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National Public Radio is helmed by Katherine Maher. Ms. Maher testified before the DOGE Subcommittee of the U.S. House Oversight Committee on Wednesday.
It did not go well for Ms. Maher, and not just because she is the CEO of a left-wing outlet. It did not go well for her because she had spent years on X when X was “Twitter,” posting some very outrageous takes that members of the subcommittee had fun reading to her.
Ms. Maher did not recall some of the posts. In response to other posts she replied that her views had changed. In response to particularly risible takes on the news stories from NPR in years past, Ms. Maher’s response was a simple “That was before I was CEO.”
NPR, PBS CHIEFS SET TO CLASH WITH GOP LAWMAKERS DURING DOGE SUBCOMITTEE HEARING
A good dodge, that, but not responsive to the problem of deeply biased story selection and coverage. NPR is simply biased in a way that cannot be remedied.
NPR is hard left. Not center-left. Not left-leaning. Hard left. And that is an objective assessment. I don’t think you could find 10% of its staff that support President Trump. I don’t think you could find 5%. I suppose it is possible there is a closet Trump supporter around NPR somewhere, but let’s be candid. It’s an ideological machine that has a mission to make America think like it does.
Which is fine…except taxpayers put money into NPR. Fans of NPR are quick to tell you that it’s not all that much money. “Less than 1% of our budget is direct from the federal treasury!” is the rejoinder. And that is true.
But just try and figure out where the money for NPR comes from. Much of it comes from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting…which receives most of its funding from Congress. The CPB sends money to “member stations” and “member stations” send money to NPR to pay for NPR programming. See how that works? Pretty neat.
Now NPR is also “member supported,” which means listeners send in dollars. That is fine. Beg away. NPR also has corporate sponsors, which are advertisers but with a tonier name. And that’s fine too.
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You see, NPR is simply radio with funding from the government and enthusiasts. Bravo to the enthusiasts. But it’s time to end the federal subsidy.
The country is $36 trillion in debt. If NPR can’t stand on its own feet in the marketplace of ideas, it ought to fade away. I don’t think it will, but most of America is very tired of paying for the hobbies of the left, especially the radical left.
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“We cover what matters to local communities,” Ms. Maher told Congress on Wednesday. I don’t believe that. She claimed an audience of 43,000,000. That’s a huge audience. I’m not part of that audience and I shouldn’t subsidize it. Most likely readers of this column don’t want to do so either. Ms. Maher made her case —I played her opening statement on my radio show— and she didn’t persuade me.
It is long past time to end the ruse of “listener supported” NPR. It is “taxpayer supported” NPR, and that ought to end. If NPR is still getting even a dime from the budget after the reconciliation process, the House and Senate GOP was never serious to begin with.
Hugh Hewitt is host of “The Hugh Hewitt Show,” heard weekday mornings 6am to 9am ET on the Salem Radio Network, and simulcast on Salem News Channel. Hugh wakes up America on over 400 affiliates nationwide, and on all the streaming platforms where SNC can be seen. He is a frequent guest on the Fox News Channel’s news roundtable hosted by Bret Baier weekdays at 6pm ET. A son of Ohio and a graduate of Harvard College and the University of Michigan Law School, Hewitt has been a Professor of Law at Chapman University’s Fowler School of Law since 1996 where he teaches Constitutional Law. Hewitt launched his eponymous radio show from Los Angeles in 1990. Hewitt has frequently appeared on every major national news television network, hosted television shows for PBS and MSNBC, written for every major American paper, has authored a dozen books and moderated a score of Republican candidate debates, most recently the November 2023 Republican presidential debate in Miami and four Republican presidential debates in the 2015-16 cycle. Hewitt focuses his radio show and his column on the Constitution, national security, American politics and the Cleveland Browns and Guardians. Hewitt has interviewed tens of thousands of guests from Democrats Hillary Clinton and John Kerry to Republican Presidents George W. Bush and Donald Trump over his 40 years in broadcast, and this column previews the lead story that will drive his radio/ TV show today.
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