“This American Life” host Ira Glass went on NPR’s “On The Media” show on Friday to discuss the organization’s current public troubles, and questioned why NPR is not responding head on to conservatives’ charge that it has a left wing bias.
“I feel like public radio should address this directly, because I think anybody who listens to our stations understands that what they’re hearing is mainstream media reporting,” Glass said. “We have nothing to fear from a discussion of what is the news coverage we’re doing. As somebody who works in public radio, it is killing me that people on the right are going around trying to basically rebrand us, saying that it’s biased news, it’s left wing news, when I feel like anybody who listens to the shows knows that it’s not. And we are not fighting back, we are not saying anything back. I find it completely annoying, and I don’t understand it.”
Glass acknowledged that journalists tend to be more liberal than the general public, but he said “that doesn’t change what is going out over the air.”
“Go through this morning’s ‘Morning Edition’ and find me even a sentence that smells like political bias to you,” he said. “Like find one.”
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Eric Lach
Eric Lach is a reporter for TPM. From 2010 to 2011, he was a news writer in charge of the website’s front page. He has previously written for The Daily, NewYorker.com, GlobalPost and other publications. He can be reached at ericl(at)talkingpointsmemo.com
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