Does NPR Have A Liberal Bias?

transcript from On The Media, NPR
March 18, 2011

OTM takes up the question posed by Ira Glass last week on our show: Does NPR have a liberal bias? Brooke wrestles first with the (surprisingly hard to define) terms. What is liberal? What is bias? What is NPR? We then hear three different perspectives on NPR’s political leanings from political scientist Daniel Hallin, media researcher Tom Rosenstiel and recent conservative volunteer-listener Sam Negus.

BROOKE GLADSTONE: This week the House of Representatives passed, largely along party lines, a bill that would bar public radio stations from using federal money to buy national programming from NPR or other sources. It was called a political stunt by one House Democrat. Another sponsored an unsuccessful amendment to bar the government from buying ad time on FOX News. That was this week.

Last week, after a sting video emerged showing an NPR fundraiser saying disparaging things about the Tea Party, Republican opposition to public radio heated up, and Ira Glass, host of This American Life, challenged us to tackle what had been oft-charged but rarely addressed by public radio – that it is biased.

IRA GLASS: On the Media, you are the perfect vehicle for this.

[BROOKE LAUGHS]

You were made for this purpose, to measure the political bias of public radio. It needs to be done. You are the only ones.

(More here, plus sound.)