Republican Senator Moves to Make NPR's Worst Nightmare Come True
Republican Sen. Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee is planning to propose legislation that would pull funding for NPR as the agency grapples with the backlash against its far-left bias.
The media organization that relies partially on public funds to operate has faced scrutiny in recent weeks since a veteran editor admitted NPR is biased against conservatives.
The editor, Uri Berliner, was later suspended and resigned publicly on Wednesday morning:
My resignation letter to NPR CEO @krmaher pic.twitter.com/0hafVbcZAK
— Uri Berliner (@uberliner) April 17, 2024
Meanwhile, NPR’s new CEO Katherine Maher is also under fire over old social media posts that demonstrate she has been a longtime far-left activist.
Blackburn, who spoke to Fox News on Wednesday, plans to cut off any government funding to the far-left organization, she said.
In a statement, Blackburn called out NPR.
“The mainstream media has become obsessed with doing the left’s bidding and taking down strong conservatives — and NPR has led the pack,” she told Fox News.
“It makes no sense that the American people are forced to fund a propagandist left-wing outlet that refuses to represent the voices of half the country. NPR should not receive our tax dollars,” she concluded.
As Fox News noted, Blackburn sought to defund NPR in 2011, but the effort was not successful.
While the organization receives most of its operating cash through advertising, about 1 percent of NPR’s budget does come from taxpayers through funds allocated for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting — which also funds far-left PBS.
NPR suspended Berliner last week after he wrote in an essay for The Free Press that his organization has slowly but surely “lost America’s trust.”
Berliner wrote that since 2011, NPR’s audience has tilted further left while its staffers are essentially all liberal.
“An open-minded spirit no longer exists within NPR, and now, predictably, we don’t have an audience that reflects America,” the now-former editor wrote.
The outlet announced Tuesday that Berliner, a 25-year NPR employee, had been suspended for five days without pay for calling out its bias.
NPR also addressed social media posts from Maher such as these which have gone viral this week:
Last week a senior editor at @NPR publicly admitted they switched from journalism to activism when Donald Trump won the presidency.
This week, the new CEO Katherine Maher says their editorial direction will not change.
You’ll never guess why. pic.twitter.com/Op2P2IJg76
— Lawrence Hakiwai (Father/of two) (@SonofOmahu) April 15, 2024
She gets goosebumps when she sees diversity rolling through the credits of a film. She never centers her whiteness. She is always willing to call people in, rather than call them out. She checks her privilege. Diversity and inclusion is not an HR program; it’s a way of life. NPR. https://t.co/CTYZzAEJjA
— Christopher F. Rufo ⚔️ (@realchrisrufo) April 16, 2024
The new NPR, CEO Katherine Maher is now haunted by own woke, anti-Trump tweets as a veteran editor claimed the agency is bias.
She said this when BLM was destroying businesses: pic.twitter.com/WOzLjIizqv
— Tired of being politically correct (@USBornNRaised) April 14, 2024
In a statement, Maher said, “In America everyone is entitled to free speech as a private citizen. What matters is NPR’s work and my commitment as its CEO: public service, editorial independence, and the mission to serve all of the American public. NPR is independent, beholden to no party, and without commercial interests.”
Maher and NPR have announced no plans to sever ties.
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