(RightWing.org) – A Republican senator is calling for NPR to lose its public funding. The media outlet is under fire after a senior editor criticized its left-wing bias –- and was promptly pushed out of his job. Now Senator Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) says it’s time to stop forcing taxpayers to subsidize left-wing journalism.
On April 9, “The Free Press” published an op-ed by Uri Berliner, a 25-year NPR veteran. In the hard-hitting piece, Berliner, a senior business editor at the public radio network, revealed that NPR has been captured by liberal activists, has no conservatives at all on its editorial staff, and shows relentless left-wing bias on every news story it covers.
By writing the op-ed, Berliner hoped to nudge NPR back to providing unbiased, trustworthy journalism. Instead, he was suspended without pay.
On April 17, Berliner resigned from NPR. In a statement, he slammed new CEO Katherine Maher, saying he couldn’t work in an environment “where I am disparaged by a new CEO whose divisive views confirm the very problems at NPR I cite.”
Ironically, Berliner had actually praised Maher in his op-ed, saying he was hopeful her non-journalism background would make a difference and that he’d “be rooting for her.” As it turned out, Maher backed Berliner’s liberal colleagues, who closed ranks and turned on him.
The day Berliner resigned, Senator Blackburn told Fox News that “NPR has led the pack” in the liberal media’s crusade against conservatives. She said taxpayers shouldn’t be forced to fund a left-wing news organization that “refuses to represent the voices of half the country.”
Around 11% of NPR’s funding comes directly from the taxpayer in the form of grants from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting; Blackburn is now considering legislative options to reduce that funding.
Maher has recently called the First Amendment “the number one challenge” she faces at NPR.
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