NPR, PBS and CPB would never have lost their taxpayer funding if they followed the
journalistic model of reporting a complete story instead of a partial rendering of the incident or
issue to fit a predetermined outcome.

As a college radio station newsman in 1970, my manager, a senior, instructed me to collate
the hourly news feed from United Press International by picking stories that best served our
audience, making sure the story had comments from all parties involved. If not, it did not run.
His guiding principle was simple — no one should be able to tell how anyone working at the
station voted in an election.

Uri Berliner was a senior business editor for NPR since 1999. He wrote an essay detailing
how NPR drifted politically left since 2015 and was reprimanded by management. NPR promotes itself as “independent journalism” and a “trusted source.” After reading his essay, one can see the hypocrisy in those titles.

Because bias exists, it is imperative for all of us to listen, watch and read as many sources
as we have time for in our day. That is a solid format for being better informed. We should not
be told what to think. Give us all the facts and we’ll make up our own minds.

If NPR and PBS change their journalistic formats, I say give them the money again, but not
until that happens.

Bob Oates
Hollis