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Republicans on a congressional subcommittee supporting Elon Musk’s so-called DOGE efforts dragged NPR and PBS leadership to a public hearing in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday to accuse the publicly supported outlets of turning into “radical, left-wing echo chambers” with “anti-American” bias.
Committee chair Marjorie Taylor Greene and other Republican members accused the networks of brainwashing viewers and children with a “communist” agenda and argued they should lose taxpayer funding, a long-running GOP demand supported by Donald Trump and Musk in their efforts to gut government spending.
“For far too long, federal taxpayers have been forced to fund biased news,” Greene said in her opening remarks. “This needs to come to an end. And it needs to come to an end now.”
NPR CEO Katherine Maher and PBS CEO Paula Kerger defended their organization’s missions, and the committee’s Democrats used beloved characters from PBS programming to skewer Musk and Trump and underscore what they characterized as Republicans’ partisan distraction from their threats to dismantle the government.
“How many millions of dollars a month do taxpayers spend for Daniel Tiger to play golf?” asked Democratic Rep. Greg Casar, with a “Fire Elon, Save Elmo” sign behind him.
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“Has Miss Piggy ever been caught trying to funnel billions of dollars in government contracts to herself and her companies?” he said. “How about Arthur the Aardvark? Has he ever fired government watchdogs investigating his companies? … Maybe you’re trying to defund NPR because they expose this type of corruption.”
He noted that funding for public broadcasting amounts to one-sixth of what the Musk’s companies make.
“But you will not see Elon Musk being grilled by this committee,” he said. “I’ve seen a lot but pointing the finger at Elmo to cover for Elon Musk might be a new low for Marjorie Taylor Greene’s committee.”
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The government-supported Corporation for Public Broadcasting receives roughly $500 million from Congress each fiscal year. NPR, the national broadcaster that produces some of its most popular programming distributed to local stations, receives roughly 1 percent of its funding from the federal government. Member stations that produce local news and programming receive roughly 10 percent of their funds from the government.
PBS receives roughly 15 percent of its funding from the government.
More than 70 percent of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting’s funding supports locally owned, non-commercial and not-for-profit public radio and television systems, some of which are the only functioning local news outlets for rural and remote areas. Republicans have proposed closing it down entirely.
“We are more than nice to have,” said Alaska Public Media President Ed Ulman, testifying on behalf of member stations that rely on that funding. “We are essential, especially in remote and rural places where commercial broadcasting cannot succeed.”
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Rep. James Comer and other committee Republicans claimed that satellite radio, podcasts and other new media make radio and public television obsolete.
At one point, Comer attacked NPR for its “editorial standards” — not realizing that Maher was referencing the outlet’s guidelines for reporting and editing, not opinion columns. He cut her off as she explained the difference.
“I’ve lost confidence in public radio,” he said “I don’t think, madam chair, they should get a pity of federal funds.”
On Tuesday, Trump told reporters in the Oval Office that he would “love to” defund both NPR and PBS.
“I think it’s very unfair, it’s been very biased — the whole group,” said Trump, who has waged a years-long war with adversarial press outlets. “The kind of money that’s being wasted, and it’s a very biased view.”
During the hearing, Democratic Rep. Jasmine Crockett criticized Republicans on the committee for grilling public media for coverage they don’t agree with while failing to hold any oversight hearings for Musk’s DOGE team.
“Free speech is not about whatever it is you want somebody to say. The idea that you want to shut down everybody that is not Fox News is bull****,” she said. “You don’t want to hear the opinions of anybody else.”
In a statement following the hearing, National Press Club President Mike Balsamo said “the wild rhetoric from lawmakers at today’s hearing undermines the work of a free press and journalists who have a strong track record for accuracy.
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Greene and several other Republican members also repeatedly referenced a video of a drag queen Greene called a “monster” and “repulsive” — but the clip was never broadcast in PBS programming
The clip was featured in a project from the WNET Group, the parent company of New York’s public television stations, in conjunction with the New York City Department of Education, according to Kerger.
“It did not air. It was a digital project,” she told Republican Rep. William Timmons. “It was mistakenly put on our website for our New York City station. It was not intended for national distribution. It was immediately pulled down. It was never broadcast.”
Still, Greene played the video again in her closing statement.
“That’s repulsive,” she said. “That’s not what children ages 3 to 8 should ever be watching.”
The committee has “stooped to the lowest levels of partisanship and political theater to hold a hearing to go after the likes of Elmo and Cookie Monster and Arthur the Aardvark,” said Democratic Rep. Stephen Lynch, “all for the unforgivable sin of teaching the alphabet to low-income families’ children and providing accessible local news and program.”
