Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) led the conservative charge last week for the complete elimination of taxpayer funding for National Public Radio (NPR). The demands come after a veteran insider admitted to the level of the media outlet’s liberal and Democrat political bias. During an episode of his podcast “The Verdict,” Cruz cited Uri Berliner’s explosive op-ed, which detailed NPR’s progressive drift and influence on news coverage, especially after the 2016 presidential election.
In his piece for The Free Press, Berliner, a long-time NPR editor, revealed that NPR has increasingly aligned with far-left ideologies to the point where it seemed to many conservatives that the network was actively working against then-President Donald Trump. His claims include a critical view of how the organization covered the Trump-Russia collusion story and dismissed the Hunter Biden laptop story as a “distraction.”
This is NPR's new CEO, Katherine Maher. Reminder: Our taxes fund her salary. pic.twitter.com/nWLAI1KEql
— End Wokeness (@EndWokeness) April 14, 2024
“The revelations from Mr. Berliner, who has been part of NPR for over 25 years, shine a light on a profound shift at NPR,” Cruz stated on his podcast. He continued, emphasizing that the public funding model should be reconsidered. “Why should taxpayer dollars support a platform that no longer represents a broad spectrum of Americans?” In 2011, 26% of NPR’s audience identified as conservative. By 2023, this number had dwindled to 11%.
The Media Research Center’s Newsbusters executive editor, Tim Graham, expressed a similar sentiment. “It’s unfair, really, for them to take my tax dollars and slap me in the face with it,” Graham commented. He highlighted that such funding practices are particularly contentious when they support media outlets serving only a narrow share of the American population.
House Republicans have recently attempted to address this issue by proposing cuts to NPR’s funding in the 2024 government spending bill. As usual, compromise with Democrats dashed hopes that the GOP would represent its constituents as the provision was restored in the final version signed into law.
Conservatives argue that in a media landscape increasingly defined by advocacy journalism, public funds should not be used to support an outlet that caters predominantly to a specific segment of the political spectrum. There is very little confidence that NPR cares to pretend to maintain journalistic integrity while receiving federal funds, especially when its editorial slant appears increasingly left-wing and deeply rooted in favor of the Democrat Party.
