During a recent fundraiser at one of NPR’s local stations, staff implored listeners to contribute generously to compensate for the 40% loss in revenue they said the network had suffered. The reason given for the significant loss was that the old economics of corporate underwriting of NPR programming is no longer sustainable, with businesses turning to social media for advertising and publicity.
In fact, NPR’s loss of revenue also correlates with its loss of credibility as an objective news provider. Despite the lip service paid by NPR editors to the notion that their news gathering operation is even-handed and impartial, listeners are increasingly recognizing that the network is less committed to objectively and honestly informing the public about world events than it is to shaping public perception with a radical and distorted world view. When NPR editor Uri Berliner published a maverick critique of his network’s reporting to which he attributed the loss of “America’s trust,” he pointed to the extent to which progressive politics informs NPR’s reporting. While he did not explore NPR’s coverage of the Hamas-Israel war, that reporting clearly demonstrates the extent to which the public radio network has gone off the rails.
Downplaying Antisemitic Activities at Columbia University
NPR AGENDA: Regarding the antisemitic, pro-Hamas activity at Columbia University that created an intolerable atmosphere for Jewish students and which caused Jewish students to flee campus, NPR did its best to downplay the anti-Jewish, extremist and unlawful nature of the protests.
PARTISAN GUEST: Host Michael Martin enlisted radical Marxist, anti-Israel activist Eleanor Stein — introduced as a law and human rights professor who as a student in the 1960s protested the Vietnam War —to promote the notion that the Columbia University protests were righteous in nature and not disruptive . (This came shortly before protesters broke windows and illegally occupied Columbia buildings.)
WHAT NPR CONCEALED: The audience was not told of Stein’s radical background and activities— a red diaper baby, Stein was notorious as a Marxist revolutionary and leader in the Weather Underground that the FBI classified as a domestic terror organization. Nor were listeners told that Stein is a longtime anti-Israel activist who supports and teams up with Israel haters who demonize the Jewish state (see, for example, here, here, here and here). And they were not informed that Stein had recently used her pulpit as a climate activist to accuse Israel of genocide, to call for a unilateral ceasefire on Israel’s part and to attack the U.S. for supporting Israel’s war of defense against Hamas terrorists, with the nonsensical claim that Israel’s military actions, more than anything else in the word, was responsible for a worsening climate crisis.
NPR MESSAGE: Instead, host Michael Martin prodded the anti-Israel activist with leading questions that stood truth on its head by portraying the protests at Columbia University as peaceful in nature and by suggesting that reports of anti-Jewish hostility were merely false, politically motivated allegations:
“It sounds like the protests in 1968 were actually a lot more aggressive than what we are seeing today. The demonstrators in ’68 were taking over buildings. Clearly, they couldn’t be used for academic purposes. A dean was briefly taken hostage. That’s not what’s happening today. There are obviously people who have, you know, written about this, and they feel that the chanting and some of the statements being directed at some students they feel are hostile, aggressive and threatening. But it’s not at the same scale at all, and I’m just wondering why you think there are so many calls for the arrests and removals of the students in these encampments.”
And
“There are, obviously, very aggressive members of Congress who are very interested in using this whole episode to make their points.”
The radical, anti-Israel guest responded as expected, by justifying and whitewashing the antisemitic protests. Stein misleadingly declared:
“Seems like universities today are afraid of holding open and free discussions about issues of Palestine and Israel…the students… may have broken some vague university rules about how you congregate on campus, but they have not interfered with people going to class. They certainly haven’t detained anyone or harmed anyone. They just want to have their points of view displayed and discussed and have it be on the agenda. And how could it not be on the agenda? It’s one of the great issues of our day… The purpose of a university is the open expression and exchange of ideas…. Those are exactly the issues that we should be looking at. We should have a semester-long campus-wide seminar and teach-in….”
Contrary to what Stein led audiences to believe, it was the protest leaders who were refusing to allow open and free discussions with those who did not agree with them. And contrary to what she asserted, the protesters did threaten pro-Israel students and interfered with their freedom of movement and of speech on campus. According to Jewish students at the university who tried to engage with the protesters inside the protest encampment, they were either completely barred from entering the encampment unless they pledged support for an anti-Zionist perspective, or they were followed and intimidated by minders from the university’s faculty who were helping the protesters. Discussion between pro-Israel and anti-Israel students was banned, according to protest guidelines enforced by leaders of the protest. And, contrary to what Stein stated, there were both physical and verbal threats made against the pro-Israel students, as well as reports of calls from within the encampment to kill all the Jews and for a single Arab state to take the place of the State of Israel.
Discrediting Evidence of Hamas Crimes/Bolstering Hamas Narrative About Israeli Actions
NPR employed a similar strategy to distort other news relating to the Hamas-Israel war. The public radio network chose anti-Israel partisans to interview and bolster Hamas’ anti-Israel propaganda, presenting them as neutral, independent observers. At the same time, they promoted skepticism about Hamas crimes, by discrediting Israeli evidence and ignoring independent evidence.
This was particularly apparent in NPR’s coverage of damage in Gaza hospitals.
NPR AGENDA: NPR attempted to promote the falsehood that Israel deliberately targets Palestinian healthcare institutes in Gaza as part of a genocidal mission against Palestinian civilians. To that end, NPR repeatedly tried to discredit Israel’s evidence that Hamas uses hospitals as cover and base for its terrorist activities and hiding of weapons. For example:
“We don’t have independent verification of that [that there is some kind of command center in the tunnels underneath Al-Shifa Hospital.] That is the Israeli claim.” (Steve Inskeep, Morning Edition, Nov. 13)
“We can’t independently confirm these details [of a Hamas command-and-control center, suicide bomb vests, grenades, AK-47 assault rifles, explosive devices, RPGs and other weapons that IDF Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari shows in a video taken from the basement the hospital. And Hamas is saying they didn’t operate there, that this is not real.” (Greg Myre, Morning Edition,Nov. 14)
“This is an Israeli military spokesman, Jonathan Conricus, giving a video tour of guns, grenades, uniforms he says Israeli troops found. Now, NPR can’t independently verify this. “ (Lauren Freyer, Morning Edition, Nov. 16)
“Israel, meanwhile, has released a bunch of videos it says prove that Hamas not only operated out of tunnels under the hospital but that it brought at least three hostages into the hospital and, in fact, killed one of them there. They showed us hospital security camera footage and video recorded apparently by a robot that went into those tunnels. NPR hasn’t been able to independently verify any of that footage, though.” (Lauren Frayer, Morning Edition, Nov. 20)
Moreover, as CAMERA’s Tamar Sternthal demonstrated, NPR concealed independent evidence of Hamas’ use of Gazan hospitals. (See: “NPR Covers Up U.S. Intelligence on Hamas Command Center at Shifa Hospital.”
Instead, NPR relied on anti-Israel partisans to bolster Hamas’ claims, for example, by highlighting and citing the testimony of representatives from Medecins Sans Frontieres/Doctors Without Borders (MSF).
Despite billing itself an “international, independent medical humanitarian organisation” and claiming it “observes neutrality and impartiality in the name of universal medical ethics,” MSF is neither neutral nor impartial when it comes to the Hamas-Israel conflict.
That the group sticks close to Hamas’ anti-Israel narrative was made clear from the get-go in its immediate justification for the Hamas massacre:
“Decades of repression and conflict, and an Israel-imposed blockade from 2007 on the Gaza Strip, Palestine, exploded on 7 October 2023 as Hamas attacked Israel on a large scale. In response, Israel has launched massive attacks on Gaza….”
The rest of the statement focused on allegations of misdeeds by Israel.
A single X post (tweet) noting the “brutal mass killing of civilians perpetrated by Hamas,” appeared on the MSF’s X page a full five days after the Palestinian terrorist group perpetrated its massacre and seized hostages. But aside from that post, MSF social media appeared directly inspired by Hamas, with false accusations of Israel committing “indiscriminate bloodshed” and demanding an immediate ceasefire.
Representatives from the group made the rounds of Western mainstream media outlets to accuse Israel of war crimes and to call for a ceasefire. Notably, they did not demand the surrender of power by Hamas or the unconditional release of hostages seized by the terrorist group. Rather, they contributed to Hamas’ efforts against Israel, disseminating disinformation.
After an errant Palestinian terrorist missile hit the courtyard of the Al Ahli Hospital in Gaza, the group’s post declared that this was an Israeli massacre:
“We are horrified by the recent Israeli bombing of Ahli Arab Hospital in #Gaza City, which was treating patients and hosting displaced Gazans. Hundreds of people have reportedly been killed. This is a massacre. It is absolutely unacceptable…”
MSF never updated with a correction.
Despite its dissemination of such terrorist-supporting falsehoods, or perhaps because of this, NPR continued to rely on MSF in more than a dozen broadcasts, without ever hinting at its partisanship. The public radio network both cited and interviewed representatives of the group, as if they were independent and impartial observers. For example:
Doctors Without Borders says the people of Gaza are, quote, “facing collective punishment from the total siege, indiscriminate bombing and the pending threat of a ground battle” as more than 300,000 Israeli reservists stand ready at the Israeli-Gaza border. (Aya Batrawy, All Things Considered, October 12, 2023)
Doctors Without Borders says Al-Shifa has faced relentless bombardment over the past 24 hours. The group is calling on the Israeli government to cease the, quote, “unrelenting assault on Gaza’s health system”…. (Aya Batrawy, Weekend All Things Considered, Nov. 11, 2023)
On March 18, MSF Secretary-General Christopher Lockyear was interviewed on Turkish state-run news agency, Anadolu, to falsely suggest that Israel was systematically targeting Gaza’s health system and that it was deliberately starving the Palestinian population as a “weapon of war.”
Two days later, NPR booked him for an interview on All Things Considered, to repeat similar falsehoods and to call upon the US to end its support for Israel. Lockyear said:
“…If you just look at the health system itself – well, there is no health system left, really. I mean, it’s been systematically destroyed and attacked…
“… I would call on everybody who has the power to do so to halt this utterly catastrophic thing, including the U.S. government. If you are providing weapons that allow this to happen, that must stop…
“…what is needed, above and beyond everything else, is for this war to stop. I mean, to be able to get the aid in, to be able to get the assistance in and to be able to – well, first and foremost, to stop the indiscriminate killing of the people…”
(For additional details about MSF’s anti-Israel activism and propaganda, see: NGO-Monitor: “Doctors Without Borders (MSF): Systematically Ignoring Israeli Victims and Hamas Terror,” Nov. 23, 2023
Destexhe, Alain, “Doctors Without Borders (Médecins Sans Frontières), an Accomplice of Hamas?” Gatestone Institute, Dec. 19, 2023
Alain Destexhe is a physician, Belgian politician and former secretary-general of MSF. )
For second article of the set, see “NPR’s Pro-Hamas, Anti-Israel Narrative Part II: Producer“.