Publicly funded PBS joins publicly funded NPR in leaving Twitter in a huff after being labeled “Publicly Funded,” Musk tweeted

Yesterday, we wrote about National Public Radio (NPR) after the government and public-funded media announced it leaving Twitter after the social media company labeled NPR “state-affiliated media.”

Just a day later, Public Broadcasting Service (PBS), another publicly-funded organization that produces educational television programs, announced today it’s leaving Twitter after being labeled “Publicly Funded.”

In an email, PBS spokesman Jason Phelps said: “PBS stopped tweeting from our account when we learned of the change and we have no plans to resume at this time. We are continuing to monitor the ever-changing situation closely.”

Responding to a tweet from ZeroHedge, Twitter CEO Elon Musk laughed about the move, responding with a LOL emoji:

“Publicly funded PBS joins publicly funded NPR in leaving Twitter in a huff after being labeled “Publicly Funded” 🤣

https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1646359636361224193

The dispute arose when Twitter categorized NPR as “state-affiliated media,” a label it applies to propaganda accounts from countries like Russia, China, and the UK. Although Twitter later revised the wording to “government-funded media,” NPR objected to the description, stating that it is a non-profit organization with editorial autonomy, and therefore, the label is inaccurate and misleading.

However, others disagree and contend that NPR has exhibited a clear pro-left bias in its reporting.

NPR says it will “no longer be active on Twitter because the platform is taking actions that undermine our credibility by falsely implying that we are not editorially independent.”

Remember when NPR refused to cover Hunter's laptop because it was not "newsworthy"? Nothing of… pic.twitter.com/KfntVmIKSS

— Ian Miles Cheong (@stillgray) April 12, 2023

Meanwhile, a Wikipedia entry for PBS still shows the TV outlet as a “publicly funded nonprofit organization” as of the time of writing.