A Fourth of July celebration by public radio stirred up an online controversy over the holiday.
NPR, on its program "Morning Edition," has traditionally celebrated Independence Day by having its reporters, newscasters, commentators and hosts read the Declaration of Independence, one of the most important documents in the history of the United States.
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But when NPR tweeted the entirety of the Declaration of Independence line by line, some supporters of President Donald Trump mistook the act’s intention and meaning. They did not seem to be aware that the tweets were taken from the Declaration, nor that reading from the document was NPR’s holiday tradition.
Presumably, some of the president’s uninformed supporters on Twitter believed that NPR was showing political bias and purposefully riling the right by criticizing Trump.
One such Twitter user shot back at NPR, saying, “@NPR this is why you're going to get defunded,” in reference to Trump’s budget.
The Declaration of Independence was originally written by Thomas Jefferson and was adopted by the Second Continental Congress on July 4, 1776. It laid out the 13 colonies' intention to separate from the Kingdom of Britain and form an independent union. It is not generally considered a partisan document.
However, tweets continued to pour in.
One woman suggested NPR's account had been hacked, while another Twitter user told NPR, "Please stop. This is not the right place." Another user told NPR, "Please be chill."
“NPR is calling for revolution,” one user wrote. “Interesting way to condone the violence while trying to sound ‘patriotic.’ Your implications are clear.”
American history doesn’t seem to be a well-known topic on Twitter.
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