Upstate Rep. Claudia Tenney unveiled legislation Friday to bar further federal funding for National Public Radio in the wake of controversy that followed a veteran editor accusing the outlet of left-wing bias.
Tenney’s Defund NPR Act of 2024 stipulates that no taxpayer dollars can be “directly or indirectly” sent to the radio network.
“American taxpayers should not be forced to fund NPR, which has become a partisan propaganda machine,” Tenney (R-NY) told The Post in a statement.
“As a former newspaper owner and publisher, I understand the importance of non-partisan, balanced media coverage, and have seen first-hand the left-wing bias in our news media.”
The latest NPR controversy exploded April 9, when longtime business editor Uri Berliner penned a blistering essay in the Free Press about his employer.
“An open-minded spirit no longer exists within NPR, and now, predictably, we don’t have an audience that reflects America,” he wrote.
NPR announced Tuesday that Berliner had been suspended, leading him to resign the following day.
“I don’t support calls to defund NPR,” Berliner said in a statement. “I respect the integrity of my colleagues and wish for NPR to thrive and do important journalism.”
However, Berliner went on, “I cannot work in a newsroom where I am disparaged by a new CEO whose divisive views confirm the very problems at NPR I cite in my Free Press essay.”
The CEO, Katherine Maher, described Berliner’s critique as “profoundly disrespectful, hurtful, and demeaning” — but has since come under fire herself over her views.
Most notably, Maher said in an interview that resurfaced this week that she opposed the “free and open” ethos at her previous job as CEO of the Wikimedia Foundation because it was based on a “white male Westernized construct” that led to “exclusion of communities and languages.”
In 2021, meanwhile, Maher said she viewed the First Amendment as “the number one challenge” to her work because speech protections make it “tricky” to suppress “bad information” and the “influence peddlers who have made a real market economy around it.”
“These disturbing reports out of NPR confirm what many have known for a long time,” Tenney said. “NPR is using American taxpayer dollars to manipulate the news and lie to the American people on behalf of a political agenda.
“It’s past time the American people stop footing the bill for NPR, and the partisan, left-wing activists that control it.”
During fiscal year 2022, NPR reported total revenue of $309 million, according to its financial statements. NPR estimates that on average roughly 1% of its budget comes from government grants.
Much of that comes from the federally backed Corporation for Public Broadcasting, whose fiscal year 2024/2026 request sought $127.94 million for public radio station grants.
Tenney’s bill would mandate that CPB transfer that funding back to the government to help reduce the federal deficit.
Tenney’s parents and grandparents founded two free community newspapers in central New York, according to her congressional webpage.
In 1997, the future congresswoman established Tenney Media Group as an umbrella corporation, which was sold to Gannett in 2004.
NPR did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) has eyed similar legislation stripping the outlet of funding.
