Recently in Washington, D.C., Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) called for the elimination of taxpayer funding for National Public Radio (NPR) following a veteran insider’s admission of the media outlet’s liberal and Democratic political bias. During an episode of his podcast “The Verdict” Cruz cited Uri Berliner’s explosive op-ed which detailed NPR’s progressive shift and its impact 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 many conservatives felt 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.”
“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that the public funding model should be reconsidered asking “Why should taxpayer dollars support a platform that no longer represents a broad spectrum of Americans?”
Tim Graham the executive editor of the Media Research Center’s Newsbusters expressed a similar sentiment commenting “It’s unfair really for them to take my tax dollars and slap me in the face with it.” 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 Democratic Party.
