Local NPR Affiliate KERA News to Leave Twitter 'for the Time Being'

On Wednesday afternoon, publicly-funded Dallas NPR affiliate KERA News told staff it "will be suspending organizational use of Twitter for the time being,” according to an internal email tweeted out by KERA reporter Kailey Broussard.

The announcement comes hours after NPR announced it would no longer use any of its more than 50 Twitter accounts after they were labeled “state-affiliated media” last week, prior to being given the current label of “government-funded media.” According to Influence Watch, "Presently, NPR receives funding for less than 1% of its budget directly from the federal government, but receives almost 10% of its budget from federal, state and local governments indirectly."

In NPR’s own reporting of its decision to step away from the Elon Musk-owned social media network, the network's CEO, John Lansing, defended the move: “By going silent on Twitter, NPR's chief executive says the network is protecting its credibility and its ability to produce journalism without ‘a shadow of negativity.’”

In the email to local KERA staff, KERA Audience Producer Carla Jimenez specified that the @keratx and @keranews accounts will go silent, but the fates of the Twitter feeds for its music radio stations KXT 91.7 and WRR 101.1 have yet to be determined.

“There are several reasons for this decision,” Jimenez wrote. “Twitter, under Elon Musk’s leadership, has drastically changed. I’m sure you’ve noticed a marked increase in trolls, abusive behavior and content you did not ask for. Twitter as an organization has also undermined the credibility of many news organizations, from the BBC and NPR and the New York Times and others. It does not make sense to participate on a platform that has a decided disdain for what we do.”

"Twitter, under Elon Musk’s leadership, has drastically changed." – Carla Jimenez, KERA

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Jimenez went on to clarify that employees were free to share the work they produce for KERA on Twitter, and that for now, there are no plans to add a new social media channel to its efforts. When reached for comment on Wednesday afternoon, Jimenez said that the email Broussard tweeted was meant for internal communications and that the outlet would provide a formal announcement regarding its social media plans soon.

For his part, unsurprisingly, Musk doesn’t seem to be troubled by the first example of a major American news outlet abandoning his platform. On Wednesday afternoon, Musk tweeted a screenshot of an email from NPR business reporter Bobby Allyn asking for Musk’s reaction to the decision.

In response, Musk simply tweeted, “Defund @NPR.”