Photo Andrew Harnik
Following the Senate’s advancement of President Donald Trump’s recissions package Tuesday night, taxpayer funding for National Public Radio (NPR) and the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) are potentially on the chopping block.
The Senate voted 51-50 to advance the legislation, with Vice President JD Vance breaking a tie. The precise extent of federal funding received by the outlets is unclear. Direct federal grants represent two percent of NPR’s total funding and 15 percent of PBS’, according to The New York Times. However, both networks receive an unknown amount of taxpayer money via payments received from member stations nationally.
Trump’s May executive order claimed that neither of the two networks “presents a fair, accurate or unbiased portrayal of current events” to American taxpayers. A Daily Caller review of the two outlets’ coverage appears to confirm that assessment.
NPR has produced a plethora of news content focused on LGBTQ issues. A June 2024 NPR article highlighted a documentary about the plight and rise of specifically gay comedians or comedians who focus on gay-themed material.
“‘Laughter is disarming’: A new documentary traces generations of LGBTQ comedy” excoriated “big-name comedians” for what they called “transphobic material.”
The outlet quoted Page Hurwitz, the writer and director of the documentary, who took aim at comedy legends like Andrew Dice Clay and Eddie Murphy for what she described as “homophobic” comedy.
Further news coverage appearing to border on LGBTQ advocacy included what the outlet called a “safety handbook” for drag queens.
NPR also spent editorial resources in April on an article about “Lempicka,” a musical about Tamara de Lempicka, a Polish painter from the 20th century the outlet labeled “queer.”
“Her sexual appetite was infamous and inspiring,” stage director Rachel Chavkin told NPR.
Less than 10 percent of Americans identify as LGBTQ, according to a February Gallup poll.
NPR’s seemingly adopted a skewed approach to race relations in a June 2020 conversation between NPR host Michel Martin and author Jennifer Harvey posted with the title “How White Parents Can Talk To Their Kids About Race.”
Harvey excoriated America’s “racist culture” and legacy of segregation with no pushback from the host, according to the transcript.
The author said she tried to “complicate messages” regarding rules and the law when speaking to her kids. “I made sure they knew that Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King Jr. were breaking the law. They need to know sometimes that’s what’s required,” she told NPR.
She also told an anecdote about speaking to one of her children after a rally about police. “One time after a rally, my 5-year-old said, ‘Black people are not safe.’ And I said, ‘Yes, that’s true.’ And then she said, ‘But we’re white, so we are safe.’ And I said, ‘Yeah, that’s true too,’” Harvey recalled.
If you’re a white parent, don’t wait for your kids to bring up the topic of race. Start the discussion before then, says @drjenharvey.
She talked to @NPRMichel about how to have these conversations.https://t.co/uJwAxU315q pic.twitter.com/GyutDG6BuF
— NPR (@NPR) June 5, 2020
PBS, for their part, have also aired multiple segments on drag queen story hours. PBS aired a 2017 segment about a drag queen in San Francisco titled “Storytime in Stilettos with Persia.” They also featured a 2019 segment highlighting multiple drag queens reading to children in libraries.
64 percent of Americans do not believe children should be allowed to see drag queen shows, according to a 2023 YouGov poll.
PBS has also featured articles with titles such as “Suffragist Gender Benders,” a piece purporting to show “images of notable gender non-conforming suffragists.”
The outlet displayed bias in its coverage of the Hunter Biden laptop story. PBS’ Nick Schifrin said in October 2020 that “disinformation experts I talk to tell me that pr-Russian actors have been packaging their disinformation next to apparently legitimate information, and that they fear that Russian and other actors will continue doing so in the final weeks before the election.”
