(ConservativeInsider.org) – A Senator from Tennessee has suggested new legislation that would cut funding to National Public Radio (NPR) following the suspension of an editor who exposed the network’s left-wing bias.
Following Uri Berliner’s bombshell 3,000-word column in The Free Press exposing NPR’s strong shift to the left over the last decade, NPR announced they suspended him for five days without pay. In response to his suspension, Berliner announced on social media that he was resigning from NPR.
Berliner worked for the outlet for 25 years and witnessed firsthand the network’s alienation of non-liberal listeners and complete loss of actual diversity of thought in their reporting. In his essay, Berliner pointed out that a quarter of NPR listeners in 2011 were conservative while 37% described themselves as liberal. However, by 2023, nearly 70% of listeners called themselves liberal and only 11% considered themselves conservative.
After Berliner’s expose, Senator Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) stated that she is planning to put forth new legislation that would remove funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB), which provides grants to NPR. Blackburn called out the mainstream media for “doing the Left’s bidding,” suggesting that NPR was one of the worst offenders. She described NPR as a “propagandist left-wing outlet” that does not represent the views of at least half the nation, and thus should not benefit from taxpayer funds.
Blackburn is not the only Senator who wants to cut federal funding to NPR. Fellow Republican Ron Johnson of Wisconsin called NPR “grotesquely partisan” and said he was questioning why such an institution would receive federal funding. Senator Ted Cruz of Texas also agreed, succinctly posting on social media “defund NPR.”
Though Berliner has been critical of NPR, he said he does not support calls to defund NPR, as he would rather the organization continue reporting, but he wants the organization to actually represent the views of the millions of Americans who do not consider themselves liberals or leftists.
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