Topline: Weeks after a now-former National Public Radio senior editor eviscerated the station for what he called “advocacy” against former President Donald Trump, GOP lawmakers are questioning the $525 million that public media outlets receives annually from the federal government, and the $93 million of it that winds up in NPR coffers.
Key facts: Uri Berliner has worked at NPR for 25 years. In a recent opinion piece in the Free Press, he said the station’s news segments show a “distilled worldview of a very small segment of the U.S. population” despite receiving federal funds to act in the public interest.
Berliner claims that after the 2016 election, NPR engaged in “efforts to damage or topple Trump’s presidency.” He accused his colleagues of unbalanced coverage of Trump’s alleged collusion with Russia and the origins of Covid-19.
By 2023, 67% of NPR listeners described themselves as “very or somewhat liberal” — up from 37% in 2011, according to Berliner. NPR’s headquarters in Washington D.C. has 87 registered Democrats as editors and no Republicans.
Fox News quickly supplemented Berliner’s story with dollar figures.
The federal government sent $525 million this year to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which helps fund NPR, PBS and more. NPR claimed last year that less than 1% of its budget comes from that source.
However, the CPB funds local radio stations around the country, which in turn pay NPR for the right to broadcast its content. That contributes to the $93 million NPR received from “contracts with customers” in 2022 — about a third of its $300 million total budget.
That $93 million is given to local radio stations for the explicit purpose of paying for NPR content, Howard Husock, a domestic policy expert and a former member of the CPB board of directors, explains at The Hill.
Rep. Jim Banks (R-IN) and Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) announced separate plans in April to sponsor bills that would end federal funding to NPR.
Similar bills have not gained much traction, including former President Richard Nixon’s attempt in 1971 and Rep. Ronny Jackson’s (R-TX) bill last year.
Critical quote: A group of seven Republican Congress members wrote a letter to NPR CEO Katherine Maher expressing concerns over the station’s journalistic standards.
“If NPR’s goal was to become an echo chamber, mission accomplished. But as a publicly funded entity, you are responsible for providing impartial coverage that accurately informs all Americans, regardless of political affiliation,” the letter said.
Background: NPR is not the only company receiving taxpayer money to produce questionable content.
Researchers at OpenTheBooks.com recently found that the federal government spent $324 million since 2020 on programs that produced podcasts as part of their work.
The list of 58 podcasts covered topics like Swedish gender neutral pronouns, AI-generated erotic literature and the “important role” of Satanists in America.
These were all topics deemed to have “artistic merit” by the National Endowment for the Arts.
Summary: Berliner was just one senior editor at NPR to call out its biased reporting, and it cost him his job, resigning shortly after his piece was published. His calls to reinstate a level of journalistic integrity at an institution he loved and respected should be heard and acted upon, or it should no longer receive taxpayer funds.
The #WasteOfTheDay is brought to you by the forensic auditors at OpenTheBooks.com
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