Generally I think they try to painfully aim to be neutral, but with the Kirk shooter they seemed to indulge the jump to paint him as leftist and let the coverage emphasize the trans romantic partner angle and taking the bullet messages at face value without even mentioning the Groyper angle.
I think they mean well, but then I see it be all for naught. They had a right winger on and let him say as he like about how folks on the right have suffered and how it’s all the left’s fault, that all the violence has been leftists and they let him go on like this for a bit. Then they tried to at least add the context that not long ago multiple democrat politicians were killed and the right wing killer had a hit list to kill more of them, and the right winger just exploded about how unfair they were being and how they shouldn’t exist as a news organization for daring to politicize the tragedy of Kirk’s death.
Have also heard them trying to throw a life preserver to right wing interviewees to offer them a more legitimate sounding point than the craziness they were saying. Though more often than not the person rejects the potentially reasonable sounding rationale and looks all the more stupid for doubling down on their ridiculous rationale, so it still sometimes works.
I don’t think they mean well. I think they’re desperate for funding and they’re careful not to piss off any of their corporate sponsors. PBS News Hour is the same way, trying carefully not to piss off their corporate sponsors while also providing acceptable content to their audience of old, white liberals.
Generally I think they try to painfully aim to be neutral, but with the Kirk shooter they seemed to indulge the jump to paint him as leftist and let the coverage emphasize the trans romantic partner angle and taking the bullet messages at face value without even mentioning the Groyper angle.
I think they mean well, but then I see it be all for naught. They had a right winger on and let him say as he like about how folks on the right have suffered and how it’s all the left’s fault, that all the violence has been leftists and they let him go on like this for a bit. Then they tried to at least add the context that not long ago multiple democrat politicians were killed and the right wing killer had a hit list to kill more of them, and the right winger just exploded about how unfair they were being and how they shouldn’t exist as a news organization for daring to politicize the tragedy of Kirk’s death.
Have also heard them trying to throw a life preserver to right wing interviewees to offer them a more legitimate sounding point than the craziness they were saying. Though more often than not the person rejects the potentially reasonable sounding rationale and looks all the more stupid for doubling down on their ridiculous rationale, so it still sometimes works.
NPR is fash brainwashing for people who think they’re not susceptible, and it works like a charm.
I don’t think they mean well. I think they’re desperate for funding and they’re careful not to piss off any of their corporate sponsors. PBS News Hour is the same way, trying carefully not to piss off their corporate sponsors while also providing acceptable content to their audience of old, white liberals.