By Scott Neuman, David Folkenflik | NPR
NPR CEO Katherine Maher and her counterpart at PBS, Paula Kerger, appeared Wednesday before a House subcommittee on government efficiency, where they defended public broadcasting against accusations by Republican lawmakers of political bias.
At the heart of the hearing, entitled "Anti-American Airwaves: Holding the Heads of NPR and PBS Accountable," was the question of whether public broadcasting should receive federal funding. The subcommittee chairwoman, Georgia Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, has said she wants to cut all federal funds to public broadcasting.
Also testifying were the head of Alaska Public Media, Ed Ulman and Michael Gonzalez of The Heritage Foundation, a critic of public media.
Here are 4 takeaways from the hearing:
Republicans say they have lost trust in both NPR and PBS to provide balanced coverage.
Pointing to specific stories and programs at both networks, GOP lawmakers at the hearing said the public broadcasters aired opinions and programming that did not represent the views of the majority of Americans.
"PBS news is not just left leaning, but is actively uses taxpayer funds to push some of the most radical left positions," Greene said in her opening statement. "Like featuring a drag queen on the show 'Let's Learn,' a show targeted toward young children ages 3 to 8 years old."
Kerger, the PBS CEO, later responded to Greene's assertion, saying that the drag-queen "was not actually on any of our kids' shows."
"It was mistakenly put on the website of our New York City station," she said. "It was immediately pulled down. It was never broadcast."
Greene echoed other Republicans on the committee, saying "For far too long, federal taxpayers have been forced to fund biased news. This needs to come to an end and it needs to come to an end now," she said.
Public criticism from a former senior editor at NPR acted as a blueprint for Republicans.
Republicans repeatedly cited Uri Berliner, a senior business editor for NPR who resigned last year after publishing a critical essay about the network's coverage. Berliner argued that NPR's coverage increasingly reflects a rigid progressive ideology.
Rep. Jim Jordan, an Ohio Republican, pointed to Berliner's accusation that "in the DC area, editorial positions at NPR, he said he found 87 registered Democrats, 0 Republicans."
"Is that accurate?" he asked Maher. She responded: "We don't track voter registrations."
Jordan asked whether Berliner was lying. "I'm not presuming such, but we don't track that information about our journalists," the NPR CEO said.
Democrats say Republicans are trying to distract from real news and shut down contrary opinions
In one fiery statement, Texas Democrat Jasmine Crockett lashed out at Republicans for what she suggested was a double standard when its comes to free speech. "Free speech is not about whatever it is that you all want somebody to say," she said. "And the idea that you want to shut down everybody that is not Fox News is bull****."
"We need to stop playing because that's what y'all are doing in here. You don't want to hear the opinions of ... anybody else," she said, citing the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
At one point, Rep. Robert Garcia, D-Calif, asked Kerger if Sesame Street character Elmo was a communist? "No" she replied.
Garcia: "Are you sure Ms. Kerger? Because he is red."
"Well, he is a puppet, but no," Kerger replied.
Witnesses and Democrats on the committee said public broadcasting provides access to quality programming and emergency broadcasts in remote and rural areas.
Ed Ulman of Alaska Public Media said in rural areas, oftentimes public media is the only option for people who need access to emergency broadcasts. "We provide potentially life-saving warnings and alerts that are crucial for Alaskans who face threats ranging from extreme weather to earthquakes, landslides and even volcanoes," he said.
"Nationwide, our public television interconnection system supports the PBS warning alert response network, a critical pathway for the distribution of wireless energy emergency alerts to cell phones," Ulman said.
Kerger told the story of a local rancher with young children. "[He] drove hours to attend a local station event," she said.
"He pulled me aside and told me this: 'We need PBS. We don't live near a preschool. My children have learned to read [by] watching PBS shows and the shows we watch on PBS are our connection to the rest of America."
Disclosure: This story was reported and written by NPR Correspondents Scott Neuman and David Folkenflik. It was edited by Deputy Business Editor Emily Kopp and Managing Editors Gerry Holmes and Vickie Walton-James. Under NPR's protocol for reporting on itself, no NPR corporate official or news executive reviewed this story before it was posted publicly.
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