NPR, PBS on hotseat--their leaders defend the indefensible

Imagine this: Wednesday rolls around, and the House DOGE subcommittee decides it’s time to drag "public" broadcasting into the hot seat. Why? Because NPR and PBS have been happily cashing taxpayer checks while pretending half the country doesn’t exist. 

Under a relentless GOP grilling, NPR CEO Katherine Maher—who’s clearly been practicing for the “oops, my bad” Olympics—admits it was a "mistake" to shrug off the Hunter Biden laptop story like it was a bad TikTok trend. She also wrings her hands over some pre-NPR tweets where she called Trump a "deranged racist sociopath" and mused that looting’s no biggie (it’s just "counterproductive," you see). 

Oh, and if reports are true, NPR’s newsroom has zero Republicans? She says that’d be "disturbing." Uh-huh. Sure, Kathy, as if you didn't know.

Now, how much airtime did this spicy little showdown get on ABC, CBS, and NBC? Zilch point pooh. Nada. Crickets. Not a peep on the evening news, not a whisper on the morning gabfests the next day. You’d think a hearing with this much red meat would at least get a nod, right? You would be wrong.

But don’t worry—the Big Three weren’t too busy to obsess over "Signalgate." 

Yep, Trump’s crew chatting up a Houthi strike on the encrypted Signal app—while letting Trump-hating leftist journo Jeffrey Goldberg, editor of The Atlantic and PBS’s "Washington Week" host, eavesdrop—was apparently the story of the century. If he gave a fig about the country, he would have immediately told the host on the Signal meeting that somehow they screwed up by having him on. Instead, he quietly took notes and later reported on it. As it turned out, the Houthi strike went without a hitch in spite of it all.

ABC’s "World News Tonight" and "NBC Nightly News" trotted out footage of CIA boss John Ratcliffe and DNI Tulsi Gabbard sweating under Democrat questions about the breach. NBC’s Lester Holt hyped it as a "bombshell text" to kick off his broadcast—because of course he did. Over on "CBS Evening News," Ed O’Keefe was practically salivating for scalps, asking if heads would roll. He even roped in Goldberg and Obama’s old Defense Sec Chuck Hagel to fan the flames. 

By the end, O’Keefe noted the Senate Armed Services Committee’s bipartisan call for a probe, with GOP chair Roger Wicker grumbling that it’s "a shame this security question is distracting the public from the success of that mission." A shame? You don’t say.

The networks’ playbook is predictable as a sitcom rerun: bury Trump wins, amplify Trump stumbles. 

So let’s dig into the PBS-NPR hearing they conveniently ignored: NPR’s Maher finally copped to the Hunter Biden laptop fumble. Back in 2020, they dismissed it as a "pure distraction"—now, with GOP heat on and taxpayer bucks at stake, she’s all, "Our current editorial leadership thinks that was a mistake, as do I." Breaking news, folks: NPR admits a screw-up! Mark your calendars.

Maher also did a mea culpa on her unhinged tweets—like calling Trump a "deranged racist sociopath" and saying America’s "addicted to white supremacy." She’s "evolved," she claims in the style of Barack Obama on gays in the military, but those hot takes fit NPR’s woke vibe like a glove. Bet they were on her résumé under "qualifications."

PBS prez Paula Kerger and Maher swore up and down their news is "nonpartisan and unbiased." Then Texas Rep. Pat Fallon dropped some NewsBusters truth bombs: "News Hour" slapped "far-right" labels 162 times but only used "far-left" six times. PBS’s 2024 convention coverage was 72% negative for the GOP, 88% positive for Dems. Kerger’s response? "Never heard of those studies." Great prep work, Paula, if you're being honest.

Remember NPR editor Uri Berliner’s exposé? He found 87 Democrats and zero Republicans in NPR’s D.C. newsroom. Another zero.

 Maher called it "disturbing" if true, but after a year on the job, has she hired a single non-lefty? Nope. Berliner wasn’t even GOP, and they still canned him.

GOP reps pointed out NPR interviewed Dem Rep. Adam Schiff 25 times during the Russia hoax—some say 32, but who’s counting? Meanwhile, Rep. James Comer, the Republican Oversight chair, got zero chats about his Biden probe. Fallon asked Maher about it; she drew a blank. Zero’s the answer, Kathy. The Sunday shows pull the same stunt.

This isn’t new. For 50 years, broadcast news has hyped Democrat hearings—Watergate, Iran-Contra, Anita Hill, January 6—like they’re Super Bowls, while GOP-led ones get tossed in the shredder. PBS and NPR had to cover this DOGE hearing, but they weren’t happy about it. NPR’s David Folkenflik whined it was more about "scoring points than finding facts." Pot, meet kettle.

The networks? They’ll skip any fact that messes with their narrative. It’s not about truth—it’s about winning. And they wonder why we don’t trust ‘em.

And this has been where our tax money has been going without our permission.

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