Republican politicians on a House subcommittee on government reform said to expect rhetorical fireworks during a hearing with the CEOs of the nation’s top public broadcasting institutions — and they delivered.
The CEOs of NPR and PBS testified Wednesday, March 26, 2025, before a subcommittee of the U.S. House to answer questions about government financial support of public broadcasting. URL Media covered the hearing live, below.
Although the hearing was overshadowed by a nearby Intelligence Committee hearing about the revelation that top government officials had used a publicly available messaging service as part of military planning, it was marked by pointed questions about the value of public media.
Ahead of the event, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, who leads the Delivering on Government Efficiency subcommittee, laid out her hopes for the hearing.
“I want to hear why NPR and PBS think they should ever again receive a single cent from the American taxpayer. These partisan, so-called ‘media’ stations dropped the ball on Hunter Biden’s laptop, down-played COVID-19 origins, and failed to properly report the Russian collusion hoax. Now, it is time for their CEOs to publicly explain this biased coverage,” Taylor Greene said in a prepared statement. The DOGE subcommittee is part of the House’s Committee on Oversight and Government Reform.
The Public Broadcasting Service, National Public Radio and their affiliates are partially funded by $535 million set aside by Congress. The rest of their funding comes from donations from various institutions and individuals. In prepared statements, the targeted news organizations have touted their commitment to impartial and nonpartisan work that has received bipartisan support.
The subcommittee called the hearing “Anti-American Airwaves: Holding the Heads of NPR and PBS Accountable.”
NPR CEO Katherine Maher, PBS CEO Paula A. Kerger, Heritage Foundation fellow Michael Gonzalez and Alaska Public Media CEO and president Ed Ulman all spoke during the hearing.
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