(LifeSiteNews) — A contentious congressional hearing in Washington, D.C., may be the beginning of the end of federal funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
National Public Radio (NPR) CEO Katherine Maher and Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) CEO Paula Kerger were grilled by multiple Republicans at a Department of Government Efficiency subcommittee meeting today.
“The Corporation for Public Broadcasting is using taxpayer dollars to actively suppress the truth, suppress diverse viewpoints, and produce some of the most outlandish, ludicrous content,” Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene said.
“We will be calling for the complete and total defund and dismantling of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.”
⚠️CLOSING STATEMENT⚠️
After listening to what we’ve heard today, we will be calling for the complete and total defund and dismantling of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
NPR & PBS can hate us on their own dime.
It’s time American taxpayers stop footing the bill. pic.twitter.com/2OfjGzmNlF
— Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene🇺🇸 (@RepMTG) March 26, 2025
Greene is the chairwoman of the subcommittee. It falls under the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. Greene, GOP Rep. Jim Jordan and GOP Rep. William Timmons were among those who called out Maher and Kerger for their agency’s left-wing slant.
At one point in the hearings, Maher, who took the reins of NPR just one year ago, told Jordan, “I have never seen any political bias determining editorial decision.”
Those comments came after Jordan shared with her a report by a longtime NPR journalist that found the agency’s editorial composition in the D.C. area includes 87 registered Democrats and zero registered Republicans.
“87-0 and you’re not biased?” an aghast Jordan shot back.
REP JORDAN: “Is NPR biased?”
NPR CEO: “I have never seen any political bias.”
JORDAN: “In the DC area, editorial positions at NPR have 87 registered Democrats and 0 Republicans.”
NPR CEO: “We do not track the voter registration, but I find that concerning.”
JORDAN: “87-0… pic.twitter.com/AzaWV9BxBm
— KanekoaTheGreat (@KanekoaTheGreat) March 26, 2025
Timmons, who represents South Carolina’s Fourth Congressional District, also let loose on Maher, who holds liberal political views and in 2020 defended the George Floyd riots on social media. Timmons accused NPR of “blatant partisan imbalance” and of being a “one-sided echo chamber.”
“I don’t think that NPR is necessarily worth saving,” he said.
🗣️: NPR’s Katherine Maher admits it’s ‘concerning’ that 100% of her editorial board—87 members—are registered Democrats, with zero Republicans.
NPR’s blatant partisan imbalance is unacceptable—taxpayers should not be forced to foot the bill for a one-sided echo chamber. pic.twitter.com/BMWnxq9Ffe
— Congressman William Timmons (@RepTimmons) March 26, 2025
Congress approved the Corporation for Public Broadcasting in 1967. It received $535 million in taxpayer dollars for Fiscal Year 2025. NPR receives 1 percent of its annual budget from the corporation and PBS receives 16 percent of its yearly expenses from it. Before the hearing, President Donald Trump said he would “love to” see funding for the “very biased” NPR and PBS come to an end.
Maher is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and has worked for the globalist National Democratic Institute in the past. She admitted that NPR has failed to live up to proper journalistic standards in the past.
“NPR acknowledges that we were mistaken in failing to cover the Hunter Biden laptop story more aggressively and sooner,” she said.
While discussing the origins of COVID-19, she remarked that, “we acknowledged that the new CIA evidence is worthy of coverage and have covered it.”
Unlike NPR, LifeSiteNews boldly reported on the contents of the Hunter Biden laptop and on Dr. Anthony Fauci’s involvement in funding coronavirus research at a lab in Wuhan, China.
Conservatives have long viewed NPR and PBS with disdain. Thousands of pieces of evidence that show both outlets promote left-wing ideology and the LGBT agenda have been compiled for many years thanks to outlets like NewsBusters and other media monitoring groups.
Greene herself highlighted the fact that a pro-LGBT show titled “Let’s Learn” on PBS uses a drag queen as its host. Greene also noted that Maher previously referred to President Trump as a “deranged, racist sociopath” and that she has said the terms “boy and girl” are “erasing language.”
Earlier this month, Trump signed an executive order ordering the dismantling of Voice of America and Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, which are also run by the U.S. government. The agencies were founded in the 1940s and critics have long argued they are not only antiquated but have been co-opted by leftist ideologues in recent decades.