Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) spearheaded the conservative effort last week to eliminate taxpayer funding for National Public Radio (NPR) in response to a veteran insider’s admission of the media outlet’s liberal and Democratic political bias. During his podcast “The Verdict” Cruz referenced Uri Berliner’s explosive op-ed which outlined NPR’s progressive shift and its influence on news coverage particularly after the 2016 presidential election.
In his piece for The Free Press Berliner a long-time NPR editor disclosed that NPR has increasingly aligned with far-left ideologies to the extent that many conservatives believed the network was actively working against then-President Donald Trump. His claims include a critical assessment of how the organization covered the Trump-Russia collusion story and dismissed the Hunter Biden laptop story as a “distraction.”
This is NPR's new CEO, Katherine Maher. Reminder: Our taxes fund her salary. pic.twitter.com/nWLAI1KEql
— End Wokeness (@EndWokeness) April 14, 2024
“The revelations from Mr. Berliner who has been part of NPR for over 25 years shine a light on a profound shift at NPR” Cruz stated on his podcast. He continued stressing that the public funding model should be reconsidered asking “Why should taxpayer dollars support a platform that no longer represents a broad spectrum of Americans?”
Tim Graham the executive editor of the Media Research Center’s Newsbusters expressed a similar sentiment stating “It’s unfair really for them to take my tax dollars and slap me in the face with it.” He emphasized that such funding practices are especially contentious when they support media outlets catering to only a small portion of the American population.
House Republicans have recently tried to tackle this issue by proposing cuts to NPR’s funding in the 2024 government spending bill. As usual compromise with Democrats dashed hopes that the GOP would represent its constituents as the provision was restored in the final version signed into law.
Conservatives contend that in a media landscape increasingly characterized by advocacy journalism public funds should not be used to support an outlet that caters primarily to a specific segment of the political spectrum. There is very little confidence that NPR cares to pretend to maintain journalistic integrity while receiving federal funds particularly when its editorial slant appears increasingly left-wing and deeply rooted in favor of the Democratic Party.
