| Politics/News | [Sep. 9th, 2008|10:03 am] |
I am currently a member of NPR affiliate station KERA. KERA wakes me up every morning and keeps me company throughout the day and I not only enjoy your programming, I have often learned from you and been inspired by you. My respect for NPR makes me feel deeply saddened that I have to send you this email.
Unfortunately, I am beginning to regret my decision to join my local station. The source of my regret is the political bias in your Morning Edition show, especially on the part of Renee Montagne. For the past two weeks, your morning show has been virtually dedicated to covering only the Republican presidential candidates. If Barack Obama and Joe Biden are mentioned at all, it is only briefly and as an afterthought. A brief look at KERA’s main news page shows the incredible degree of bias quite clearly:
http://www.publicbroadcasting.net/kera/news.newsmain?action=section&SECTION_ID=517
While there are admittedly a few stories regarding Barack Obama on that page, they have been pushed to the bottom and both the station’s and NPR’s extreme right-wing bias are very obvious.
Ms. Montagne has presented several slavering, partisan stories on Sarah Palin during the last two weeks. I have reached the point that I turn my radio off when I hear her voice so that I won’t be subjected to Republican propaganda. She’s been quoting heavily biased polls (the “likely voter” polls, which are basically manipulated statistics and not at all accurate) and breathlessly following that with an enthusiastic lead-in to yet another clip from one of Ms. Palin’s speeches. Listening to this makes my physically ill.
I have continued listening in the mornings only for Mr. Inskeep’s actual reporting of news, Carl Kasell’s news briefs and of course Morning Market Report. I’m afraid I may have to give this up and not only not renew my membership when it comes up, but strongly encourage my friends to do the same, both in person and in my blog.
I’m not asking for biased coverage of the Democratic candidates or of third parties and independents, just that you tone back your pro-Republic stance a bit, cover the Democrats in equal measure and at the very least mention the several third-party and independent candidates occasionally.
I truly hope that you are able to get back on track and resume reporting the news fairly. I have always considered NPR an organization with a great deal of integrity and I would like to continue to do so.
Thank you for your consideration.
cc: KERA
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