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The CEOs of National Public Radio and the Public Broadcasting Service denied accusations of liberal bias at a congressional hearing Wednesday, as Republican lawmakers sought to portray public media outlets as partisan organizations that are set on indoctrinating children.
Led by Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., Republicans on the House’s DOGE subcommittee grilled leaders of both organizations on their federal funding and news coverage, which conservatives have claimed is one-sided.
During their allotted time slots, GOP lawmakers aired a range of grievances. They grilled PBS CEO Paula Kerger on segments about drag queens and transgender people, and questioned NPR CEO Katherine Maher on her organization’s lack of coverage about the contents of Hunter Biden’s laptop before her tenure.
“Our current editorial leadership believes that that was a mistake, as do I,” Maher conceded.
Meanwhile, Democrats dismissed the hearing as a frivolous attack on the press and repeatedly brought up the Trump administration’s Signal debacle.
Meanwhile, Democrats dismissed the hearing as a frivolous attack on the press and repeatedly brought up the Trump administration’s Signal debacle, involving top national security officials discussing attack plans in Yemen on a group chat that included a journalist from The Atlantic.
Although GOP lawmakers have long threatened to pull federal funding for public media, there has not been a presidential administration as hostile to the press in decades. The White House has barred The Associated Press from events and the press pool for its continued use of the term “Gulf of Mexico.” Trump and his allies have filed lawsuits against news outlets, and the president is trying to shut down the federal agency that oversees the Voice of America news service.
A longtime advocate for defunding public broadcasting networks, Trump said at a White House news conference Tuesday that he would “love to” defund NPR and PBS.
“I think it’s very unfair, it’s been very biased, the whole group,” said the president, adding: “They spend more money than any other network of its type ever conceived, so the kind of money that’s being wasted, and it’s a very biased view.”
Press freedom advocacy groups have criticized the attacks on public media. Ahead of Wednesday’s hearing, the Committee to Protect Journalists, the Freedom of the Press Foundation and Reporters Without Borders sent a joint letter to the House subcommittee, urging its members to “approach its examination of public broadcasting with the understanding that press freedom is not a partisan issue, rather a vital part of American democracy.”