THE CENTER SQUARE—The U.S. Department of Government Efficiency has been aggressively identifying and eliminating a wide swath of federal spending since President Donald Trump took office.
Now, a new subcommittee in the House bearing a similar name, Delivering on Government Efficiency, is taking a look at National Public Radio and the Public Broadcasting Service, both of which are partially funded by the federal government.
Subcommittee Chair Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., accused NPR and PBS of “systematically biased content” and invited the heads of both groups to testify before Congress.
“The Subcommittee is concerned by National Public Radio’s (NPR) blatantly ideological and partisan coverage and looks forward to your participation in our upcoming hearing,” Greene wrote in a letter to NPR. “This hearing is an opportunity for you to explain to Congress and the American people why federal funds should be used for public radio—particularly the sort of content produced by NPR.”
NPR has been under fire for years for its perceived liberal bias. Greene pointed to NPR’s coverage of the Hunter Biden laptop story, the Russian collusion story, and most recently its coverage of Elon Musk’s salute at a rally that many Democrats alleged was a Nazi salute.
Musk is at the helm of DOGE, which has been on a spree of federal cuts, along with Trump’s decision to wipe out entire diversity, equity, and inclusion teams and departments within the federal government.
Up next could be funding for NPR and PBS. Critics of Musk and Trump point out most of the groups’ funding does not come from the federal government.
“This sort of bias betrays the principles of objective reporting and undermines public trust. As an organization that receives federal funds channeled through its member stations, PBS should provide reporting that serves the entire public, not just a narrow slice of like-minded individuals and ideological interest groups,” Greene wrote in a letter to PBS.
Trump’s head of the Federal Communications Commission, Brendan Carr, opened up an investigation into PBS and NPR, saying they may have violated the law by airing commercials.
NPR President and CEO Katherine Maher released a statement in response:
“NPR programming and underwriting messaging complies with federal regulations, including the FCC guidelines on underwriting messages for noncommercial educational broadcasters, and Member stations are expected to be in compliance as well,” she said. “We are confident any review of our programming and underwriting practices will confirm NPR’s adherence to these rules. We have worked for decades with the FCC in support of noncommercial educational broadcasters who provide essential information, educational programming, and emergency alerts to local communities across the United States.”
Reprinted with permission from The Daily Signal by Casey Harper.
The opinions expressed by columnists are their own and do not necessarily represent the views of AMAC or AMAC Action.
Show no mercy for NPR — DEFUND, DEFUND, DEFUND!!!
Elon Musk and his DOGE group will identify plenty of targets of wasteful spending. The issue will then be will Congress accept their recommendations and actually do something about it, as in partially or completely defund the identified agencies or departments, or will Congress simply choose to “study” the issue to death and ultimately do nothing?
In terms of Congress, it all comes down to how much pressure the American people are willing to apply to force Congress to do their jobs properly. You get the quality of government you are willing to fight for. By default, Congress loves to talk about doing things, but their track record of following through is spotty at best. So, if you want the recommendations of the DOGE group enacted into real budget cuts and real agency or department downsizings or closings, it is up to the American people to make their voices heard very clearly by those seated in Congress. Rolling over and going to sleep until the next election cycle rolls around is NOT a recipe for success or progress on this matter.
Please do. They are nothing more than propagandist for the Progressive Leftist. I do not want my tax dollars supporting that.
I have noticed that PBS has been biased against conservatives, even they are becoming corrupt media. Our government should stop funding them!
I quit listening to PBS and NPR long ago because of their extreme left-wing views. You can’t trust anything they say. They are very biased. The American people should only support them with direct contributions (if they want to support them), NOT with tax payers money.
I believe NPR actually stands for “No Plausible Rhetoric”, not National Public Radio. NPR is a definite waste of our taxpayer dollars!
The savings from eliminating just these few programs would be a huge help to the east coast and California in their rebuilding from the hurricane and wildfires. Keep our tax dollars here. Don’t see the EU or any other country that hates us sending any aid to us when we have a disaster. On another note: this article left out the line item about the 50 million dollars sent to Gaza for condoms……..????? That literally makes no sense. Just fund defense, Social security, Medicare and the VA and start line-item eliminating anything else.
I was wondering just how long it would take someone to get around to this.
DEFINITELY DE-FUND BOTH NPR and PBS !!!! They are both left-wing liberal groups funded by crime families and terrorists bent on destroying America and bringing the elitists power.
STOP FUNDING BOTH !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
It should be done immediately. The US Taxpayer should never have paid for these worthless Marxist entities.
They blew, what?, $2B trying to get Kamala elected. Let the DNC pay for their own propaganda!
I heard on FOX that they have been running commercials, which IS IN FACT Illegal under their funding agreements. Can’t they be shut down simply for that reason?
You mean they haven’t done it yet? If I were in charge they would not get another PENNY! I have not listened to NPR or watched PBS for Decades, because of their left bias.
I would be overjoyed to see these biased leeches refunded.
The government should have never given funds to NPR or PBS. It is not a function of government to fund this sort of thing. Defund them permanently. They will survive just fine without taxpayer dollars, and if they don’t, so be it!
Hopefully Musk and his group lays waste to the parts of our government that seeks to brainwash and corruptly spend our money. It would be too much to ask that many in government go to jail?
I have witnessed NPR become so leftist biased over the last 40 years that my wife and I can no longer tolerate their slanted, Democrat Party views. Every interview is summarized by their staff not to reflect the answers given but their own biased opinions. Steve Inskeep – host of the Morning Edition – is particularly obnoxious in this regard. He expounds his obvious leftist views and conclusions with little relationship to the actual facts being presented in the interview. In addition, news that is positive with respect to Conservatives’ actions and policies is generally ignored by the staff. If not ignored, only a portion of the story is presented in a negative, biased fashion.
A fresh approach with new staffing and guidelines is sorely need by this organization. They no longer should be freely allowed to carry the Leftist, Slanted Liberal’s water at the expense of the American taxpayer.
As far as I am concerned you can cut all funding like this. The government is not in the entertainment business.
“Critics of Musk and Trump point out most of the groups’ funding does not come from the federal government.” Then they should have no problem finding other funding and not use my tax dollars for their bias reporting.
When are we going to cut waste and initiate term limits in Congress???
The left would be screaming at the top of their lung about this if it were the federal government funding Sean Hannity or Bill O’Rielly or Fox News or Tucker Carlson or Trump’s network – they would be out of their minds! But to federally support a left wing network and a national abortion clinic that has been exposed for some of their worst abuses of females and fetuses!! And just because it’s been there forever doesn’t mean we shouldn’t change it!!
Our national (nonexistent) budget is out of control and the feds just keep saying YES to every request and borrow and/or print more money!! I’m disgusted by the position the politicians have put us in!!
Do this immediately! We need communication which is factual and Truthful.
Sane people (taxpayers all) have been begging for cutting ties with NPR, PBS for decades. We resent paying for this propaganda and total false support for the LEFT. Shut your ears and turn them out!!
Tell Bert & Ernie to get some real jobs. Deport Big Bird!
These so-called news outlets ALWAYS skew things to the left. First, of course, the actual news. But even anything even tangentially political has a leftward bias. Cartoons push the trans agenda; “history” shows play up “blame America first” memes! Let Soros or Hollyweird elites finance them!!
There is no reason for taxpayers to fund these outdated useless stations.
It doesn’t matter if they are left leaning or not. We shouldn’t be funding radio stations. If they have what people want to listen to they should be able to make it on their own.
Take them down! It’s time to start reporting accurate news. So tired of the lies and BS these outlets spew. They should be de-journalized.
Like abolishing the Unconstitutional Federal Department of Education, defunding public Radio and Television is long overdue.
Hip, hip, hooray!!!!
PBS took an unfinished novel by Jane Austen (was actually the first she tried writing, later she would take parts out for her later finished novels!) and have a Gay couple openly dancing with each other in a public ball. Anyone that knows anything about the reality of Edwardian England knows that would never be permitted! Yes, homosexuality existed but it was kept in the proverbial closet. Jane Austen would be horrified at the liberties taken with something attributed to her. This is the type of LGBTQ propaganda PBS plays on their channel, paid for by your tax dollars. As a Jane Austen fan I am very offended, as an American who has his Social Security taxed I am appalled!
Don’t consider it DO it. Long past time the are de-funded.
yes yes yes!
“Critics of Musk and Trump point out most of the groups’ funding does not come from the federal government.” Good. Then NPR doesn’t need our money.
Without doubt: Defund PBS and NPR!
The issue seems very clear to me. Our Country needs to operate on a balanced budget, at least most of the time. Recently we have seen a long string of $2 trillion deficits, which is absurd, and totally unacceptable! Republicans’ (as individuals) have historically been willing to fund the areas of the “government” which they are concerned about (Pittman Robertson money to game and fish depts, hunting licenses fund the remainder of these departments (which also regulate/protect non-game species). I am sure there are many more examples.
Dems on the other hand expect the government to provide. They always work with OPM (other people’s money – generally taxpayers’ money). Our government is now $37 trillion in debt. There is no way that total will be paid off in my lifetime and I find it disgusting to think that we are leaving debts which our grandchildren will likely be paying interest on for most of their lives.
If we want to support PBS, NPR, the Kennedy Center or any number of other “non-essential items and services” which our government may have previously funded, then let’s sit down and write a check. Everyone else who also wants these things can do the same.
It will be a very long time until the National debt is paid off and clearly we must insist that our Representatives prioritize spending and learn to live within our means. As we currently work 5 or 6 months (without pay) to pay for our government, Congress needs to understand that tax increases are unacceptable. Provided we use the Trump tax cut as a baseline (they must make it permanent) we should not be expecting further tax cuts until the debt situation looks much better.
Any politician unwilling to work on a balanced budget basis and prioritize essential funding for needed services should never be counting on votes from my household (we have to balance our budget and don’t think it is too much to ask, the same, from our “public servants”!
Getting rid of NPR And PBS or at least the political part of the stations would be Awesome because they are always in the pot stirring it up with all of their lies And they arena better than the Democratic Party and they wouldn’t know how to tell the truth if it jumped up and bit them in the ass!!!!
The Democrats management style is patterned after the mating of elephants.
Their business is conducted at a high level, a lot of bellowing and screaming takes place, and it takes more than two years to see results!
& Defund
ICC
EEOC
FDA
NIH
NAID
CDC
any NGO
They should defund PBS and NPR with the same vigor liberals used to defund the police.
Unless I misread, the government isn’t shutting them down; they’re taking them off of the taxpayer’s payroll. Let the Leftists fund them or they can clean up their act.
Yes defund both. No tax dollars for NPR nor PBS.
I stopped personally donating to NPR and PBS years ago because of their agenda.
People. We have choices. If you don’t like something a channel is airing, don’t watch it. Get rid of BritBox, Acorn, Netflix, Amazon Prime, Max and another many apps, PBS included.
I, for one, enjoy watching David Atkinson, Steve, Lucy and animal shows, Broadway productions and history documentaries.
I agree I don’t like some of their programming, but I don’t see a reason to throw out the baby with the bath water.
I also agree that their members should be paying for their programming, not our taxes. Until I read this article, I wasn’t even aware that they are using our taxes.
So, Kudos to a fine eye opener. But I am going to continue watching programming I enjoy and not watch ones I don’t. Like I said, we have choices. Watch Up unless, of course, you don’t like Christian programming either.
PBS has some fine shows. Just get rid of their “news” division.