PBS Suspends Twitter Posting, Joining NPR in Boycotting Musk-Owned Platform Over ‘Government-Funded Media’ Label

variety.com:

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor PBS said it has suspended posting to Twitter after Elon Musk’s social network pinned a “government-funded media” descriptor to its primary account.

The public TV broadcaster joins NPR in ceasing Twitter activity following the Twitter changes, which the organizations say inaccurately represent them. “PBS stopped tweeting from our account when we learned of the change and we have no plans to resume at this time,” a rep said in a statement to Variety. “We are continuing to monitor the ever-changing situation closely.” PBS, which currently has 2.2 million Twitter followers, says that U.S.

federal funding provides about 15% of the revenue for the public television system. According to the org, over the course of a year, 86% of all U.S.

television households — representing more than 230 million people — watch PBS programming. On Wednesday, NPR said it was suspending all activity on Twitter citing the social network’s “actions that undermine our credibility by falsely implying that we are not editorially independent.” Last week, Twitter had added a label to NPR’s main account that designated it as “US state-affiliated media,” a move that CEO John Lansing slammed as “unacceptable.” The social network later modified that to say NPR is “government-funded media.” According to NPR, less than 1% of its annual operating budget comes in the form of federal grants on average.