NPR has a right to exist. That doesn't mean it has a right to my tax dollars. | Opinion
I regularly listen to NPR's 'Morning Edition.' But the program's blatant liberal bias often raises my blood pressure. President Donald Trump is right to cut off its taxpayer subsidies.
I woke up this morning as I usually do: listening to “Morning Edition” on NPR.
The soothing voices, hip musical interludes and international stories make me feel like I’ve been on a getaway of sorts before I have my first cup of coffee.
More often than not, however, it also raises my blood pressure. The blatant bias and superior attitude that liberals convey is intrinsic in nearly every segment.
And it makes me wonder: Why in the world am I paying for this?
President Donald Trump has wondered the same thing, and he’s making the case that NPR – National Public Radio – and its television sibling PBS should be cut off from the taxpayer funding they’ve received since the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) was created by Congress in 1967, under a Democratic administration.
On May 1, Trump issued an executive order that seeks to end subsidies to both entities.
“Government funding of news media in this environment is not only outdated and unnecessary but corrosive to the appearance of journalistic independence,” the order states. “At the very least, Americans have the right to expect that if their tax dollars fund public broadcasting at all, they fund only fair, accurate, unbiased, and nonpartisan news coverage.”
All of that is true, and it’s past time to end government-subsidized public media.
NPR CEO Katherine Maher said it best: 'Keep government out' of media
In addition to the executive order, according to The New York Times, the White House is asking Congress to rescind two years’ worth of funding – $1.1 billion – for the CPB, which distributes grants to NPR, PBS and local member stations.
Public media organizations obviously aren’t happy and are painting Trump’s actions as a “threat” to their work – and even an affront to the First Amendment. Other media groups are, too.
Is it though?
NPR CEO Katherine Maher recently told CBS News’ “Face the Nation” that she saw the executive order as the Trump administration interfering with NPR’s “editorial independence.”
“Part of the separation that the First Amendment offers is to keep government out,” Maher said. “In fact, the statute that was written when the Public Broadcasting Act was signed into law was very explicit about interference from any member of the government.”
Our First Amendment offers the strongest free speech protections from government interference of anywhere in the world. But there is no constitutional guarantee of government-subsidized media.
Maher unintentionally made a case against taxpayer funding when she said the government should stay out of NPR’s decisions.
Just as Harvard, Columbia and other higher education institutions are learning, federal funding always comes with strings attached, and the surest way to free themselves from that interference is to forgo the money.
The same goes for NPR.
'Straight down the line' reporting? Give me a break.
Let’s go back to the problem of bias in public media. It’s pervasive and obvious to anyone really paying attention.
Yet, Maher can’t see it.
“Our people report straight down the line,” Maher told CBS News. “And I think that not only do they do that, they do so with a mission that very few other broadcast organizations have, which is a requirement to serve the entire public.”
For conservatives like myself, that got quite a chuckle.
The sad thing is that she may actually believe it. NPR is like most legacy media organizations, in which the vast majority of the newsrooms are made up of left-leaning ideologues who all think alike.
A year ago, longtime NPR editor Uri Berliner created a stir when he went public by talking about the liberal bias and lack of ideological diversity that had overtaken the workplace he had loved. He resigned after the uproar that ensued.
As Mike Gonzalez, a senior fellow at the Heritage Foundation, testified at a March congressional hearing on NPR funding: “Democrats unanimously vote for more and more money for public media, and in exchange, public media heavily tips the scales in their favor.”
Trump is one of many Republican presidents who’ve wanted to end taxpayer-subsidized media.
I hope he’s the first to succeed.
Ingrid Jacques is a columnist at Paste BN. Contact her at ijacques@usatoday.com or on X: @Ingrid_Jacques