Some Trump supporters thought NPR tweeted ‘propaganda.’ It was the Declaration of Independence.
By
Amy B Wang July 5 at 11:56 AM
done in honor of the nation’s birthday?
Quite a few people, it turned out.
Play Video 1:06
Watch Fourth of July fireworks across the U.S.
From Washington, D.C., to Seattle, fireworks lit up the skies in celebration of Independence Day.(Reuters)
Perhaps it was the Founding Fathers’ capitalization of random words or the sentence fragments into which some of the Declaration’s most recognizable lines were broken. But plenty of Twitter users reacted angrily to the thread, accusing NPR of spamming them — or, worse, trying to push an agenda.
“Seriously, this is the dumbest idea I have ever seen on twitter,” a Twitter user named Darren Mills said after NPR had only gotten as far as the Declaration’s dateline. “Literally no one is going to read 5000 tweets about this trash.”
23h
NPR
✔@NPR
In Congress, July 4, 1776.
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Darren Mills @darren_mills
@NPR this is why you're going to get defunded
3:29 PM - 4 Jul 2017
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One user wondered if NPR’s social-media accounts had been hacked, and the network lost at least one follower who called the tweets “spam.”
In case you're missing it, looks like
@NPR has been hacked, tweeting like crazy!
— Human Being (@Trackerinblue)
July 4, 2017
23h
NPR
✔@NPR
241 years ago today, church bells rang out over Philadelphia as the Declaration of Independence was adopted
http://n.pr/2smWbYR
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Brandon Travan @btravan_IT
@NPR This is spam I get alerts for NPR tweets because they are important My device is alarming nonstop. unfollowing.
3:06 PM - 4 Jul 2017
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The blowback increased when the tweets reached the portion of the Declaration that outlined, in unsparing detail, all the ways Britain’s George III had wronged the then-Colonies.
“He has obstructed the administration of justice, by refusing his assent to laws for establishing judiciary powers,” read one line of the document.
“A Prince whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people,” read another.
Some people — presumably still in the dark about NPR’s Fourth of July exercise — assumed those lines were references to President Trump and the current administration
23h
NPR
✔@NPR
it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government,
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D.G.Davies @JustEsrafel
@NPR So, NPR is calling for revolution.
Interesting way to condone the violence while trying to sound "patriotic".
Your implications are clear.
3:08 PM - 4 Jul 2017
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“Propaganda is that all you know how? Try supporting a man who wants to do something about the Injustice in this country #drainingtheswamp,” tweeted one user whose account has since been deleted but whose messages were
captured by Winnipeg Free Press reporter Melissa Martin.
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Melissa Martin
✔@DoubleEmMartin
*heavy sigh*
3:42 PM - 4 Jul 2017
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Upworthy writer Parker Molloy took images of several more indignant replies to NPR, including one who told the media organization to “Please stop. This is not the right place.”
16h
Parker Molloy
✔@ParkerMolloy
This woman thought someone hacked the NPR account. She eventually figured it out, though.
pic.twitter.com/JjJ990rB4g
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Parker Molloy
✔@ParkerMolloy
pic.twitter.com/hO7cIfRUZg
9:13 PM - 4 Jul 2017 ·
Chicago, IL
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By Wednesday morning, many of the replies above had been deleted. However, at least one Twitter user admitted he had “screwed up” and apologized to NPR.
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D.G.Davies @JustEsrafel
I Tweeted a VERY dumb comment. But ask yourselves; if read to the average American, would they know that you were reading the DOI? I do now.
8:21 PM - 4 Jul 2017
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D.G.Davies @JustEsrafel
I can't reply to you all. But stay tuned.
To those that want to mock me...go for it. I deserve it.
To those that forgive my "sin", thank you
11:59 PM - 4 Jul 2017
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The Declaration of Independence is, of course, one of the country's most important documents, adopted at the Second Continental Congress on July 4, 1776. The text and purpose of the Declaration would likely be recognizable to those who have applied for U.S. citizenship, since questions about the document appear on the naturalization test.
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services has an extensive list of study materials and other Declaration-related resources for prospective citizens.
NPR’s “Morning Edition” has had a nearly three-decade-long tradition of
broadcasting a reading of the Declaration of Independence on July 4 each year. More than two dozen NPR journalists participated in this year's reading, including “Morning Edition” co-host Steve Inskeep, “All Things Considered” hosts Audie Cornish and NPR national political correspondent Mara Liasson.
It is “a document from a deeply divided time,” broadcaster Mary Louise Kelly noted in the reading. “It was a time when Americans turned against each other.”
