When National Public Radio (NPR) was launched in 1971, part of its original mission was to “speak with many voices, many dialects,” which suggested that it would embrace the most important diversity of all: diversity of thought and speech.
Unfortunately, NPR has abjectly failed in this mission to the point where it’s difficult to distinguish NPR from MSNBC.
This begs two questions: Why does NPR still receive taxpayer funds from the government? And why did a country that ostensibly abhors government interference with the free press allocate money to a broadcast news outlet in the first place?
Take what happened on Independence Day as an example. NPR has aired a reading of the Declaration of Independence every July 4 going back 33 years.
But this year, it ditched this tradition and instead explored Thomas Jefferson’s relationship with Sally Hemmings, Jefferson’s slave, and the children born of that relationship. The reason for doing so was to examine Jefferson’s line in the Declaration of Independence that “all men are created equal” and what it means in today’s America following the Supreme Court overturning of Roe v. Wade.
“And many of our debates on this July 4th turn on what equality means. What voting rules really give equal access to the ballot? Do abortion laws give a woman equal control of her body?” host Steve Inskeep asked.
Instead of celebrating America by honoring the Declaration of Independence as arguably the most important document in American history, NPR attacked its author and somehow tied it all into abortion, “voting rights” and alleged suppression of minority voters.
For another example, consider how NPR covered former Cuban dictator Fidel Castro’s death in 2016.
“One of the most prominent international figures in the last half of the 20th century, Castro inspired both passionate love and hate. Many who later lost faith in him can remember how they once admired the man who needed just a dozen men to launch the Cuban Revolution,” it explained without using the word “dictator” to describe Castro.
But anyone who’s listened to NPR for more than five minutes scarcely needs to be convinced of its extreme liberal bias. It’s certain more than a few listeners (and former listeners) out there are thinking: Why am I helping to pay for this stuff?
Note: NPR does not receive any direct funding from the U.S. government, but it does get some funding in the form of dues from local member stations. And in many cases, those member stations receive federal funds from grants provided by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB). In 2021 alone, CPB appropriated nearly $70 million in grants via member stations.
“Federal funding is essential to public radio’s service to the American public,” says NPR’s website. But is it really essential?
“Presently, NPR receives funding for less than 1 percent of its budget directly from the federal government, but receives almost 10% of its budget from federal, state, and local governments indirectly,” according to influencewatch.org, which rates NPR as a left-of-center outlet.
So, if that’s the case, why exactly are taxpayer dollars involved at all? NPR appears to be solvent without any help from Uncle Sam.
Thomas Jefferson wasn’t around for radio. But the forward-thinking author of the country’s most important document was prescient when he wrote: “To compel a man to furnish contributions of money for the propagations of opinions which he disbelieves and abhors, is sinful and tyrannical.”
In 2022, there are thousands of media outlets from which to choose. The media landscape has completely changed since 1967, the year the Public Broadcasting Act was first introduced, paving the way for NPR a few years later.
“The Congress hereby finds and declares that it is in the public interest to encourage the growth and development of public radio and television broadcasting, including the use of such media for instructional, educational, and cultural purposes,” the act reads.
This is clearly an antiquated document given all the choices the American news consumer now has.
According to Pew Research, the audiences of NPR and PBS are among the most liberal in America. Seventy-two percent of NPR’s audience describe themselves as “consistently liberal,” while 71 percent of PBS’s audience describe themselves that way. PBS also receives federal funding.
NPR remains “media for instructional, educational, and cultural purposes.” But it has clearly failed in its mission to “speak with many voices.”
Joe Concha is a media and politics columnist and a Fox News contributor.