NPR reports Republican candidates' 'claims of liberal media bias' are a 'political tactic'
The report said Republicans were 'ignoring' and 'actively avoiding legacy media'
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}NPR reported Sunday that it was "nevertheless true" that Republicans claiming that a liberal media bias exists was a "political tactic" used by candidates running for office.
In an article that highlights Republican candidates' reluctance to speak to mainstream media outlets, NPR devoted a small section of the report to the idea that claiming there was a mainstream media bias was a "political tactic" for the GOP.
"The question of liberal bias isn't something we can settle in a small section of one article, and coming from a legacy media outlet, a claim that we aim to be unbiased would inevitably come off to some as...well...biased," the report said.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"It is also nevertheless true that claims of liberal bias are themselves a political tactic," it continued.
The National Public Radio building in Washington, D.C., on June 4, 2012. Founded in 1970, NPR is a nonprofit network of 900 radio stations across the United States. (iStock)
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The report also noted 2021 polling from Gallup, which found that 11% of Republicans trust the media, compared to 68% of Democrats and 31% of Independents. Overall the Gallup poll found that just 36% of the U.S. has a "great deal" or "fair amount" in "mass media."
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}NPR's political correspondent Danielle Kurtzleben also pointed to former President Donald Trump.
"Which leads to one more factor contributing to hostility toward reporters: Donald Trump, who infamously called the press ‘the enemy of the people,’" she wrote.
She said that "hostility" became an "overt part of other Republicans' identities." Kurtzleben opened the piece by describing her efforts to interview both Republicans and Democrats on the effect abortion rights were having on Senate and gubernatorial primaries in Wisconsin.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Former U.S. President Donald Trump claps during a rally in Washington Township, Michigan, April 2, 2022. (Reuters/Emily Elconin)
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Kurtzleben said she didn't hear back from the Republican candidates she reached out to and even had trouble speaking to them at public events and said it was part of a "larger trend" of "ignoring or actively avoiding legacy media."
"I found former Lt. Gov. Rebecca Kleefisch greeting supporters. A staffer who then stepped between us told me they knew I had been reaching out and that I should contact a communications staffer, to whom I had already reached out. He would get back to me, she assured me," she wrote, adding that the staffer didn't get back to her.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Former Lt. Gov. Rebecca Kleefisch speaks with a voter in Sturtevant, Wisconsin, on July 17, 2022, ahead of the Aug. 9 primary for governor. (Rebecca Kleefisch campaign)
NPR investigative correspondent Laura Sullivan called out her own newsroom in April after several mainstream media outlets, including the New York Times and the Washington Post, reported on the Hunter Biden laptop story months after the New York Post originally broke the news.
NPR's managing editor Terence Samuel put out a statement about the Post's original report.
"We don't want to waste our time on stories that are not really stories, and we don't want to waste the listeners’ and readers’ time on stories that are just pure distractions," Samuel said at the time.
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"Now, I think it's actually different in that you might engage, but you might also make the determination that if you're a Republican, well, if The New York Times runs a hit piece on me, that's a badge of honor," Republican strategist and CNN commentator told the outlet.
The report also noted that mainstream media doesn't have the "reach" it used to have.