[Peace] FAIR Report on NPR

Tue Aug 17 10:50:59 CDT 2004

In preparation for Sunday's meeting, here is the
report that can be found at fair.org:

Extra!, June 2004
How Public is Public Radio?
A study of NPR’s guest list 
By Steve Rendall & Daniel Butterworth 
When National Public Radio was launched in 1971, it
promised to be an alternative to commercial media that
would “promote personal growth rather than corporate
gain” and “speak with many voices, many dialects.” 
In 1993, when FAIR published a study of NPR’s
guestlist that challenged the network’s alternative
credentials (Extra!, 5/93), incoming NPR president
Delano Lewis was still boasting about being a place
where the unheard get heard (The Humanist, 9/93): “Our
job is to be a public radio station. So therefore the
alternative points of view, the various viewpoints,
should be aired.” 
Today, current NPR president Kevin Klose insists that
diversity and inclusivity are among NPR’s top
priorities (Syracuse Post-Standard, 7/31/02): “All of
us believe our goal is to serve the entire democracy,
the entire country.” 
NPR, which now reaches 22 million listeners weekly on
750 affiliated stations, does frequently provide more
than the nine-second-soundbite culture of mainstream
news broadcasts. But is the public really heard on
public radio? And is NPR truly an alternative to its
commercial competition? A new FAIR study of NPR’s
guestlist shows the radio service relies on the same
elite and influential sources that dominate mainstream
commercial news, and falls short of reflecting the
diversity of the American public. 
FAIR’s study recorded every on-air source quoted in
June 2003 on four National Public Radio news shows:
All Things Considered, Morning Edition, Weekend
Edition Saturday and Week-end Edition Sunday. Each
source was classified by occupation, gender,
nationality and partisan affiliation. Altogether, the
study counted 2,334 quoted sources, featured in 804
stories. 
In addition to studying NPR’s general news sources,
FAIR looked at the think tanks NPR relies on most
frequently, and at its list of regular commentators.
To ensure a substantial sample of these subsets, we
looked at four months (5–8/03) of think tank sources
and commentators on the same four shows. 
The elite majority
Elite sources dominated NPR’s guest-list. These
sources—including government officials, professional
experts and corporate representatives—accounted for 64
percent of all sources. 
Current and former government officials constituted
the largest group of elite voices, accounting for 28
percent of overall sources, an increase of 2
percentage points over 1993. Current and former
military sources (a subset of governmental sources)
were 3 percent of total sources. 
Professional experts—including those from academia,
journalism, think tanks, legal, medical and other
professions —were the second largest elite group,
accounting for 26 percent of all sources. Corporate
representatives accounted for 6 percent of total
sources. 
Journalists by themselves accounted for 7 percent of
all NPR sources. For a public radio service intended
to provide an independent alternative to
corporate-owned and commercially driven mainstream
media, NPR is surprisingly reliant on mainstream
journalists. At least 83 percent of journalists
appearing on NPR in June 2003 were employed by
commercial U.S. media outlets, many at outlets famous
for influencing news- room agendas throughout the
country (16 from the New York Times alone, and another
seven from the Washington Post). Only five sources
came from independent news outlets like the Bulletin
of the Atomic Scientists and the National Catholic
Reporter. 
The remainder of elite sources was distributed among
religious leaders (2 percent) and political
professionals, including campaign staff and
consultants (1 percent). 
The public on public radio
Though elite sources made up a majority of sources,
the study actually found a substantial increase in the
number of non-elite sources featured. Workers,
students, the general public, and representatives of
organized citizen and public interest groups accounted
for 31 percent of all sources, compared to the 17
percent found in 1993. 
The increase comes largely in the general public
category. These are “people in the street” whose
occupations are not identified and who tend to be
quoted more briefly than other sources—often in
one-sentence soundbites. More than a third (37
percent) of general public sources were not even
identified by name—appearing in show transcripts as
“unidentified woman No. 2” and the like. General
public sources accounted for 21 percent of NPR
sources. 
Spokespeople for public interest groups—generally
articulate sources espousing a particular point of
view—accounted for 7 percent of total sources, the
same proportion found in 1993. Though not a large
proportion of NPR’s sources, public interest voices
were still about twice as common on NPR as on
commercial network news, according to a FAIR study
published in 2002 (Extra!, 5–6/02) that found that
such sources made up only 3 percent of voices on
network news shows. 
Public interest voices on NPR reflected a wide range
of opinion, from conservative groups like the National
Right to Life Committee and Texas Eagle Forum to
progressive groups like MoveOn.org and Code Pink.
Types of organizations represented included political
organizations, charitable foundations, public
education groups and human rights and civil liberties
advocates. Eighty-seven percent of public interest
sources appeared in domestic policy stories. 
Sources identified as workers on NPR programming in
June accounted for 2.3 percent of overall sources and
1.8 percent of U.S. sources. But spokespersons for
organized labor were almost invisible, numbering just
six sources, or 0.3 percent of the total. Corporate
representatives (6 percent) appeared 23 times more
often than labor representatives. 
Women: one in five
Women were dramatically underrepresented on NPR in
1993 (19 percent of all sources), and they remain so
today (21 percent). And they were even less likely to
appear on NPR in stories as experts—just 15 percent of
all professionals were women—or in stories discussing
political issues, where only 18 percent of sources
were women. 
Women were particularly scarce in stories about Iraq,
making up just 13 percent of sources. Nearly half of
these women, 47 percent, were general public
sources—that is, they appeared as non-expert “people
in the street”—as compared to 22 percent of male
sources in Iraq stories. Thirty-three percent of
female sources commenting in Iraq stories appeared as
professionals or experts, while 66 percent of male
Iraq sources appeared in such capacities. 
Female sources lagged markedly behind men in most
occupation categories. Women accounted for 17 percent
of journalistic sources, 12 percent of corporate
sources and 12 percent of government officials. The
only category where females appeared more often than
males was among the small sample of students (12 of
23); women and men were equally cited as families of
military personnel. 
Six women tied for most often quoted, with three
appearances each. Of these, four were from government:
National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice, Interior
Secretary Gale Norton, House Democratic Leader Nancy
Pelosi and Democratic Arizona Governor Janet
Napolitano. Abigail Thernstrom of the conservative
Manhattan Institute and University of Michigan
president Mary Sue Coleman rounded out the list of
women who appeared most frequently on NPR. 
It was not feasible to do an ethnic breakdown of more
than 2,000 radio sources, but an examination of NPR’s
commentators (see sidebar) suggests that the network
may have made more progress in racial inclusion than
in gender balance since 1993. 
Liberal bias?
That NPR harbors a liberal bias is an article of faith
among many conservatives. Spanning from the early
’70s, when President Richard Nixon demanded that “all
funds for public broadcasting be cut” (9/23/71),
through House Speaker Newt Gingrich’s similar threats
in the mid-’90s, the notion that NPR leans left still
endures. 
News of the April launch of Air America, a new liberal
talk radio network, revived the old complaint, with
several conservative pundits declaring that such a
thing already existed. “I have three letters for you,
NPR. . . . I mean, there is liberal radio,” remarked
conservative pundit Andrew Sullivan on NBC’s Chris
Matthews Show (4/4/04.) A few days earlier (4/1/04),
conservative columnist Cal Thomas told Nightline, “The
liberals have many outlets,” naming NPR prominently
among them. 
Nor is this belief confined to the right: CNN anchor
Wolf Blitzer (3/31/04) seemed to repeat it as a given
while questioning a liberal guest: “What about this
notion that the conservatives make a fair point that
there already is a liberal radio network out there,
namely National Public Radio?” 
Despite the commonness of such claims, little evidence
has ever been presented for a left bias at NPR, and
FAIR’s latest study gives it no support. Looking at
partisan sources—including government officials, party
officials, campaign workers and
consultants—Republicans outnumbered Democrats by more
than 3 to 2 (61 percent to 38 percent). A majority of
Republican sources when the GOP controls the White
House and Congress may not be surprising, but
Republicans held a similar though slightly smaller
edge (57 percent to 42 percent) in 1993, when Clinton
was president and Democrats controlled both houses of
Congress. And a lively race for the Democratic
presidential nomination was beginning to heat up at
the time of the 2003 study. 
Partisans from outside the two major parties were
almost nowhere to be seen, with the exception of four
Libertarian Party representatives who appeared in a
single story (Morning Edition, 6/26/03). 
Republicans not only had a substantial partisan edge,
individual Republicans were NPR’s most popular sources
overall, taking the top seven spots in frequency of
appearance. George Bush led all sources for the month
with 36 appearances, followed by Defense Secretary
Donald Rumsfeld (8) and Sen. Pat Roberts (6). Senate
Majority Leader Bill Frist, Secretary of State Colin
Powell, White House press secretary Ari Fleischer and
Iraq proconsul Paul Bremer all tied with five
appearances each. 
Senators Edward Kennedy, Jay Rockefeller and Max
Baucus were the most frequently heard Democrats, each
appearing four times. No nongovernmental source
appeared more than three times. With the exception of
Secretary of State Powell, all of the top 10 most
frequently appearing sources were white male
government officials. 
SIDEBAR:
The Right Stuff:
NPR’s think tank sources 
FAIR’s four-month study of NPR in 1993 found 10 think
tanks that were cited twice or more. In a new
four-month study (5/03–8/03), the list of think tanks
cited two or more times has grown to 17, accounting
for 133 appearances. 
FAIR classified each think tank by ideological
orientation as either centrist, right of center or
left of center. Representatives of think tanks to the
right of center outnumbered those to the left of
center by more than four to one: 62 appearances to 15.
Centrist think tanks provided sources for 56
appearances. 
The most often quoted think tank was the centrist
Brookings Institution, quoted 31 times; it was also
the most quoted think tank in 1993. It was followed by
19 appearances by the conservative Center for
Strategic and International Studies and 17 by the
centrist Council on Foreign Relations. The most
frequently cited left-of-center organization was the
Urban Institute, with eight appearances. 
Diversity among think tank representatives was even
more lopsided than the ideological spread, with women
cited only 10 percent of the time, and people of color
only 3 percent. Only white men were quoted more than
twice, the most frequent being Anthony Cordesman of
the Center for Strategic and International Studies (8
appearances), Michael O’Hanlon of Brookings (7) and
E.J. Dionne, also of Brookings (6). 
—S.R. and D.B. 
SIDEBAR:
Who Does the Considering?
NPR’s commentators are slightly more diverse—and
largely apolitical 
FAIR’s 1993 study found great imbalances with regard
to the sex and ethnicity/race of NPR commentators, who
play a role similar to that of columnists in print
media. A new look shows some improvement in diversity
in this area. 
Because of the relatively small number of
commentators, FAIR expanded the study period to look
at NPR commentators over a period of four months
(5/03–8/03). In the study period, 130 commentators
appeared at least once; 46 were featured two or more
times and were thus considered “regular commentators.”

Eleven of NPR’s regular commentators were women (24
percent), a distinct minority but up substantially
since the 1993 study, when women accounted for just 15
percent of regular commentators. 
Six regular commentators were African-American (13
percent), two were Asian (4 percent) and one was
Latino (2 percent). The remaining 80 percent (37 of
46) of commentators were non-Latino whites. All but
one of 27 regular commentators in the 1993 study were
white (96 percent); the one exception, cartoonist
Lynda Barry, is of European and Filipino descent. 
According to the 2000 U.S. census, non-Latino whites
make up 69 percent of the population.
African-Americans account for 12 percent of the
population, and Asians 4 percent. Emerging as the
largest U.S. minority (13 percent of the U.S.
population), Latinos were the most underrepresented
group among NPR commentators—next to Native Americans,
who were not represented among regular commentators on
NPR, and constituted 1 percent of the population in
the 2000 census. 
Despite some progress in broadening NPR’s commentator
base, 60 percent of its commentators are still white
men. That’s down 25 percentage points from 1993, but
demonstrates that NPR, like most media outlets, still
favors this overrepresented group. 
The top five commentators by frequency of appearance
were all white men. Sports commentator Frank Deford
led the field with 16 appearances, followed by John
Feinstein (13), Andrei Codrescu (11), Ron Rapoport (6)
and Daniel Pinkwater (5). Of these five men, who
together make up 35 percent of all commentaries by
regular contributors, three commented exclusively on
sports. The other two, Codrescu and Pinkwater,
primarily discussed art and children’s literature,
respectively. 
By subject, human-interest commentary was most
prevalent, making up 32 percent of contributions by
regular commentators. Sports made up another 25
percent; domestic politics, 18 percent; and arts, 9
percent. Commentaries on international politics
accounted for 4 percent of the total. 
Uncommon politics
With political commentary taking a backseat to human
interest and sports segments, there were relatively
few political commentators on the list. Just eight of
46 commentators dealt primarily with political issues.
Three of these were conservative movement stalwarts:
columnist Armstrong Williams, National Review
journalist Byron York, and Heritage Foundation fellow
Joseph Loconte. 
By contrast, NPR’s left-of-center commentators were
not progressive movement firebrands. Two commentators
consistently took liberal political
positions—columnists Lenore Skenazy of the New York
Daily News and Joe Davidson of BET.com—but neither one
is an activist pundit comparable to Williams, York or
Loconte. (The Daily News describes Skenazy’s column as
“a usually light-hearted look” at politics and
family.) The Heritage Foundation and National Review
are important institutions on the right; people
affiliated with their counterparts on the left don’t
show up on the list of regular NPR commentators. 
Others who give regular political commentary on NPR
are less easy to categorize as either left or right.
Columnist Matt Miller occasionally takes
left-of-center stands, but he fills the “center” chair
on the Los Angeles–based public radio show Left, Right
and Center and describes his ideology as “radical
centrism.” Former Nixon aide turned economic populist
Kevin Phillips is also hard to pin down. While a sharp
critic of the Bush family, he also supported President
Bill Clinton’s impeachment and calls himself an
independent. 
Syndicated columnist Ruben Navarrette generally takes
centrist to center-right positions. For instance,
while he supports immigration and (more or less)
affirmative action, he has also praised George Bush’s
leadership (Denver Post, 9/26/01) and resoluteness
(Dallas Morning News, 1/23/04), supported
privatization of Social Security (St. Paul Pioneer
Press, 1/30/03) and assailed “liberal racism” (Dallas
Morning News, 1/24/03). 
Two other NPR commentators, African-Americans Aaron
Freeman and Leon Wynter, addressed issues of race and
ethnicity primarily in social, not political, terms.
Of Freeman’s four commentaries, only one focused on
politics, a humorous piece about “dating” presidential
hopefuls. Only one of Wynter’s commentaries was mildly
political—commenting on affirmative action in
kindergarten admissions. 
—S.R. and D.B. 

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