The KNPR station’s Twitter account is on hiatus.
The member station of National Public Radio (NPR) has announced that it is pausing its Twitter page @knprnews. The decision comes after NPR announced Wednesday that it is leaving the platform. The decision comes after Twitter owner Elon Musk wrongly described NPR as a “state-affiliated outlet.”
KNPR President and CEO Mark Vogelzang said in a text Wednesday night that the southern Nevada station was joining NPR in getting off the platform.
All of us at Nevada Public Radio are committed to providing independent, public service journalism every day. As a longtime NPR member station, we are proud of our partnership and colleagues at NPR. For now, our plan is to pause the use of this Twitter account. (1/4)
— Nevada Public Radio (@KNPRnews) April 13, 2023
“It’s the rapidly evolving feedback and deeper discussion, both within KNPR and with our colleagues at Public Radio,” Vogelzang said, explaining the station’s decision. “We will also ask our listeners and readers for their opinion.”
Vogelzang indicated earlier on Wednesday that the station was likely to remain on the platform, but was determined to go on hiatus after intense internal discussions until Wednesday afternoon.
NPR, which oversees the Desert Companion radio station, website and magazine, announced the move overnight in what will be its last Twitter posts until further notice.
The station also posted the formal announcement on its website.
“The inaccurate status Twitter applied to NPR News is not helpful,” the station posted. “We understand that this is a rapidly evolving discussion both inside and outside of public radio and public media.”
The season characterizes the act as temporary, the circumstances surrounding the issue as changing. “For now, our plan is to pause the use of this Twitter account,” the station said, on Twitter. The station is still active on Facebook and Instagram.
NPR posted on its website that it will no longer post new content to its 52 official Twitter accounts, the first major news organization to pull out of the social media platform. NPR cited Twitter’s decision to first label the network “state-affiliated media,” the term it uses for propaganda outlets in Russia, China and other autocratic countries.
Twitter later went on to label the NPR account as “government-funded media.” The news organization claims that definition is misleading, since NPR is a private, nonprofit company with editorial independence. It receives less than 1 percent of its $300 million annual budget from the federally funded Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
There are more than 300 NPR member stations across the country, all of which operate their social media platforms independently.
Reinforcing the need for public funding, Vogelzang recalled on Wednesday afternoon that KNPR has just embarked on its latest fundraising campaign. The executive said, “We are preparing for our fundraising campaign, I would use any opportunity I could to remind listeners and readers that KNPR depends on community support.”
