Progressive Media Bias Will No Longer Be Funded By Taxpayers

On July 31, Congress rescinded over a billion dollars for Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB), causing CPB to announce a day later it would begin “an orderly wind-down of its operations”. This comes after 50 years of CPB funding National Public Radio (NPR) and Public Broadcasting Service (PBS). 

“I’ve worked at NPR for 25 years. Here’s How we Lost America’s Trust”

It follows Trump’s May 1 Executive Order (EO) “Ending Taxpayer Subsidization of Biased Media”, which read in part “National Public Radio (NPR) and the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) receive taxpayer funds through the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB). Unlike in 1967, when the CPB was established, today the media landscape is filled with abundant, diverse, and innovative news options.” (Today, Aug. 3, 2025)

Trump rightly asserted “No media outlet has a constitutional right to taxpayer subsidies, and the Government is entitled to determine which categories of activities to subsidize.” The EO also noted CPB’s violations “The CPB’s governing statute reflects principles of impartiality: the CPB may not ‘contribute to or otherwise support any political party.’” Yet CPB “fails to abide by these principles” for “fair, accurate, or unbiased portrayal of current events to taxpaying citizens.” (Whitehouse, May 1, 2025)

This needed to happen. Last year, 25-year NPR journalist Uri Berliner blasted NPR over bias in his essay entitled “I’ve worked at NPR for 25 years. Here’s How we Lost America’s Trust”. Tim Murtaugh, writing for the Washington Times summarized the essay thusly: “Mr. Uri Berliner described NPR as a place where racial and other types of diversity matter a great deal, but hearing from differing viewpoints does not… (Berliner noted that in his newsroom there were) Eighty-seven registered Democrats and no Republicans. None. He described how NPR became obsessed with interviewing Trump opponents, like California Democratic Rep. Adam Schiff, who appeared on their airwaves at least 25 times to lie about the 2016 Trump campaign’s alleged collusion with Russia... Mr. Berliner lamented the infamous NPR response to the Hunter Biden laptop story, which was, ‘We don’t want to waste our time on stories that are not really stories.’…. (NPR) dismissed the lab leak theory (Wuhan lab as origin of COVID-19) as a ‘racist or a right-wing conspiracy theory’ (Washington Times, April 11, 2024)

NPR “veered toward efforts to damage or topple Trump’s presidency”

According to Berliner, NPR leadership was apathetic about the bias: “What’s worse is to pretend it never happened, to move on with no mea culpas, no self-reflection”. Berliner wrote that after the 2016 Trump election, NPR “veered toward efforts to damage or topple Trump’s presidency.” Berliner described how “Race and identity became paramount in nearly every aspect of the workplace”. Berliner voted against Trump twice and “fit the mold” at NPR being raised by a single lesbian mother. He just couldn’t stomach the level of bias (The Free Press, April 9, 2024)

NPR’s Editor in Chief, Edith Chapin, responded to the essay dismissively: “We believe that inclusion — among our staff, with our sourcing, and in our overall coverage--is critical to telling the nuanced stories….. It’s why we track sources--so we can expand the diversity of perspectives in our reporting… Let’s not forget that the reason we remain one of the most trusted news organizations in the country is that we respect people’s ability to form their own judgments.” Ironically, this came after a Harris Poll showed only 30% of NPR listeners find the source trustworthy (NY Post, April 10, 2024)

Attacks from others in the mainstream media against Berliner were as laughable as Chapin’s response. CNN showed an utter lack of self-awareness with its bias problem: “by 2023, Trump and the MAGA media machine had spent years waging a brutal war on truth and the media organizations that espouse it. That war, unquestionably, is responsible for many Republicans losing trust in newsrooms……… (Berliner’s) piece has been nothing short of a massive gift to the right, which has made vilifying the news media its top priority…. (CNN, April 11, 2024)

The media, not Trump, bears responsibility for lost trust

CNN’s claims are ridiculous. Polls have shown that for almost two decades under half of America trusts mainstream media. Right before Trump took office in 2016, the level of trust in media was at the historic low of only 32%. Yet in 2017 it came up to 45%. (Visual Capitalist, Dec. 2, 2023)

The media, not Trump, bears responsibility for lost trust.

One anecdote with NPR encapsulates the bias at both NPR and PBS. Progressive minority (Black/Hispanic) Juan Williams worked at NPR over a decade. He was terminated by NPR for one benign opinion on a conservative network (Fox): “I'm not a bigot. You know the kind of books I've written about the civil rights movement in this country. But when I get on a plane, I got to tell you, if I see people who are in Muslim garb and I think, you know, they are identifying themselves first and foremost as Muslims, I get worried. I get nervous”. Williams then asserted that Muslims should not be scapegoated. (NPR, Oct. 21, 2010)

Many believe NPRs main problem with Williams was the comment being on a Fox News interview. Williams should have known NPR doesn’t tolerate the conservative views of Fox.

Shutting down CPB (NPR and PBS) is a great step to ending the progressive monopoly. In this nation we value the equal worth of fellow citizens under God and respect opinions even in disagreement. No American should be forced to pay taxes to push Liberalism or any competing ideology. Just the facts and news.