In 2023, there are few pleasures like watching leftist media platforms suffer from declining revenue, then painful layoffs and, finally, a delightful crescendo of knee-jerk accusations of racism and misogyny.
That’s exactly what’s been playing out at NPR. Last week, looking down the barrel of a $30 million budget shortfall, NPR slashed 10% of its staff across all its departments.
Another axe is poised to fall on NPR’s digital team, which has a separate union arrangement. NPR voluntarily recognized that unionization, only to see the union resist accepting NPR’s proposed contract terms. “This means they cannot be laid off until a contract or separate lay-off agreement is met,” reports Bloomberg. We won’t hold our breath waiting for that.
So far, the layoffs hit 84 people, including senior European correspondent and 41-year vet Sylvia Poggioli. NPR said skin-color and membership in marginalized groups factored into their choices of whom to fire.
NPR also killed four podcasts, including “Louder Than A Riot.” Its second and final season was examining how hip-hop’s “Black women and queer folk have dealt with the same oppression [hip-hop] was built to escape.” Right on cue, NPR’s “Louder Than A Riot” team rushed to its Twitter account and accused NPR of hitting people of color and queers hardest — a claim it later corrected.
www.zerohedge.com/political/after-nprs-major-layoff-employees-accuse-ceo-racism