Article in New York Times by Benjamin Mullin and Michael M. Grynbaum, 3/26/25
Headline: “Elmo and Elon Musk Are Cited as G.O.P. Lawmakers Grill PBS and NPR“
Subhead: “Dark pronouncements by Republicans about a ‘communist agenda’ espoused by public media were intercut with lighter references to “Sesame Street” and ‘Curious George.’ “
“Congressional Republicans laced into PBS and NPR on Wednesday, accusing the country’s biggest public media networks of institutional bias in a fiery hearing that represented the latest salvo against the American press by close allies of the Trump administration.
“Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, the Georgia Republican who organized the hearing — which she called ‘Anti-American Airwaves’ — opened her remarks by deriding PBS and NPR as ‘radical left-wing echo chambers’ that published skewed news reports and indoctrinated children with L.G.B.T.Q. programming.
“The leaders of both PBS and NPR testified that those claims were untrue, arguing that their stations served as a crucial source of accurate information and educational programming for millions of Americans, even as the NPR chief executive acknowledged regrets for posting critical remarks about President Trump before she joined the broadcaster. . .”
“Representative Stephen Lynch, Democrat of Massachusetts, said that Republican lawmakers would rather go after Big Bird than President Trump. “If shame was still a thing, this hearing would be shameful,” he said.
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/26/business/media/pbs-npr-congress-hearing-republicans.html
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Article in Columbia Journalism Review by Liam Scott, 3/26/25
Headline: “NPR and PBS Leaders Face Grilling Before House DOGE Subcommittee”
Subhead: “We are essential, especially in remote and rural places,” the head of Alaska Public Media testified.”
“It was standing room only at Wednesday’s House subcommittee hearing on the public broadcasters NPR and PBS.
“Titled ‘Anti-American Airwaves: Holding the Heads of NPR and PBS Accountable,’ the hearing, held by the DOGE subcommittee of the House Oversight Committee, comes as various Republican lawmakers have spent the past few weeks making a rallying cry out of their calls to pull federal funding from the broadcasters over perceived liberal bias. . .”
“Press freedom groups, meanwhile, say the hearing is taking place in the context of a broader campaign against the media in the United States in the form of lawsuits, government investigations, and hostile rhetoric from officials.
“This fits into the broader pattern that we’ve been observing since Trump became president of using the government as a tool to harm the media in any way,” said Clayton Weimers, the head of the US office of Reporters Without Borders.
“Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, a Georgia Republican and the subcommittee’s chair, began the hearing by recounting how she—and her three children—grew up watching PBS. Her tone quickly shifted.
“ ‘NPR and PBS have increasingly become radical, left-wing echo chambers for a narrow audience of mostly wealthy, white, urban liberals and progressives who generally look down on and judge rural America,’ Greene said in her opening statement, claiming that the broadcasters are ‘brainwashing and trans-ing’ children. . .”
“Maher (NPR CEO) and Kerger (PBS CEO) defended the broadcasters. ‘I do not believe we are politically biased,’ Maher said at one point. ‘We are a nonpartisan organization.’
“Kerger highlighted PBS’s educational programming for kids, which she said especially benefits children whose families cannot afford pre-kindergarten. ‘I strongly believe that the programming we offer to prepare children for the future is the most essential work that we do today,’ she said.
“Public media has enjoyed bipartisan support for decades. A 2017 national survey from Rasmussen Reports found that just 21 percent of Americans—including less than a third of Republicans—supported cutting federal support of public broadcasting”.
https://www.cjr.org/news/npr-and-pbs-leaders-face-grilling-before-house-doge-subcommittee.php
