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Comment by beardedwizard | Hacker News Reader

I'm a big supporter of NPR but you don't need to look hard to see their progressive bias.

I don't think bias is the right word. It's more that a station not bound by corporate sponsors better has the ability to reflect the voice of the people, and Americans generally lean progressive when you ask them directly about policy.

Most Americans wanting to tax the rich/large corporations: https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2025/03/19/most-amer...

Wanting to legalize marijuana: https://www.pewresearch.org/politics/2024/03/26/most-america...

The government should supply universal healthcare to Americans: https://news.gallup.com/poll/468401/majority-say-gov-ensure-...

It’s utterly mind blowing how facts and the truth are now labeled a “progressive bias” in the US.

It’s like you have to cover stuff up, deny and lie to be a conservative.

> It’s like you have to cover stuff up, deny and lie to be a conservative.

Depends which conservative is the president, now.

> their progressive bias

Is this what we're calling "truth" now?

While I don't watch NBC or CNN (they talk about 5 minute topics for 2 weeks), I notice often that a progressive bias, as far as I understand, is not immediately bending the knee to any rightwing pushback. It shouldn't be biased to say climate change is real, for instance, but that has been politicized so much that it's seen as a progressive bias. It's only in recent years that Republicans have switched from "It's not real" to "well doing something about it is too hard."

A better example of a bias would be texts from Fox news anchors privately trashing Sidney Powell as a lying hack while they, simultaneously, plan to boost her appearances to make election interference seem more plausible [1]. Or saying they can't fact check Trump anymore [2].

[1] https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2023/05/all-the-texts-fox-ne... [2] https://www.mediaite.com/news/this-has-to-stop-now-new-bombs...

I listen to planet money and a few other podcasts. They seem pretty fair to me. The only way I could maybe see a progressive bias is that they have representation in their staff of racial and sexual minorities. I see no issue with that.

Honest question, does NPR have any token conservative pundits or voices on their broadcasts or shows? I know they have a lot of minority representation. As usual, Trumps proposed solution is idiotic. But maybe there could be an unofficial settlement to make sure all perspectives are heard?

Assuming this is even a problem…

The attack on PBS seems ridiculous.

does NPR have any token conservative pundits or voices on their broadcasts or shows?

They do the same format almost all news shows do where they introduce an issue and have two people with opposing views discuss it (there was a recent one about fossil fuels and renewables which I can't find...). This format doesn't always fall along "conservative vs other" lines though, because issues aren't necessarily that simple.

They also have one on one interview with Republican lawmakers as well. This one is from today's Morning Edition: https://www.npr.org/2025/05/02/nx-s1-5383297/rep-jeff-hurd-d...

It is important not to just have someone to represent a viewpoint, but also that they are equally "good" at it (I'm not sure what that means!). One way to be biased is to have someone incompetent represent a viewpoint - creating a strawman that is easy to knock down.

There have been loads of others but here is a prominent and slightly ironic example of what you are asking about: Tucker Carlson built his early TV career in large part as a conservative pundit on PBS.

> does NPR have any token conservative pundits or voices on their broadcasts or shows?

They used to (e.g., Bob Edwards, who founded Morning Edition) but the Overton Window shifted out from under them. Steve Inskeep today lies somewhere in the center-right (a fiscally conservative Never-Trumper is my brief take on him) but that’s not right enough to count as a conservative these days.

It's shifted so far right that looking at news headlines gives me anxiety that we're in a bad enough time / timeline that modern events will be chapters in future history books; assuming we still have books (in any form).

> I'm a big supporter of NPR but you don't need to look hard to see their progressive bias.

"Reality has a well known liberal bias." — Stephen Colbert, 2006 White House Correspondents' Dinner, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IJ-a2KeyCAY&t=4m11s

Well the comedian said it, case closed.

What he's alluding to is that currently conservative voices seem utterly incapable of just not lying. Fox has progressed from a bias, to misinformation, to now just straight up disinformation.

When that is the other "side", then honesty will seem biased. The middle is would be something like lying 25% of the time.

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