House Republicans Ask NPR CEO To Appear At Hearing After Bias Allegations
02.05.2024 - 00:47
/ deadline.com
House Republicans are calling for NPR CEO Katherine Maher to appear at a hearing on May 8 following a now former staffer’s allegations of bias in news coverage.
Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA), chair of the Energy and Commerce Committee, joined with two other House Republicans in a letter to Maher. “The Committee has concerns about the direction in which NPR may be headed under past and present leadership,” they wrote. “As a taxpayer funded, public radio organization, NPR should focus on fair and objective news reporting that both considers and reflects the views of the larger U.S. population and not just a niche audience.” The hearing would be before the Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee.
Maher has defended the network after Uri Berliner, who had been a senior business editor and reporter, published an essay in The Free Press that claimed that the network lacked an “open minded spirit” and viewpoint diversity, and instead took a left wing approach to covering Donald Trump, race and other topics. Berliner later resigned from the outlet.
The House Republicans also cited NPR’s coverage of Covid, the Mueller report and the Hunter Biden laptop.
An NPR spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
In their letter, McMorris Rodgers and the other House Republicans quote from Berliner’s essay and also posed a series of questions to Maher, including, “In the past five years, how many registered Republicans, Democrats, Independents, and registered voters who are not required by state law to declare an affiliation, has NPR employed as part of its news media staff?” They also ask Maher what steps have been taken to recruit Republicans.
Some NPR staffers have gone public by pointing out errors in