OPINION:
National Public Radio has aged like imported French cheese left in the sun far past its expiration date. Its elitist past, for whatever value it may have once generated, has been overcome by technology and thousands of competitors that offer superior programming and benefits without the stinky, moldy bias NPR is now best known for.
This media dinosaur has recently hired a horde of new lobbyists who are now scurrying across Capitol Hill to justify its hold on $1.1 billion in taxpayer subsidies.
The president is expected to send a formal request to Congress to spare Americans the humiliation of feeding the beast that hates half of them.
Without Big Bird to trot around the Capitol this time (HBO bought the rights to “Sesame Street” after a previous congressional effort to end taxpayer subsidies to the so-called public broadcasters), NPR now absurdly and falsely claims that it is uniquely able to provide weather reports, emergency alerts, and local news to farmers and others in rural America.
This is a myth, and it’s time to set the record straight.
Let’s start with the numbers. A staggering 96% of Americans report using the internet regularly, a greater share than NPR claims its signal can even reach. In addition, more Americans own cellphones than are subject to NPR’s indoctrinating airwaves. For those who want news and information (left, right or center), NPR has already been relegated to the Jurassic period.
For the small number of Americans living in remote, off-the-grid places, such as the 10 families living in Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge or the communities deep in the mountains of West Virginia, Hurricane Helene provided the affordable answer: Starlink.
Starlink, a satellite internet service provided by SpaceX, provides plug-and-play connectivity at a tiny fraction of the cost of NPR’s annual subsidy, which bleeds taxpayers of hundreds of millions of dollars. Taxpayers should not prop up a bloated, biased institution when modern technology offers cheaper, more efficient alternatives for people to get their news and information.
NPR and its lobbyists next argue that it is a critical tool for emergency alerts, but this claim collapses like Joseph R. Biden on a bicycle. The Wireless Emergency Alerts system delivers lifesaving notifications directly to 98% of America through cellphones, and no NPR is required.
Meanwhile, every AM and FM radio station and every television station in the country is federally mandated to participate in the Emergency Alert System, overriding regular programming to broadcast urgent warnings. This is a universal standard, not some proprietary service exclusive to NPR. The notion that NPR is uniquely equipped to deliver alerts is a decades-old canard still peddled to lawmakers.
NPR is desperately grasping at any argument that congressional Democrats can use to lure a handful of waffling Republicans away from Mr. Trump. NPR will do and say anything to keep its taxpayer-funded gravy train running.
The reality is that NPR isn’t a necessity; it’s a relic. The broadcaster’s true distinguishing feature isn’t its reporting or timeliness but its unapologetic activism. Headquartered in the heart of the Washington swamp, NPR employs zero registered Republicans on its staff — zero — and its leftist programming makes this data point obvious.
The Media Research Center has a truckload of studies, stories and reports documenting the left-wing bias of NPR and its TV cousin, PBS. It doesn’t do journalism; it engages in advocacy dressed up as news.
Contrast this with the vibrant ecosystem of for-profit radio stations and digital platforms. Local AM and FM stations provide real-time news and emergency alerts without costing taxpayers a dime, but they have been required to compete against heavily subsidized NPR at every turn.
It should be obvious that farmers have not replaced Rush Limbaugh with NPR and that truck drivers are not tuning in to state-run radio to listen to Nina Totenberg, Steve Inskeep or Mandalit del Barco.
Congress may now have its last, best chance to end this sham by passing the president’s rescission package. This package would end forced taxpayer subsidies for NPR and allow it to compete in the free market like its competitors. If NPR’s programming is truly valuable, let it prove its worth without a government crutch.
For too long, NPR has masqueraded as a public good while peddling partisan narratives and dodging accountability. Defunding NPR isn’t just a fiscal necessity; it’s a moral imperative. It’s time to pull the plug on this taxpayer-funded farce and let the dinosaur go extinct.
• Dan Schneider is vice president of free speech and external affairs at the Media Research Center.
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