On Wednesday morning, a DOGE subcommittee will grill the CEOs of NPR and PBS about the trustworthiness of their news coverage, and whether they still deserve federal funding. Expect fireworks at the Capitol Hill hearing, especially between the chairwoman, right-wing firebrand Marjorie Taylor Greene, and NPR’s boss, Katherine Maher, who arrived at the network last year with a track record of hyper-progressive positions.
Over the decades, Republican lawmakers have regularly threatened to pull funding from NPR and PBS because of left-leaning bias. Each of the attacks floundered when the broadcasters rallied enough bipartisan support to save rural public radio or Sesame Street.
But this time the axe could finally fall. Today’s NPR is a boutique product facing an openly hostile Trump administration and a country that’s not buying the identity politics the network has to offer.
After I wrote a viral story for The Free Press about my disillusionment working for NPR, I’ve been asked repeatedly if I feel the network should be defunded. And I’ve always said no. Instead, I suggest a different approach.