Congressional Republicans ripped into NPR and PBS on Wednesday, questioning the ideological slants of the nation’s two biggest public broadcasters and whether they deserve taxpayer funding.
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene called for the hearing, titled “Anti-American Airwaves: Holding the Heads of NPR and PBS Accountable,” in February. NPR chief Katherine Maher and PBS CEO Paula Kerger appeared in Washington, D.C. on Wednesday to answer questions about their respective organizations.
There were several escalated exchanges throughout the hearing, including when Greene accused PBS of using “taxpayer funds to push some of the most radical left positions, like featuring a drag queen” dubbed “Lil Miss Hot Mess” in a show for kids. Greene called the drag queen a “child predator” and “monster.”
Kerger, in her opening statement, said PBS is an essential broadcaster that should retain its public funding.
“PBS stations provide something that cannot be found on commercial networks,” Kerger said. “This is because PBS stations are focused on the needs and interests of the viewers they serve, especially in rural areas.”
Perhaps the most newsworthy moment came when Maher, who has run NPR for a year, said the radio network was “mistaken in failing” to cover Hunter Biden’s laptop in the lead-up to the 2020 election.
If you need a refresher, the New York Post on Oct. 14, 2020, published a story saying Hunter “introduced his father, then-Vice President Joe Biden, to a top executive at a Ukrainian energy firm less than a year before the elder Biden pressured government officials in Ukraine into firing a prosecutor who was investigating the company.”
The Post’s coverage, based on a laptop provided by Rudy Giuliani, also included pictures of the younger Biden with drug paraphernalia. Soon after, Twitter and Facebook blocked users from sharing the story, and NPR essentially followed suit. Then-NPR managing editor Terence Samuels, in a statement in 2020, said his outlet didn’t “want to waste our time on stories that are not really stories.”
Maher’s acknowledgement on Wednesday that NPR incorrectly failed to cover the laptop incident came a few months after NPR public editor Kelly McBride told TheWrap she was “uncomfortable” with censoring the story.
Some more fireworks happened at the Wednesday hearing when congressmen brought up Maher’s old tweets. Rep. Brandon Gill mentioned a tweet from Maher saying “America is addicted to white supremacy,” while Rep. Tim Burchett questioned Maher about a 2020 tweet in which she called President Donald Trump a “fascist” and “deranged racist sociopath.”
“I appreciate the opportunity to address this,” Maher said. “I regret those tweets. I would not tweet them again today. They represented a time where I was reflecting on something that I believe that the president had said, rather than who he is. I don’t presume that anyone is a racist.”
Maher was also asked about the political and ideological chasm between Democrats and Republicans at NPR. Rep. William Timmons said NPR has 87 editorial positions filled by registered Democrats, while there are zero registered Republicans. Maher said she agred that number “is a concern, if it is accurate.”
She added: “I do believe that we need to have journalists who represent the full breadth of society, so that we can report well for all Americans.”
Maher, who previously ran the Wikimedia Foundation, replaced John Lansing as the boss of NPR in March 2024, while Kerger has been the president and CEO of PBS since 2006.
Their appearance on Wednesday came as Republicans have been looking to slash federal funding to public broadcasters since Trump returned to office. Elon Musk, the head of the Department of Government Efficiency, said in February that NPR should not be funded by taxpayers.
“Defund NPR. It should survive on its own,” Musk posted on X.
NPR and PBS’ parent, The Corporation for Public Broadcasting, was set to receive $525 million in public funding in 2024, according to the Washington Post, although an updated figure since the end of the year has not been shared. From that funding, $126 million was earmarked for public radio stations — but not all of that goes to NPR.
The year prior, in 2023, $32 million of NPR’s $318 million in revenue came from the CPB. Overall, NPR syndicates its programming to more than 1,000 public radio stations. While the bulk of NPR’s funding does not come from federal funds, the outlet has said it is a critical component to staying on the airwaves.
“Federal funding is essential to public radio’s service to the American public and its continuation is critical for both stations and program producers, including NPR,” according to NPR’s website.
Greene did not agree, and Wednesday’s hearing did not change her opinion.
“We will be calling for the complete and total defund and dismantling of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting,” she said in her closing remarks. “Here’s how it works in America: every single day, private businesses operate on their own without government funding. We believe that you all can hate us on your own dime.”
