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Replay: Watch NPR, PBS leaders defend federal funding before Congress
The headquarters for National Public Radio, or NPR, are seen in Washington.
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Leaders from NPR and the PBS testified before a House subcommittee Wednesday in what was a feisty face off with critics of federal funding for the public news and entertainment networks.
LAist is an NPR member station and gets roughly 4% of its annual operating budget from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
NPR CEO Katherine Maher and PBS CEO Paula Kerger answered questions from the House Oversight and Accountability Subcommittee on Delivering on Government Efficiency, known as DOGE, in a hearing that started at 7 a.m. PT. The hearing was titled “Anti-American Airwaves: Holding the heads of NPR and PBS Accountable.”
You can watch a playback of the hearing's livestream here:
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How LAist could be affected
NPR, PBS and their respective local stations receive $535 million from Congress through the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. LAist receives about $1.7 million of that, or roughly 4% of its budget.
The bulk of funding for public media comes from foundation, corporate and listener/viewer support.
What critics say
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) heads the subcommittee, which is linked to tech billionaire Elon Musk’s effort to cut federal spending, and is among public media’s biggest critics. She has accused the two networks of liberal bias.
“I want to hear why NPR and PBS think they should ever again receive a single cent from the American taxpayer,” Greene said in a statement. “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.
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“Now, it is time for their CEOs to publicly explain this biased coverage."
Representatives from the news organizations have defended their coverage as fair and ethical. A statement from NPR last month said it welcomes the opportunity to “discuss the critical role of public media in delivering impartial, fact-based news and reporting to the American public.”
As Editor-in-Chief of our newsroom, I’m extremely proud of the work our top-notch journalists are doing here at LAist. We’re doing more hard-hitting watchdog journalism than ever before — powerful reporting on the economy, elections, climate and the homelessness crisis that is making a difference in your lives. At the same time, it’s never been more difficult to maintain a paywall-free, independent news source that informs, inspires, and engages everyone.
Simply put, we cannot do this essential work without your help. Federal funding for public media has been clawed back by Congress and that means LAist has lost $3.4 million in federal funding over the next two years. So we’re asking for your help. LAist has been there for you and we’re asking you to be here for us.
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