Commentary

How's This For A Label: Government-Funded Twitter

by Joe Mandese , April 10, 2023

The most ironic part of Twitter's move to label objectively world class news media outlets like America's NPR (National Public Radio) and the U.K.'s BBC (British Broadcasting Corporation) as "government funded media," is that using the same standards, the label would also apply to Twitter.

Governments routinely spend money with Twitter to advertise, promote tweets, license its data, and now subscribe to its badges, making them a part of Twitter's funding.

I don't have access to stats on what the U.S. government currently spends on Twitter, but Canada spends more than $3 million annually on the social media platform, according to a report by the CBC, which ironically is not among the national news organizations currently labeled as government-funded media by Twitter even though the CBC derives more than two-thirds of its annual budget from Canadian government funding.

NPR, by contrast, derives less than 16% of its budget from U.S. government funding, about the same percentage it derives from corporations. Its biggest source is people like me, and hopefully you. You know, the "public" in the P in NPR. According to its most recent filing, NPR derives 43% of its annual budget from individuals.

So if Twitter wants to slap a label on NPR's Twitter account, "public-funded media" would actually be a more accurate and honest one.

If not, then the government funded media label might as well be applied to Twitter itself.

I mean, Twitter's not just deriving its funding from Western governments like the U.S. or Canada.

One of its biggest sources is China, which is kind of ironic, because -- you know -- TikTok.

5 comments about "How's This For A Label: Government-Funded Twitter".

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Dan C. from MS Entertainment, April 11, 2023 at 10:14 a.m.
The sourcing here is convenient, but innacurate. The bulk of funding for NPR stations comes from the U.S. government. The NPR content doesn't mean much without delivery through the local stations which are largely funded by the government.

Just to put it into perspective.

"CPB is a private nonprofit corporation that is fully funded by the federal government. Ninety-five percent of CPB's appropriation goes directly to local public media stations, content development, community services, and other local station and system needs."

"Government support for public radio (and TV) comes via the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. CPB grants $114 million yearly to 1,178 local radio stations. NPR relies on the local stations' payments for 34% of its budget."

The legal term for public funding means the money is derived from government funds (federal, state, or local) - so public funded vs. government funded is a matter of symantecs.

Finally, Twitter is not getting grants or free money from the government - you are conflating grants (free money) with earned revenue. Without government money, Twitter would not struggle or go out of business like many NPR stations reliant on CPB grants.

I don't have a position either way as I highly doubt the label is affecting NPR's engagement, but facts matter.

Reply

Joe Mandese from MediaPost Inc., April 11, 2023 at 10:31 a.m.

@Dan Ciccone: Speaking of sourcing, what's yours?

This is from NPR's public funding disclsoure statement (2020 fiscal year):

Member Station Revenues:

As you can see in the following chart, public radio stations rely most heavily on contributions from listeners. Sponsorship from local companies and organizations (also known as corporate sponsorship or business support) is the second largest source of support to stations.

Public Radio Station Revenues (FY20)

Individuals = 43%
Corporations = 16%
Colleges = 10%
Investments = 9%
Foundations = 9%
Federal appropriations from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting = 8%
Federal, state and local governments = 5%

NPR
Public Radio and Federal Funding

Federal funding is essential to public radio's service to the American public and its continuation is critical for both stations and program producers, including NPR.

Public radio stations receive annual grants directly from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) that make up an important part of a diverse revenue mix that includes listener support, corporate sponsorship and grants. Stations, in turn, draw on this mix of public and privately sourced revenue to pay NPR and other public radio producers for their programming.

These station programming fees comprise a significant portion of NPR's largest source of revenue. The loss of federal funding would undermine the stations' ability to pay NPR for programming, thereby weakening the institution.

Elimination of federal funding would result in fewer programs, less journalism—especially local journalism—and eventually the loss of public radio stations, particularly in rural and economically distressed communities.

Stations receive support from many sources, including:

listener contributions,
corporate sponsorship,
in-kind and direct support from universities (when licensed to a college or university),
foundation grants and major gifts,
grants from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting
in some cases, state and local governments
On average, less than 1% of NPR's annual operating budget comes in the form of grants from CPB and federal agencies and departments.

Dan C. from MS Entertainment, April 11, 2023 at 1:38 p.m.

@ Joe - The CBD website has everything.

I think you will find this link educational as it illustrates how NPR, PBS, and the CPS are all intertwined. It seems you are unfamiliar with how NPR and PBS content is actually distributed. Progamming may be funded by individuals and corporations, but distribution is primarily reliant on publicly supported stations - stations which get the bulk of their funding from the government as outlined on the CPS website.

https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/urls_cited/ot2008/07-582/cpb_faq.pdf

"By law, 95% of CPS's appropriation from the federal government goes to support local television and radio stations, programming, and improvements to the public broadcasting system."

Another link: "CPB is the steward of the federal government’s investment in public broadcasting and the largest single source of funding for public radio, television, and related online and mobile services....More than 70% of CPB’s federal funding goes directly to local public media stations."

https://cpb.org/aboutcpb

Regardless, you are conflating earned revenue with Twitter and taxpayer dollars that support NPR stations and the CPB which is 95% funded by taxpayer dollars. Public funding is just another way of saying government funding as they both rely on taxpayer dollars.

NPR's mission statement - "NPR's mission is to work in partnership with member stations to create a more informed public — one challenged and invigorated by a deeper understanding and appreciation of events, ideas, and cultures."

Member stations that are funded by the government.

And there you go :)

Joe Mandese from MediaPost Inc., April 11, 2023 at 2:01 p.m.

@Dan Ciccone: I think you're conflating the 95% figure cited by the CPB. According to the documents you link to, it is the precentage of the appropriations the CPB receives from the federal government that it allocates to public broadcasting. It is not 95% of the source of funding for public broadcasting.

"Who pays for public broadcasting?," reads the document you linked to, noting, "The biggest single source of revenue for public broadcasting entities is membership," which is exactly what I write in my column.

Dan C. from MS Entertainment replied, April 11, 2023 at 5:30 p.m.

@Joe we can go in circles on this. I didn't say that 95% of the source goes to funding public broadcasting. NPR is programming/content - PBS and CPB are distriubution. It's a bit of a chicken and the egg scenario, but the point is a LOT of taxpayer dollars are responsible for the delivery of NPR content. Government dollars fuel and fund much of public broadcasting. Your insinuation that the government funds Twitter is nonsensical. Without public funding, the local delivery stations for NPR go out of business. Twitter is not reliant on government. At all.