Snitches Get Tote Bags: Taxpayer-Funded NPR Creates Tip Line for Employees To Rat Out Colleagues Who Don’t Wear Masks

Failure to comply with strict mandate could result in termination

Andrew Stiles • May 20, 2022 10:40 am

NPR continues to enforce a strict mask mandate at its office and maintains an anonymous tip line for employees to snitch on colleagues who break the rules. Failure to comply with the mask policy could lead to “disciplinary action, up to and including in termination,” the taxpayer-funded media network reminded staff in a memo obtained by Dylan Byers, a longtime friend of the Washington Free Beacon.

“We have asked on-site supervisors to remind staff of the masking requirements when needed,” reads the imperious communiqué. “Masking is still required, unless recording alone in a studio, working alone in an office with the doors closed, or actively eating or drinking. (And ‘actively’ does not mean occasionally drinking from a water bottle).”

Employees at NPR’s headquarters in Washington, D.C., built in 2013 for a total cost of $200 million, were advised as to how to peacefully confront a delinquent colleague in the workplace. “If you notice someone has forgotten their mask, you might tell them, ‘Hey, you forgot your mask.’ It’s actually helping the person to be reminded,” the memo reads. “Nobody is intentionally trying to evade the rule. And if you are reminded to wear your mask, say, ‘Thank you!'”

Other options for ratting out maskless coworkers include telling human resources supervisors who will confront the offender themselves or sharing “an anonymous concern via the EthicsPoint system,” a not-at-all-totalitarian-sounding name for a workplace snitching platform.

NPR stands for National Public Radio, but it is sometimes referred to as the New-Age Propaganda Religion. The network is best known for giving out tote bags in exchange for donations from listeners, who are almost exclusively comprised of Subaru owners with graduate degrees, private equity spouses, environmental terrorists, and irredeemable nerds who have a portrait of Ruth Bader Ginsburg above their toilets.