anything but your opinion in this thread, and I’m done trying to convince ya. I think anyone who reads the exchange up to this point can see what’s going on. ---
**Author:** ![mhendo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mhendo/32/3159_2.png) [@mhendo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mhendo)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2017, 6:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breitbart-npr-equivalence/780220/45 "2017-02-24T18:44:55Z")
> [@Johnny\_L.A](#): > > According to [this chart](http://i1.wp.com/www.pigscast.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/News.png), NPR is just left of the dividing line between the ‘Neutral (What Journalism Should Be)’, and ‘Leans Left (Not Horrible)’ columns. Breitbart is just to the right of the dividing line between ‘Hyper-Partisan Right (To Confirm Your Beliefs)’, and ‘Garbage Right (Not Worth It)’. > > So NPR and Breitbart are not equivalent. In terms of editorial politics, i think that chart is reasonably accurate. There are a few things i’d quibble with, but nothing too major. But in terms of journalistic and news values, i think that it perpetuates some of the very problems i was complaining about in my prior post. You can make an argument that the _New York Times_ leans liberal, and that the _Wall Street Journal_ leans conservative, in terms of editorial position. But according to the chart, an apparent lack of bias actually makes _USA Today_ a better source of news (closer to “what journalism should be”) than the _NYT_ or the _WSJ_. I’m sorry, but there is no reasonable measure of journalistic quality that would rate _USA Today_ higher than either of those newspapers. I’m a lefty, and i recognize and admit that the _WSJ_ has a business-oriented and often very conservative editorial viewpoint. Some of the people they invite onto their op-ed pages are right-wing whackjobs. But the _Journal_ has also, for decades, employed some of the best and most professional journalists in the business, and on the day-to-day reporting of news and politics and the economy, i have a great deal of confidence that those people are doing a good, professional job. Same with the _NYT_. The same is true of quite a lot of the other outlets on that chart, especially the ones in the “not horrible” sections, just to the left and right of center. ---
**Author:** ![squeegee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/squeegee/32/14537_2.png) [@squeegee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/squeegee)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2017, 10:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breitbart-npr-equivalence/780220/46 "2017-02-24T22:42:16Z")
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**Author:** ![Trinopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/2bfe46/32.png) [@Trinopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trinopus)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2017, 1:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breitbart-npr-equivalence/780220/47 "2017-02-25T01:35:15Z")
> [@puddleglum](#): > > Do they do retractions for items that are biased? . . . They issue retractions for factual errors. No one “retracts” opinions. That’s what opinions are for. Back in the good old days, you had Newsweek, with a liberal slant, and U.S. News and World Report, with a conservative slant. Neither of them ever apologized for this…and neither of them should have. Do you ever offer retractions for things you post here which might reflect your own personal bias? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breitbart-npr-equivalence/780220.md?page=2)