Just to note of importance to the NPR followers. Brian Lehrer of WNYC last week Brian covered and interviewed Judith Butler last week. Her answers were unsuprising as she insinuated that she has no idea what gender ideologies are even about. She finishes by reminding, guilting and even calling to liberals for reform of their GC views making a comparison and highlighting that they are now taking up hate in a similar manner as the extreme right has typically done over this issue in the past.
I'm likely missing some things but it's worth a listen, especially before sending off that letter. Perhaps it's important to acknowledging the recent platforming of this issue. Kudos to Brian, it was a tough interview. Curious what others think. https://www.wnyc.org/story/judith-butler-gender
Judith Butler was one of the primary architects of queer theory in the academy and is responsible for twisting the brains of gullible college students, especially lesbians, in knots. I remember her from back in the day. She literally wrote the book on gender -- "Gender Trouble" published in 1990 -- and now she doesn't know what gender is? Maybe she's senile? Maybe she's full of it?
Trying to get a handle on where your kids got the bright idea that they were born in the wrong body? Nothing happens in a vacuum, of course. But there are a few people to "thank," and Butler is one of them.
I sent a note including the story of my autistic son and how he was caught up in the 'special interest' of gender when puberty was uncomfortable. Hope they'll hear us!
Yay, I had the same thought! I sent a letter yesterday, but only did one route as a "story idea" to one of the shows, so may go back and do the others you recommend. My letter was snarkier than yours because I was in a mood--but remained civil and accurate, which is important. If you have ever donated to NPR in the past but stopped doing so because of their increasingly biased coverage, that's a good thing to mention too. They need to be flooded, especially by people who still listen to NPR or used to do so, and especially by people in your audience.
I still listen to NPR in the car, partly because they play the BBC reporting often. Even though they so frequently piss me off, I want to know if anything is changing in their reporting. The left-leaning media aspect of all this has always been particularly interesting to me. And I think it subtly is changing already! There was a story this week that talked quite straightforwardly about the sex of opposite sex twin fetuses in utero. There is apparently a lot of data about how the testosterone of the male calf affects the female twin after birth. These female twins often have masculinized physical characteristics and are more aggressive than other females. They even ended the story talking about human twins and how there was some evidence that human mammals are also affected, but that it's hard to study. Maybe they did not use the term "biological sex," but they use the term "sex" quite properly and "gender" did not even come up! So I took that as a possible good sign.
It's National Public Radio, and we are the public part of that, so must hold them to account.
<<I urge NPR to give coverage to the final "Cass Report" appropriate to its importance to coverage of medical treatment and other aspects of dealing with children diagnosed as suffering from "Gender Dysphoria" or "Transgenderism". I'm sure the reporters and news staff at npr are well aware that in the European countries that have been most aggressive in encouraging and supporting so-called "transition" as the first, even only treatment for these conditions have backed off their advanced policies promoting "transition" because of the poor quality of the evidence amounting to a lack of required evidence supporting use of opposite sex hormones and so-called "puberty blockers" (off label use of drugs FDA approved for treating precocious puberty and for use as palliative care for certain cancers such as prostate cancer and other disorders sensitive to sex hormones). I have grown accustomed to NPR's unprofessional treatment of issues touching on Transgenderism and related matters. It seems hardly a week goes by without an NPR staffer identifying themselves as "queer" or the guest so described. Is the staff so ignorant they don't know that term is and always has been hate speech of the worst sort and in the same category as the word which must not be spoken for Black people? If NPR is to recover the position it once had as a trusted news source, it can begin by reversing the blackout on the news casting doubt on the popularity of Transgenderism.>>
I sent two. A request for All Things Considered to cover this and a separate email to the head of fundraising at our local affiliate about why I am questioning whether I should continue to be a regular donor, which I have been for almost 20 years
I got a personal reply thanking me for writing in and that she was forwarding my letter to the national public editor!
If anyone is interested, this is what I sent:
I have been a sustainer of WUNC for many years and gave regularly before that. I am also the mom of a trans identified young adult and I am very concerned about the fact that NPR has reacted to recent huge reports about the state of the science surrounding gender healthcare with complete silence.
There has been no reporting on the publication of the Cass Review in the UK. How can a national news organization ignore such a huge report in the English speaking world? It is one thing to ignore the statements of foreign language speaking countries, like Finland, Sweden and Denmark as their medical establishments react to their own systematic reviews of the current state of the science in transgender medicine, but this is in English and about what was the biggest youth gender clinic in the world until just a few years ago and may have huge implications for the care of adults in the UK as well going forward.
How are you not covering this? What are my donations paying for if not excellent reporting on important current issues that affect all North Carolinians right now? Parents, teachers and lawmakers from all political parties need to hear this report and understand the debate that is happening right now.
This report was so strongly written that Mermaids struggled to put out a statement against it. The Guardian and the BBC also struggled to argue against it. Where are you? Why are you keeping the people of NC in the dark on this very important issue?
At the very least why have you not reported that there is NO increased risk of suicide from gender dysphoria as has been reported in multiple places recently? How does not reporting this fact to lower the heat on parents and children suffering now represent quality journalism on suicide?
I am not sure I can continue to support WUNC and that makes me incredibly sad. Please do better so I can justify my spending.
Excellent suggestion. I will be emailing KQED who I stopped supporting several years ago because of lack of fact-based reporting on this issue and others where a woke narrative is being pushed on listeners.
I sent a long email to PBS Newshour asking them to cover Cass report (with lots of links to all the British press, proving this is newsworthy and covered across the political spectrum) and also sending them a link to the WPATH files. I also just received a letter from KQED asking me why I haven't renewed my membership in the last couple years, so took that opportunity to tell them I really don't appreciate how many of their stories seem to take a particular angle rather than just focusing on the facts. I offered the Science Friday episode about the Tordoff paper as an example (UW study which purported to show beneficial effects from gender affirming care but has been roundly criticized-- I noticed it's been removed from Science Friday website, though Jesse Singal mentions it in his critique of that paper).
YES, the WPATH files. They were released a month ago and were just as inflammatory as the Cass Report. How much attention did they receive? Imagine doctors who profit off the mental illness of children sharing their doubts on a Zoom meeting, admitting that they're having trouble explaining to their young patients that they're going to be sterile. Then they go right ahead and operate! Who needs informed consent anyway?
The combination of these two events -- the WPATH files and the Cass Report -- are more than enough to take down the entire trans-industrial complex, of which NPR is a part. It needs to go.
I sent emails to NPR "Management" and via the Story Ideas link to All Things Considered and Fresh Air--including some links to coverage from outlets they might respect. One I wanted to share was the excellent editorial in the British Medical Journal:
Also contacted two NPR programs with their own websites: The Middle (a call-in show dedicated to all us good folks in Flyover Country) and Hidden Brain with Shankar Vedantam. I got form "Thank You" emails from both NPR sources. Hidden Brain sent a Thank You message that indicated they would prioritize listeners with a "personal experience" to share:
"If you're writing to share a personal experience that you think we should consider as a Hidden Brain story, please consider sending a voice memo to this address (if it's not already included in your initial note). When you connect with us, please share your full name and let us know whether we have permission to share your story or comments on the show. Thanks so much for your time and interest in Hidden Brain!"
I don't have first-hand personal experience as a mom, clinician or gender-questioning person myself. However, anyone who does can contact them at: ideas@hiddenbrain.org
And here's the link to The Middle (a call-in show would be interesting!)
Thanks for these details. Just sent a long note to Hidden Brain, making the social science case for coverage and reluctantly outing myself as kid who was saying "I a boy" before age two. :-) (I not a boy, just a lesbian, it turns out. )
Sent in my story idea. It’s time to cover the Cass Report and the whistleblowers from the industry.
THANK YOU JAMIE!!!!
Just to note of importance to the NPR followers. Brian Lehrer of WNYC last week Brian covered and interviewed Judith Butler last week. Her answers were unsuprising as she insinuated that she has no idea what gender ideologies are even about. She finishes by reminding, guilting and even calling to liberals for reform of their GC views making a comparison and highlighting that they are now taking up hate in a similar manner as the extreme right has typically done over this issue in the past.
I'm likely missing some things but it's worth a listen, especially before sending off that letter. Perhaps it's important to acknowledging the recent platforming of this issue. Kudos to Brian, it was a tough interview. Curious what others think. https://www.wnyc.org/story/judith-butler-gender
Sorry typos.. wrote on my phone..
Judith Butler was one of the primary architects of queer theory in the academy and is responsible for twisting the brains of gullible college students, especially lesbians, in knots. I remember her from back in the day. She literally wrote the book on gender -- "Gender Trouble" published in 1990 -- and now she doesn't know what gender is? Maybe she's senile? Maybe she's full of it?
Trying to get a handle on where your kids got the bright idea that they were born in the wrong body? Nothing happens in a vacuum, of course. But there are a few people to "thank," and Butler is one of them.
I sent a note including the story of my autistic son and how he was caught up in the 'special interest' of gender when puberty was uncomfortable. Hope they'll hear us!
Yay, I had the same thought! I sent a letter yesterday, but only did one route as a "story idea" to one of the shows, so may go back and do the others you recommend. My letter was snarkier than yours because I was in a mood--but remained civil and accurate, which is important. If you have ever donated to NPR in the past but stopped doing so because of their increasingly biased coverage, that's a good thing to mention too. They need to be flooded, especially by people who still listen to NPR or used to do so, and especially by people in your audience.
I still listen to NPR in the car, partly because they play the BBC reporting often. Even though they so frequently piss me off, I want to know if anything is changing in their reporting. The left-leaning media aspect of all this has always been particularly interesting to me. And I think it subtly is changing already! There was a story this week that talked quite straightforwardly about the sex of opposite sex twin fetuses in utero. There is apparently a lot of data about how the testosterone of the male calf affects the female twin after birth. These female twins often have masculinized physical characteristics and are more aggressive than other females. They even ended the story talking about human twins and how there was some evidence that human mammals are also affected, but that it's hard to study. Maybe they did not use the term "biological sex," but they use the term "sex" quite properly and "gender" did not even come up! So I took that as a possible good sign.
It's National Public Radio, and we are the public part of that, so must hold them to account.
I also previously used to support Planned Parenthood and ACLU. Not anymore.
Same, plus NPR.
Thank you for this! I used your template to send a letter to NPR Management and mentioned my local station, WNYC.
Here's what I just sent to NPR management:
<<I urge NPR to give coverage to the final "Cass Report" appropriate to its importance to coverage of medical treatment and other aspects of dealing with children diagnosed as suffering from "Gender Dysphoria" or "Transgenderism". I'm sure the reporters and news staff at npr are well aware that in the European countries that have been most aggressive in encouraging and supporting so-called "transition" as the first, even only treatment for these conditions have backed off their advanced policies promoting "transition" because of the poor quality of the evidence amounting to a lack of required evidence supporting use of opposite sex hormones and so-called "puberty blockers" (off label use of drugs FDA approved for treating precocious puberty and for use as palliative care for certain cancers such as prostate cancer and other disorders sensitive to sex hormones). I have grown accustomed to NPR's unprofessional treatment of issues touching on Transgenderism and related matters. It seems hardly a week goes by without an NPR staffer identifying themselves as "queer" or the guest so described. Is the staff so ignorant they don't know that term is and always has been hate speech of the worst sort and in the same category as the word which must not be spoken for Black people? If NPR is to recover the position it once had as a trusted news source, it can begin by reversing the blackout on the news casting doubt on the popularity of Transgenderism.>>
Just did it!
And Fuck NPR to hell. It was their lack of objective coverage on this issue that led me to stop listening after 30 + years.
I sent two. A request for All Things Considered to cover this and a separate email to the head of fundraising at our local affiliate about why I am questioning whether I should continue to be a regular donor, which I have been for almost 20 years
I got a personal reply thanking me for writing in and that she was forwarding my letter to the national public editor!
If anyone is interested, this is what I sent:
I have been a sustainer of WUNC for many years and gave regularly before that. I am also the mom of a trans identified young adult and I am very concerned about the fact that NPR has reacted to recent huge reports about the state of the science surrounding gender healthcare with complete silence.
There has been no reporting on the publication of the Cass Review in the UK. How can a national news organization ignore such a huge report in the English speaking world? It is one thing to ignore the statements of foreign language speaking countries, like Finland, Sweden and Denmark as their medical establishments react to their own systematic reviews of the current state of the science in transgender medicine, but this is in English and about what was the biggest youth gender clinic in the world until just a few years ago and may have huge implications for the care of adults in the UK as well going forward.
How are you not covering this? What are my donations paying for if not excellent reporting on important current issues that affect all North Carolinians right now? Parents, teachers and lawmakers from all political parties need to hear this report and understand the debate that is happening right now.
This report was so strongly written that Mermaids struggled to put out a statement against it. The Guardian and the BBC also struggled to argue against it. Where are you? Why are you keeping the people of NC in the dark on this very important issue?
At the very least why have you not reported that there is NO increased risk of suicide from gender dysphoria as has been reported in multiple places recently? How does not reporting this fact to lower the heat on parents and children suffering now represent quality journalism on suicide?
I am not sure I can continue to support WUNC and that makes me incredibly sad. Please do better so I can justify my spending.
Great letter, and so wonderful to be responded to. Let's keep going!!
Great letter!
🔥
Excellent suggestion. I will be emailing KQED who I stopped supporting several years ago because of lack of fact-based reporting on this issue and others where a woke narrative is being pushed on listeners.
I sent a long email to PBS Newshour asking them to cover Cass report (with lots of links to all the British press, proving this is newsworthy and covered across the political spectrum) and also sending them a link to the WPATH files. I also just received a letter from KQED asking me why I haven't renewed my membership in the last couple years, so took that opportunity to tell them I really don't appreciate how many of their stories seem to take a particular angle rather than just focusing on the facts. I offered the Science Friday episode about the Tordoff paper as an example (UW study which purported to show beneficial effects from gender affirming care but has been roundly criticized-- I noticed it's been removed from Science Friday website, though Jesse Singal mentions it in his critique of that paper).
YES, the WPATH files. They were released a month ago and were just as inflammatory as the Cass Report. How much attention did they receive? Imagine doctors who profit off the mental illness of children sharing their doubts on a Zoom meeting, admitting that they're having trouble explaining to their young patients that they're going to be sterile. Then they go right ahead and operate! Who needs informed consent anyway?
The combination of these two events -- the WPATH files and the Cass Report -- are more than enough to take down the entire trans-industrial complex, of which NPR is a part. It needs to go.
https://environmentalprogress.org/big-news/wpath-files
https://public.substack.com/p/the-wpath-files
I sent emails to NPR "Management" and via the Story Ideas link to All Things Considered and Fresh Air--including some links to coverage from outlets they might respect. One I wanted to share was the excellent editorial in the British Medical Journal:
https://www.bmj.com/content/385/bmj.q837
Also contacted two NPR programs with their own websites: The Middle (a call-in show dedicated to all us good folks in Flyover Country) and Hidden Brain with Shankar Vedantam. I got form "Thank You" emails from both NPR sources. Hidden Brain sent a Thank You message that indicated they would prioritize listeners with a "personal experience" to share:
"If you're writing to share a personal experience that you think we should consider as a Hidden Brain story, please consider sending a voice memo to this address (if it's not already included in your initial note). When you connect with us, please share your full name and let us know whether we have permission to share your story or comments on the show. Thanks so much for your time and interest in Hidden Brain!"
I don't have first-hand personal experience as a mom, clinician or gender-questioning person myself. However, anyone who does can contact them at: ideas@hiddenbrain.org
And here's the link to The Middle (a call-in show would be interesting!)
https://www.listentothemiddle.com/contact-us
Thanks for these details. Just sent a long note to Hidden Brain, making the social science case for coverage and reluctantly outing myself as kid who was saying "I a boy" before age two. :-) (I not a boy, just a lesbian, it turns out. )
Thanks for the links. The British Medical Journal is damning.
It's not that I want NPR to fail. I REALLY don't. I want it to go back to being a trustworthy news source. I feel so naieve even saying that.
Thank you Jamie for prodding us.
Sent in my version of the suggested email. Thank you.
Will you also set up a CBC action? I just sent a letter to CBC News leadership.
Done! Both links / forms. Using your template.