Last year constituted a zenith of sorts for the exposure of National Public Radio’s flagrant partisan bias and untrustworthy reporting. Ethics Alarms discussed the developments here, here, here, here and here, among other posts. Critical essays about PBS are more spread out and less numerous on Ethics Alarms, but the conclusions have been similar.

Way back in 2011 I asked, regarding PBS, “How can otherwise intelligent and honest people continue to plead that the national budget should be squeezed one more milli-micron to broadcast junk like this? How can anyone watch such programming and argue straight-faced that PBS isn’t aimed at a narrow demographic?” Of NPR I wrote, last year, “The only people who didn’t realize that NPR has been strongly biased leftward over the last, oh, two decades or more would be those who agree with that bias, so naturally think the taxpayer funded radio network is just ‘telling it as it is.’” Remember, I was a periodic “contributor” to NPR for several years until I was blackballed because a host felt that I was defending Donald Trump. Can’t have that on NPR!

If the Corporation for Public Broadcasting isn’t finally stripped of its federal funding after last week’s hearings, I don’t know what hope there is of carrying through on any of the DOGE cuts. The usual threshold argument for keeping the progressive indoctrination and propaganda efforts of NPR and PBS in the budget is that the outlets don’t get that much money, which is idiotic logic and pure rationalization, though we are also getting the same nonsense in defense of all of Musk’s targets. The money isn’t the real issue anyway. The issue is that PBS and NPR aren’t for “all Americans,” but only for the group of Americans Joe Biden didn’t accuse of being fascists—you know, progressives and Democrats, plus those who seem like promising targets to convince that the Left’s policies, leaders, and personalities are wonderful….by any means necessary.

NPR’s CEO Katherine Maher (above right) joined PBS boss Paula Kerger (left) in a grilling before the House subcommittee on government efficiency, which called the session “Anti-American Airwaves: Holding the Heads of NPR and PBS Accountable.” Unfortunately, the subcommittee chair was Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), which automatically loses the inquiry support and credibility. Fortunately, the loudest mouth among the Democrats equally as unqualified to be in Congress as Greene was also on the committee, Texas’s jive-talking demagogue Jasmine Crockett. She provided the dumbest comment of the day:

“The DOGE agenda isn’t about government efficiency, it’s about breeding corruption at the expense of the safety of the American people, particularly Americans living in rural or remote parts of the country.They don’t care about public safety. They don’t care about emergency management and they don’t care about free speech, all of which are harming American people…To be clear, free speech is not about whatever it is that y’all want somebody to say, and the idea that you want to shut down everybody that is not Fox News is bullshit. We need to stop playing, because that’s what you all are doing here, you don’t want to hear the opinions of anybody else.”

Yes, we have a member of Congress, making laws, who thinks that “free speech” requires the government to fund the speakers. She thinks this with such certitude that she shouts her ignorant analysis on national TV, supported by vulgarities. The partisan breakdown during the hearings proved that NPR and PBS are politically biased all by itself: only Democrats defended the organizations. Meanwhile, the Republicans on the committee had the benefit of the whistle-blowing report of Uri Berliner, former senior business editor for NPR. He resigned last year after publishing an expose of the network’s biased news coverage and partisan staff. The attempted deflections by Maher were transparent. Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), focusing on Berliner’s statement that he found 87 registered Democrats and no Republicans when he surveyed NPR staff, asked, “Is that accurate?” Maher responded: “We don’t track voter registrations.”

Oh. Then there’s no problem then! Democratic defenses of PBS and NPR resorted to sarcasm without substance. Rep. Robert Garcia, (D-Cal.) asked Kerger if the Muppet Elmo was a communist. “No” she replied. “Are you sure Ms. Kerger? Because he is red.” Hahaha! Good one! HBO has been the sole presenter of new Sesame Street episodes for ten years. The Democrats kept emphasizing that show because it is generally popular. HBO is a paid subscription service. I wonder how many of the supporters of PBS in Congress even knew that the network now only provides re-runs.

Maher was reduced to grovelling that NPR regrets any biased stances and will do better in the future. Sure. “I do want to say that NPR acknowledges we were mistaken in failing to cover the Hunter Biden laptop story more aggressively or sooner,” Maher said. But then, all of the other loyal Axis news organizations and partisan social media platforms were intentionally burying the story to make sure Joe Biden was elected President, so why would anyone have expected NPR and PBS to stray from the flock?

Then she said NPR “has work to do”‘ regarding trustworthy reporting. The Corporation for Public Broadcasting has been around for 59 years, and it still hasn’t mastered that ethical journalism thingy? Why would such an incompetent organization continue to receive government support?

Rep. Tim Burchett (a Republican, of course) then asked Maher about her openly anti-Trump, anti-Republican tweets and social media posts, such as when she called President Trump a racist and a sociopath in 2020. Maher said, ‘I regret them today.” I bet she did! Ultimately, the argument for continued funding came down to the old standby, that PBS and NPR are the only news reporting options in some rural areas. Yeah, I know I always think, when I ponder the NPR and PBS content obviously styled for the brie-and-wine set, that they must really love this stuff in the Ozarks. I wonder how many blue collar workers watch “Antique Road Show” and “Midsomer Murders”?

With the internet and so many entertainment options that were not around in 1967, that dated excuse for government funding was reduced to “We provide potentially life-saving warnings and alerts that are crucial for those who face threats ranging from extreme weather to earthquakes, landslides and even volcanoes” in remote areas such as Alaska.

That’s a convincing argument to support government funding of two entire, round the clock national broadcasting networks with biased and partisan news reporting….