The heads of National Public Radio (NPR) Katherine Maher and the Public Broadcasting System (PBS) Paula Kerger were summoned to Congress this week to make their case as to why the taxpayer should continue to give them money.
Trump and others don’t want to Kill Big Bird. They want him to move into his own apartment and pay his own rent.
Katherine Maher said NPR plays an essential role in "delivering unbiased, nonpartisan, fact-based reporting" to Americans. Maher even claimed she had "never seen any instance of political bias determining editorial decisions."
Even left of center, HBO talk show host Bill Maher, an unabashed Trump basher called for the defunding of NPR after the dismal performance of the CEO in front of Congress and claims of being unbiased.
“Give me a break, lady!” said Maher in reaction to NPR Maher's claim that the station is non-bias. “I mean, they're crazy far-left.”
Elon Musk calls PBS and NPR “state affiliated media”.
Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CBP) gets roughly $500 million a year that it distributes to NPR and PBS stations around the country. Local NPR radio stations get roughly 10% from the government. PBS gets 16% of its funding directly from the government.
"Why do we need to subsidize," Maher asked. "We're so polarized. These outlets became popular at a time when Republicans and Democrats didn't hate each other and weren't at each other's throats and didn't think each other was an existential threat. In that world, you can't have places like this, I think, anymore. They have to be private."
NPR’s Maher did try to regain some ground in her testimony by saying she regrets calling Trump a “deranged racist sociopath” and saying America was "addicted to white supremacy.”
Use of tax dollars to fund PBS and NPR has long been questioned by fiscal conservatives. The Left likes to frame it as Republicans hating Big Bird and Mr. Rogers.
The truth is that conservatives support children’s educational programming as much as anyone. NPR and PBS, and their supporters on the Left say the funding level isn’t that much money per person. But, that’s not the point.
The question is why in 2025 is the taxpayer funding one media outlet? Taxpayers don’t fund CBS or Fox News – Why PBS and NPR? Abundant media content for adults and children is available. The media landscape is nothing like it was in 1967 when CBP was founded.
And, why should the taxpayer subsidize what has become a radical, left wing communication arm of the Democrat party.
New York State Conservative Party Chairman Gerry Kassar said, “The Conservative Party has been advocating for the highly partisan and political NPR/PBS to lose federal funding for many, many years, since we see them as nothing more than an extension of the Democratic Party. NPR and PBS have a lack of interest in balancing opinions.”
NPR senior editor Uri Berliner looked at the D.C. voter registrations of NPR newsroom employees funding that there were 87 Democrats and zero Republicans. Berliner was later fired for exposing the political divide and bias at NPR.
In the hearing, Rep. Pat Fallon (R-TX) cited NewsBusters studies, that found that PBS "News Hour" used 162 labels of "far-right" extremism and only six uses of ‘far left" terms. Another found coverage of the 2024 party conventions gave the Republicans 72% negative coverage, while the Democrats received 88% positive coverage.