Las Vegas’s KNPR drops Twitter in NPR flap

KNPR President and CEO Mark Vogelzang stated the station is following NPR's decision to "pause" its Twitter page. (K.M. Cannon/Las Vegas Review-Journal) @KMCannonPhoto
KNPR's Twitter account is on hiatus.

The National Public Radio membership station has actually announced it is pausing its @knprnews Twitter page. The choice follows NPR's statement Wednesday it is moving off the platform. The decision gets here after Twitter owner Elon Musk's unreliable description of NPR as "state-affiliated media."

KNPR President and CEO Mark Vogelzang said Wednesday night in text that the Southern Nevada station was signing up with NPR in moving off the platform.

All of us at Nevada Public Radio are dedicated to offering independent, public service journalism every day.-- Nevada Public Radio (@KNPRnews) April 13, 2023.

" It's the rapidly developing comments and much deeper conversation both inside KNPR and with out pubic radio colleagues," Vogelzang stated, explaining the station's decision. "We will ask our listeners and readers for their feedback, too.".

Earlier Wednesday, Vogelzang indicated the station was likely to remain on the platform, however made the decision to stop briefly after intensive internal conversations through Wednesday afternoon.

Nevada Public Radio, which supervises the radio desert, site and station Companion magazine, revealed the move overnight on what will be its last Twitter posts till further notification.

The station likewise posted the official statement on its site.

" The incorrect status that Twitter as applied to NPR News is not useful," the station posted. "We understand this is a rapidly developing conversation both inside and outside public radio and public media.".

The station defines the move as momentary, the situations around the issue as fluid. "For now, our strategy is to stop briefly the use of this Twitter account," the station stated, on Twitter. The station stays active on Instagram, Facebook and Instagram.

NPR posted on its site that it will no longer post fresh material to its 52 official Twitter feeds, as the first significant news organization to pull off the social-media platform. NPR cited Twitter's choice to very first label the network "state-affiliated media," the term it utilizes for propaganda media outlets in Russia, China and other autocratic nations.

Twitter later switched to identifying NPR's account to "government-funded media." The wire service says that meaning is deceptive, as NPR is a personal, not-for-profit business with editorial independence. It gets less than 1 percent of its $300 million yearly spending plan from the federally moneyed Corporation for Public Broadcasting.

There are more than 300 NPR member stations throughout the nation, all of whom run their social networks platforms separately.

Reinforcing the need for public funding, Vogelzang advised Wednesday afternoon that KNPR is simply starting its latest fundraising project. The officer said, "We're getting ready for out pledge drive, I would use any chance I might to advise listeners and readers that KNPR is reliant on neighborhood support.".

John Katsilometes' column runs daily in the An area. Follow @johnnykats on Twitter, @JohnnyKats1 on Instagram.