Subj : Twitters identity crisis risks broadcaster exodus To : All From : TechnologyDaily Date : Mon Apr 24 2023 10:45:03 Twitters identity crisis risks broadcaster exodus Date: Mon, 24 Apr 2023 09:36:06 +0000 Description: News organizations have been hit with the Government-funded media label (and others similar) - and many of them are unhappy. FULL STORY ====================================================================== Twitter - and Elon Musk - are having quite a couple of weeks. Recently, some of the bigger stories in the Twitter-Elon saga were that NPR , as well as KCRW (a member station of NPR from Santa Monica College), and the CBC (the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation) were pausing their activity on Twitter or leaving altogether. NPR was the first to halt activity of its 52 feeds on the social media site after Twitter had designated it state-affiliated media. While NPR does state that its federal funding is essential, the overwhelming majority of its funding comes from non-federal sources So, technically, the label is not entirely untrue in an absolute sense, but NPRs issue was that it shared the label with the likes of pretty much pure propaganda outlets such as those of Russia, China, and other autocratic-government media organizations. (Image credit: DCStockPhotography / Shutterstock) NPRs tech reporter Bobby Allyn asked Elon Musk about this and Musk apparently did admit he might have gotten it wrong, and the label was changed to government-funded media which still sounds an awful lot like state-affiliated media, if not more so like a propaganda operation. NPR thought so as well, and it took issue with this label also, stating that it is a private, nonprofit company with editorial independence. This is a pretty fair claim as l ess than 1% of its annual operating budget comes from federal sources (on average), and a large share of that federal funding is used to assist local radio stations in licensing NPR material. NPR elaborated that its silence on Twitter was to protect its credibility and not cast unfounded doubt on its work due to this new label. After some back and forth with Musk, NPR was unsatisfied with other proposed changes, and NPR CEO John Lansing stated I have lost my faith in the decision-making at Twitter. Further developments after that led to Elon tweeting out "Defund @NPR." and his very balanced fans who clearly took the time to do their research went after the broadcaster. Defund @NPR April 12, 2023 See more More unhappy broadcasters Meanwhile, an interview with Musk himself went out from the BBC where he discussed his Twitter takeover and one of the topics brought up was the above-mentioned government-funded media label which was also given to the BBC. Musk was confronted by BBC technology reporter James Clayton on the issue, who reiterated the BBCs objection to the label as its funded by the British public through a license fee. Musk again offered to change the label to publicly-funded, maintaining his devotion to accuracy. Unfortunately for Musk, it seems that this was not enough for the CBC (the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation), who followed suit with NPR and paused the activity of its official corporate and news accounts as well. Funnily enough, it was also given the label of government-funded media and had a couple of issues with that. Now, I am not Canadian, but I am starting to see a pattern. The CBC stated that this designation undermines the accuracy and professionalism of its journalists' work and that its journalistic independence is the cornerstone of who we are as a public broadcaster. Our journalism is impartial and independent. To suggest otherwise is untrue. That is why we are pausing our activities on @Twitter. | Notre journalisme est impartial et indpendant. Prtendre le contraire est faux. Cest pourquoi nous suspendons nos activits sur @Twitter. April 17, 2023 See more Halting the exodus So, surely, Musk being a 51-year-old gigamind and ultra-billionaire reacted adequately and addressed these concerns appropriately. Well, lets see. The CBCs label was subsequently changed to "70% Government-funded Media and when the broadcaster took issue with this as well, he changed it again to "69% Government-funded Media." Australias ABC News also said that it was currently liaising with Twitter regarding its new designation as government-funded media at the start of this week. As reported by Al Jazeera , Twitter quietly backpedaled this whole change and apparently dropped the state-affiliated and government-funded labels altogether - including for Russian and Chinese governments media outlets. This is amid the ongoing blue check verified controversy , where as of April 20, so-called legacy blue checkmarks, which were given to individuals and entities before Musks takeover of Twitter, have disappeared (or are in the process of doing so)... though some accounts, mainly celebrities with more than 1 million followers, have found their blue checks have reappeared. My Twitter account says Ive subscribed to Twitter Blue. I havent.My Twitter account says Ive given a phone number. I havent. April 20, 2023 See more This begs the question that if no news sources are (arguably) actually accurately identified as state-funded and anyone can be verified by subscribing to Twitter Blue, is Twitter going to continue to be the invaluable news source and aggregator that it was until this point (even in its post-Elon takeover era)? It's hard to definitively say no because the future holds plenty of unknowns, but I predict that Twitters place in the public consciousness will shift away from this position. Towards what - well that remains to be seen and it is kind of anyones guess. Ill end by saying that while I do not believe in billionaire-messiahs, Jack Dorsey, founder of Twitter, has a new alternative called Bluesky ( which has debuted for Android ), and I am keen to see if that will influence anything, if only to save the collective sanity of our society. ====================================================================== Link to news story: https://www.techradar.com/news/twitters-identity-crisis-risks-broadcaster-exod us --- Mystic BBS v1.12 A47 (Linux/64) * Origin: tqwNet Technology News (1337:1/100) .