NPR is biased? *Queues sarcasm*

Broadcast news channels all have their inherent bias towards one end of the spectrum. Fox leans right, while MSNBC swings left. Radio, being the platform for audio news it is only natural that there would be bias in the content presented. NPR comes under fire for this ever so often, more times than not.

I'm not here to bash NPR, in fact I respect them more than most radio channels, but bias is harder to pick up on the radio than it is on TV or in print. When biased is recognized in a radio program, logically it is more likely to go under fire because the brain's threshold has picked up on something that audiences perceive as wrong. Bias makes or breaks a channel, a publication, a whole media network, and NPR has experienced both the negative and positive effects.

From a marketing stand point bias can completely wreck NPR. Watching the Israeli-Palestinian conflict escalate over the summer, NPR.org commenters waged their own war on NPR calling them out for anti-Israel bias both on-air and online. NPR didn't retaliate with an apologetic statement like the ilk of the New York Times or corporate CNN; they decided to break a simple journalistic rule and report on themselves instead. Turning fueled hate into a genuine ploy for listeners. NPR made a story about the hate comments towards them that they received. Penned by Edward Shumacher-Matos, NPR ombudsman tackled the issue turning away from angry (in NPR advertising voice) supporters of NPR to an argument for public opinion and how middle eastern politics polls with American audiences. 

This wasn't NPR's first ploy with bias. One of their blogs, The Biased Eye, a play on words of Toni Morison's "The Bluest Eye" tackles issues of bias in race centered issues in the United States. Blog author Alva Noe uses the psychological aspects of bias to explain American backlash towards police related incidents like Ferguson and the NYPD shootings. Essentially NPR is fighting bias with bias.

I am biased. In fact some of this piece is biased, but I am using that bias, like NPR to make a point. Bias is more than just a tool used to anger the masses. It decides who your listeners are, it dictates the aura of your station, it even provides background for new stories. Good or bad, bias serves a purpose.