The heads of NPR and PBS faced hostile questioning during a House subcommittee hearing Wednesday, but the conversation over federal funding of public media remained largely unchanged. NPR President/CEO Katherine Maher admitted that the public radio network hasn’t done enough in the past to include conservative viewpoints but said continued financial support is needed to help local stations survive — particularly in rural areas where federal dollars contribute up to half of their operating budgets.
“Those are stations that I've seen that have small staffs that do extraordinary work, and those are the stations that I worry would not survive. This would be an existential moment for them, and that’s why I think this is so important,” Maher said. She told the Subcommittee on Delivering on Government Efficiency (DOGE) that big market stations get about 5% of their funding from the government and would be hurt too, saying the loss would be “incredibly damaging” to the public radio system, especially at a time when local news is disappearing. “Throughout the country, more and more local news outlets are closing each day at a rate of more than two per week,” she said.
The federal budget includes $535 million a year for public media, including $121.5 million for public radio stations. For many Republican lawmakers, that is a luxury that taxpayers can no longer afford.
“We don’t want to shut down NPR or PBS, but we have $36 trillion in debt, and we are scouring all government spending,” said Rep. William Timmons (R-SC). He said DOGE is also “re-evaluating” public media’s role since in today’s media environment there are many options for people to get news, unlike when federal funding began in the 1960s.
Democrats pushed back against the idea that the debate was about financial issues, however, saying it is instead motivated by coverage that has been critical of Republican policies.
“Pointing the finger at Elmo to cover for Elon Musk might be a new low,” said Rep. Greg Casar (D-TX). “If Republicans were serious about investigating waste, fraud, and abuse, my colleagues would admit that Big Bird is not the problem. Big tech, big pharma, and big insurance companies are.”
Much of the discussion during the two-hour hearing was focused on politics, not money. Rep. James Comer (R-KY), Chairman of the House Committee on Oversight & Accountability, said he relied on public radio for news while working in a tractor for 12-hours a day in rural Kentucky. “I still occasionally listen to NPR, because I just want to hear what they have to say, and I don't even recognize the station anymore. It’s not news,” Comer said. “I feel like it’s propaganda.”
Subcommittee Chair Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) also focused on issues including public media’s coverage of LGBTQ issues, COVID, and the 2016 and 2020 elections, raising many of the long-simmering grievances by conservatives who see a double-standard in how they are covered by the media. “NPR and PBS have increasingly become radical, left-leaning echo chambers for a narrow audience of mostly wealthy white urban liberals and progressives who generally look down on and judge rural America,” she said.
Maher countered that in the year since she has led NPR, several steps have been taken to better ensure that conservative viewpoints are included.
“We have hired analysts to be able to count the number of stories that we’re running on any particular issue, including whose voices are represented,” Maher said. “We’ve moved from bringing pundits on air to trying to bring in direct policy makers on air so that we can ask questions of policy makers, rather than hearing through other people’s perspectives.”
Maher told lawmakers that before any news item is released, it undergoes a review, and NPR has also instituted a monthly review to look at stories that may have been missed. Maher said that is not only about being thorough, but also part of her effort to change processes and policies to have a “more robust conversation, and to ensure all areas and all views are considered.”
Several subcommittee members were critical of NPR’s coverage of the Hunter Biden laptop story, and while it pre-dated her time at the network, Maher conceded mistakes were made. “Our current editorial leadership thinks that was a mistake, as do I,” Maher said.
But Taylor-Greene wasn’t swayed. “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,” she said at the hearing’s close.
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