KUNR Public Radio is pausing its use of Twitter to stand in solidarity with our colleagues at NPR, which continues to be falsely labeled as "government funded" by the platform.
KUNR stands for truth, accuracy and fairness in reporting. Twitter's mislabeling of NPR goes against our core values. As a result, we are joining public media outlets across the nation by ending our institutional use of Twitter until the platform's leadership ends its practice of unfairly maligning NPR's editorial independence.
On Wednesday, NPR CEO John Lansing issued a statement explaining why his news organization would cease its use of Twitter.
"The public media system was created by Congress more than 50 years ago to provide free over-the-air and now online news, information, and educational programming to all Americans," Lansing said in a statement. "These services are especially valuable to those living in communities with little or no access to other outlets. Actions by Twitter or other social media companies to tarnish the independence of any public media institution are exceptionally harmful and set a dangerous precedent."
KUNR agrees, which is why our loyal listeners can continue tuning into 88.7 FM in Reno or our signals across our listening area. Our journalism can also be viewed on our website, KUNR.org, as well as on the following platforms:
KUNR is locally operated and independent public media based in Reno. We serve Northern Nevada and the Eastern Sierra. As part of that service, we pay NPR to broadcast several of its shows each day, including Morning Edition, All Things Considered and many more.
We are proud to call NPR partners in our mission to serve our listening audience and will continue to call on Twitter to adhere to truth, accuracy and fairness. We will continue to review this matter in the days ahead.
Brian Duggan is the general manager of KUNR.