Blog #116 STOP GOVT FUNDING OF NPR & PBS

Politics

‘Give Me a Break’: Bill Maher Piles on NPR Criticism

By Emily Prescott, 1 day ago

The Kansas City Star

Follow

NPR and PBS executives recently defended their organizations against claims of bias in a hearing led by Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA). The session assessed allegations of partisanship and public media’s funding model. “Real Time” host Bill Maher later criticized taxpayer support for NPR and PBS, claiming it is outdated.

Greene said, “It’s up to Congress to determine if Americans are going to continue to provide [NPR] with taxpayer funds to continue to pursue their progressive, or rather communist, agenda.”

Bill Maher said, “Give me a break, lady. I mean, they’re crazy far-left. The concept of taxpayer funding going to outlets like NPR and PBS is a dated concept.”

Maher added, “Why do we need to subsidize? We’re so polarized. These outlets became popular at a time when Republicans and Democrats didn’t hate each other and weren’t at each other’s throats and didn’t think each other was an existential threat. In that world, you can’t have places like this, I think, anymore. They have to be private.”

Rep. William Timmons (R-SC) questioned NPR’s staff composition, noting that its editorial team includes 87 registered Democrats and no Republicans. NPR CEO Katherine Maher acknowledged the imbalance but reiterated the organization’s commitment to impartial journalism.

Maher said, “The number one challenge here that we see is of course the First Amendment in the United States. It is a fairly robust protection of rights. And that is a protection of rights both for platforms, which I actually think is very important that platforms have the right to be able to regulate what kind of content they want on their sites.”

Maher added, “But it also means that it is a little bit tricky to really address some of the real challenges of where does bad information come from, and sort of the influence peddlers who have made a real market economy around it.”

The Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) provides funding to NPR and PBS, accounting for 1% and 15% of their budgets, respectively. Greene and Republicans argued that such funding is unnecessary and advocate privatization.

Rep. Eric Burlison (R-MO) scrutinized PBS programming on transgender issues, while Greene accused NPR of avoiding controversies like Hunter Biden’s laptop. Rep. Stephen Lynch (D-MA) has dismissed the hearing as politically motivated and overly partisan.

Lynch said, “The Trump administration is engaged in an actual disinformation campaign to minimize the catastrophic national security breach that was revealed earlier this week.”

Lynch added, “If shame [were] still a thing, this hearing would be shameful.”

Emily Presoctt covers U.S. politics & news for content partner Modern Newsstand LLC.