NPR Urges Mara Liasson To Freeze Out Fox News Over “Political Bias”

by Robert Quigley | 2:48 pm, December 7th, 2009

» 8 comments

Déjà vu? Mara Liasson, the national political correspondent for NPR, has been pressured by the radio network not to appear on Fox News, Politico reports.

The White House’s war against Fox News may not have lasted very long, but it sounds like the tactic of boycotting Fox over its political leanings has survived it.What could have been a quiet internal discussion has spilled over into a colorful, public brawl, with a leak that NPR forced Liasson to monitor Fox for bias for 30 days, News Hounds-style, and an (unnamed) Fox spokesperson hitting back by boasting about the network’s ratings in comparison to NPR’s.

From Politico:

According to a source, Liasson was summoned in early October by NPR’s executive editor for news, Dick Meyer, and the network’s supervising senior Washington editor, Ron Elving. The NPR executives said they had concerns that Fox’s programming had grown more partisan, and they asked Liasson to spend 30 days watching the network.

At a follow-up meeting last month, Liasson reported that she’d seen no significant change in Fox’s programming and planned to continue appearing on the network, the source said…

…A Fox spokesperson declined to comment on specific questions about Liasson. However, the spokesperson, who asked not to be named, said in an email: “With the ratings we have, NPR should be paying us to even be mentioned on our air.” (emphases added)

The Politico scoop has to be a mixed bag for Liasson, who declined to be interviewed for the article. On the one hand, if NPR takes action against her, it will be highly scrutinized now. On the other hand, it would appear to an untrained observer that either a Liasson loyalist within NPR or Liasson herself had a hand in Politico getting the embarrassing story, which could put her into further conflict with NPR.

It’s not as though they’re alienating the mythical hordes of Fox News viewers who would have gone gaga over NPR (and read Politico), but the leak does deal a blow to the non-partisan image that NPR tries to project, however fairly or unfairly.

straitshooter

Did anyone watch Morning Joe today? Scarborough ripped into NPR over this whole thing. Called them a bunch of pot-smoking, tree-bark eating hippies and said it is an “absolute joke” for an organization like NPR to be criticizing Fox for having a bias. You could tell he was delighted by the opportunity to pull back the curtain and expose NPR for what everyone knows it is.
Zakk

Not for nothing, but isn’t NPR a public radio station. Shouldn’t it have no bias for either side, therefore not have any opinion. UNLESS the white house is telling them to push this stupid idea.
StewartIII

NewsBusters: MSNBC’s Scarborough Points Out NPR’s Bias Hypocrisy
http://newsbusters.org/blogs/mike-sargent/2009/12/07/msnbcs-scarborough-points-out-nprs-bias-hypocrisy
Pat Doherty

NPR, like most liberal media, is affected by the same curious cognitive phenomenon: The inability to admit they’re liberal.
m

The very fact you think NPR is liberal is a prime example where the whine of “liberal bias” is just a complete sham. NPR are incredibly, incredibly balanced and take extraordinary lengths to ensure they are. If you think Fox News is balanced while NPR isn’t? Well, then you’ve got an incredible cognitive dissonance.
Pat Doherty

From my perspective, your refusal to see NPR as liberal more or less proves my point, but whatever. Care to give me any examples of the “extraordinary lengths” NPR takes to be “incredibly, incredibly balanced” (would NPR’s ostensible balance really be that incredible?). Do you believe Daniel Schorr and Nina Totenberg are objective journalists? Please cite the conservative commentators who are NPR contributors with the stature of Schorr, Totenberg, and Mara Liasson.

P.S. I never said Fox News is balanced. To the best of my knowledge however, they’ve never actively attempted to pressure a contributor from appearing on NPR.
MartiniShark

Not to be the bearer of obviousness, but wouldn’t the regular appearances of Mara alone contradict the NPR contention that Fox is biased? They have her on nearly every day, so maybe Liasson is therefore biased as well.
Zakk

Pat your right, there are all those conservative voices on NPR. Like….hmmmm…ummmmm….uhhhhhh…..hmmmmmm…… well – I’m sure there is one.