The Department of Education, led by Education Secretary Linda McMahon, has cut off funding for a grant that supported controversial children’s programming at PBS and elsewhere.
The Trump administration has slashed funding to NPR and PBS. The Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which supports NPR and PBS, announced in a <a href="https://cpb.org/pressroom/CPB-Statement-US-Department-Education-Terminating-Ready-Learn-Grant" target="_blank" rel="noopener">statement</a> on Tuesday that the federal government terminated the $23 million Ready To Learn program.
“Nearly every parent has raised their kids on public broadcasting’s children’s content. For the past 30 years, Ready To Learn-funded PBS KIDS content has produced measurable, real-world impacts on children’s learning,” said Patricia Harrison, the president and CEO of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. “We will work with Congress and the Administration to preserve funding for this essential program.”
Education spokeswoman Madi Biedermann said the Ready To Learn grant was being used to fund “racial justice educational programming,” according to <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/06/us/politics/doe-kills-grant-pbs-childrens-shows.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The New York Times</a>.
“The Trump Department of Education will prioritize funding that supports meaningful learning and improving student outcomes, not divisive ideologies and woke propaganda,” said Biedermann.
The grant’s termination came after President Donald Trump last week signed an executive order for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and other federal agencies to cut funding to NPR and PBS.
Ready To Learn funded productions such as the popular children’s show “Sesame Street,” which has been mired in controversy in recent years over programs related to Black Lives Matter, the LGBT movement, and other political agendas.
The official social media accounts of “Sesame Street” have endorsed gay and trans “pride” by sharing the Pride Progress flag.
“On our Street, we celebrate inclusion, belonging, and freedom of authentic self-expression. Happy #PrideMonth to all the people in our neighborhoods!” <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/sesame-street-dragged-on-twitter-for-sharing-progress-pride-flag" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a> one June 2023 post.
In 2022, the popular children’s show encouraged children to receive the COVID vaccine.
“Thanks, @sesamestreet for saying parents are allowed to have questions! You then have @elmo aggressively advocate for vaccinating children UNDER 5. But you cite ZERO scientific evidence for this,” Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/ted-cruz-blasts-sesame-street-for-promoting-covid-vaccine-for-young-kids" target="_blank" rel="noopener">posted</a> at the time.
In June 2021, “Sesame Street” aired a “Family Day” episode that featured a gay couple, Dave and Frank, and their daughter, Mia. Alan Muraoka, who co-directed the episode, <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/love-is-love-says-director-of-sesame-street-family-day-episode-which-stars-married-gay-couple-and-their-daughter" target="_blank" rel="noopener">touted</a> it on Facebook with a message of “Love is love,” a slogan used to spurn traditional views on marriage and family.
In March of that year, “Sesame Street” <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/sesame-street-casts-black-muppets-to-teach-children-the-abcs-of-racial-literacy" target="_blank" rel="noopener">introduced</a> two black characters, a father and son named Elijah and Wesley Walker, to teach children about “racial literacy.”
PBS’s agenda-driven content has stretched beyond “Sesame Street.” The White House <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/white-house-publishes-list-of-grievances-trashing-pbs-npr-grift-that-has-ripped-us-off" target="_blank" rel="noopener">released</a> a list of grievances against PBS last month to justify slashing funding to the broadcaster. The list includes programming pushing transgenderism as early as 2017 in a movie titled “Real Boy” about a transgender-identifying teen.

Linda McMahon

Trump Admin Cuts Funds For ‘Divisive,’ ‘Woke’ Children’s Programing At PBS

Trump Administration Cuts Funds For ‘Divisive,’ ‘Woke’ Children’s Programing At PBS

Donald Trump

Politics

A conservative media watchdog has a new top priority — defunding NPR and PBS.
The Media Research Center (MRC) is leading a push to defund both public media outlets, urging President Donald Trump, congressional leaders, and governors to strip taxpayer subsidies to these &#8220;far-left media outlets,&#8221; the group revealed exclusively to The Daily Wire.
The watchdog urged the Trump administration to include the &#8220;complete defunding&#8221; of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and its affiliates, PBS and NPR, in a rescission package that could soon be sent to Congress.
&#8220;Taxpayers should not be forced to subsidize a media entity that has outlived its original purpose and refuses to operate in a transparent manner,&#8221; the MRC wrote in its letter to Trump.
The watchdog is calling on the CEOs of NPR and PBS to subject themselves to public audits and asking members of Congress to refuse to meet with their lobbyists until those audits are done.
The MRC is also calling on congressional leaders to repeal the legislation that created the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
Finally, the group is calling on state governors and federal agencies to halt all discretionary grants to PBS and NPR until the outlets are audited.
A coalition of critics joined the MRC in signing letters to elected officials, including Seth Dillon, owner of the Babylon Bee; Mike Gonzalez, senior fellow at the Heritage Foundation; Terry Schilling, president of the American Principles Project; Steven Ertelt, editor at LifeNews.com; and Austin Ruse, president of the Center for Family and Human Rights.
&#8220;This action is in concert with your historic promise and rapid delivery of cutting waste, fraud, and abuse across the federal government,&#8221; the coalition wrote to Trump.
The group argued that the &#8220;original justification&#8221; for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting &#8220;no longer holds.&#8221;
&#8220;In today’s media-rich environment, Americans have unlimited access to news, entertainment, and educational programming,&#8221; they wrote in their letter to Trump.
&#8220;NPR’s and PBS’s demonstrable, documented bias further erodes CPB’s credibility,&#8221; the group wrote. &#8220;NPR’s audience overwhelmingly identifies as liberal, reinforcing the reality that public broadcasting is not a neutral service but a taxpayer-funded ideological platform. Americans should not be forced to finance a network that caters to one side of the political spectrum.&#8221;
Dan Schneider, vice president of the MRC, told The Daily Wire that defunding PBS and NPR is his organization&#8217;s &#8220;top priority right now.&#8221;
The goal is to &#8220;eliminate every dime of taxpayer money that subsidizes these liberal media behemoths,&#8221; Schneider said.
&#8220;This is the most focused and aggressive takedown these outlets have ever faced. It may be the last, best chance taxpayers will ever have to unburden themselves from these leftist propaganda outlets once and for all,&#8221; he said.

In this photo illustration, National Public Radio (NPR) logo

EXCLUSIVE: Media Watchdog Goes Full Throttle On Defunding NPR, PBS With Letters To Trump, Congress

Legacy Media

Mainstream Media

Media

Media Research Center

National Public Radio (NPR)

The White House released a <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/articles/2025/04/the-npr-pbs-grift-has-ripped-us-off-for-too-long/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">report</a> on Monday, delivering a detailed laundry list of grievances with National Public Radio (NPR) and the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) and making the case for stripping the two networks of any and all taxpayer funding.
&#8220;For years, American taxpayers have been on the hook for subsidizing National Public Radio (NPR) and the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS), which spread radical, woke propaganda disguised as &#8216;news,'&#8221; the report stated — and followed that with a list of examples of such &#8220;woke propaganda.&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
For years, Americans have been on the hook for subsidizing NPR and PBS as they spread radical, woke propaganda disguised as “news.”
As <a href="https://twitter.com/POTUS?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@POTUS</a> has said, funding their biased content is a waste.
🧵 Here are some examples of the trash that passes for “news” at NPR and PBS: <a href="https://t.co/7xlZOKGay1">pic.twitter.com/7xlZOKGay1</a>
&mdash; Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) <a href="https://twitter.com/RapidResponse47/status/1911929632846213532?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 14, 2025</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
The list only went back a little over a decade to a 2015 segment on NPR which featured the &#8220;population of anthropomorphic animal enthusiasts known as &#8216;furries.'&#8221;
The list also highlighted two 2017 entries from PBS — a panel discussion on &#8220;white privilege&#8221; and what it &#8220;mean(s) to be woke&#8221; and a movie called &#8220;Real Boy&#8221; that followed the story of a trans-identifying teenager who &#8220;navigates adolescence and sobriety&#8221; among other challenges.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
In 2017, PBS produced an entire movie celebrating a transgender teenager’s so-called “changing gender identity.” <a href="https://t.co/RScnFANHmB">pic.twitter.com/RScnFANHmB</a>
&mdash; Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) <a href="https://twitter.com/RapidResponse47/status/1911929700961993142?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 14, 2025</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
That same year, NPR ran a story titled &#8220;Cannibalism: It’s ‘Perfectly Natural.'&#8221;
Other entries included a 2020 NPR segment addressing the &#8220;racial origins of fat phobia,&#8221; a 2021 claim from NPR that &#8220;animals deserve pronouns, too,&#8221; a 2022 NPR feature titled &#8220;What ‘Queer Ducks’ can teach teenagers about sexuality in the animal kingdom,&#8221; a 2022 dig into a &#8220;whole community of genderqueer dinosaur enthusiasts,&#8221; and a 2024 Valentine&#8217;s Day special dedicated to &#8220;non-binary deer&#8221; and other &#8220;queer&#8221; members of the animal kingdom.
The complaints about PBS followed a similar pattern, and included a one-sided 2020 &#8220;Sesame Street&#8221; town hall with CNN on racism amid the George Floyd riots, a 2021 children&#8217;s special featuring a drag queen named &#8220;Lil&#8217; Miss Hot Mess,&#8221; and a 2024 documentary &#8220;making the case for reparations.&#8221;
The White House report also laid out evidence that neither NPR nor PBS showed any tolerance for viewpoints that didn&#8217;t align with the political Left — from NPR&#8217;s intentional suppression of the Hunter Biden laptop story to the cover-up of former President Joe Biden&#8217;s cognitive decline, among other things. A study conducted by the Media Research Center during the 20214 presidential election revealed that PBS&#8217; coverage of the Democratic National Convention was 88% positive — and the coverage of the Republican National Convention was 72% negative.

50 years of Sesame Street – Ernie and Bert

White House Publishes List Of Grievances Trashing ‘PBS, NPR Grift’ That Has ‘Ripped Us Off’

White House Publishes List Of Grievances Trashing 'PBS, NPR Grift' That Has 'Ripped Us Off'

White House

A big hearing on the Hill took place yesterday involving the heads of NPR and PBS, both of which are publicly funded.
The U.S. taxpayers spend approximately <a href="https://www.npr.org/2025/03/25/nx-s1-5340686/pbs-npr-congress-hearing-marjorie-taylor-greene" target="_blank" rel="noopener">$535 million</a> annually on NPR and PBS through federal funding to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. Over the last decade, taxpayers have spent about $5.35 billion on these outlets.
NPR and PBS are propagandistic outlets that have huge listenership. In 2022, NPR — which is just trash stacked atop trash — had roughly <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/journalism/fact-sheet/public-broadcasting/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">23.5 million</a> average weekly listeners for its terrestrial broadcast programming.
NPR is a Left-wing agitprop organization that puts out modulated voices with well-produced music, segments, and sounds very easy to listen to. But it turns out that it&#8217;s just Noam Chomsky propaganda.
Meanwhile, PBS NewsHour attracted about <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/journalism/fact-sheet/public-broadcasting/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">882,000 viewers</a> on average in 2022, which means that about 57 million viewers tuned into PBS content during any given month in 2022.
These are large numbers. Sixty-seven percent of all households in the United States, over 160 million people, tune into PBS member stations over the course of a year. They&#8217;re sponsored by you, and they are producing Left-wing propaganda.
The hearings were led by subcommittee Chair Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, who grilled NPR CEO Katherine Maher and PBS President Paula Kerger, suggesting that they were both presiding over publicly-funded news organizations that hate the Right-wing, which is absolutely 100% true. 
GOP Rep. James Comer (R-KY) <a href="https://thehill.com/homenews/house/5215749-public-broadcasters-bias-allegations/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a>, “People who listen to NPR are totally misinformed. I have a problem with that, because you get federal funding.” That, of course, is completely true.
NPR had no excuse for this and was unable to explain why they&#8217;re so biased to the Left. They couldn&#8217;t explain why they should receive taxpayer dollars if, in fact, they are only a propaganda outlet for the Democratic Party, which is also completely true.
Katherine Maher was asked about her editorial board, which involves 87 people. The number of Republicans on that editorial board? Zero. Zero.
Rep. William Timmons (R-S.C.) <a href="https://x.com/RepTimmons/status/1904927825682907428" target="_blank" rel="noopener">asked</a> Maher, “How does that work to give us the perception that you&#8217;re doing your job of actually delivering unbiased information?”
“Well, I would agree with you that that number is a concern if it is accurate,” Maher replied. “I do believe that we need to have journalists who represent the full breadth of American society so that we can report well for all Americans.”
The problem is, she doesn&#8217;t believe that. If she truly believed that, she would have done something about it. 87 to 0 is not exactly an even-handed examination of the news.
If you want to be an opinion journalism outlet like we are here at The Daily Wire and admit your biases openly, do it. We also receive zero taxpayer dollars.
We are not living off your taxpayer dollars. We have advertisers, subscribers, and members, but that is not the case at NPR, who does receive taxpayer dollars, which is why Maher was on the Hill being grilled.
She wound up being humiliated by Representative Brandon Gill (R-TX) in an amazing exchange.
Gill <a href="https://x.com/ltthompso/status/1904936069138706910" target="_blank" rel="noopener">grilled</a> her about her own political beliefs and openly lying about them on the floor of Congress.
<blockquote>Gill: Do you believe that America is addicted to white supremacy?
Maher: I believe that I tweeted that and as I’ve said earlier I believe much of my thinking has evolved over the last half-decade.
Gill: It has evolved. Why did you tweet that?
Maher: I don’t recall the exact context, sir, so I wouldn’t be able to say.
Gill: Ok. Do you believe that America believes in black plunder and white democracy?
Maher: I don’t believe that, sir.
Gill: You tweeted that in reference to a book you were reading at the time, apparently, “The Case For Reparations.”
Maher: I don’t think I’ve ever read that book, sir.
Gill: You tweeted about it. You said you took a day off to fully read “The Case For Reparations.” You put that on Twitter in January of 2020.
Maher: Apologies. I don’t recall that I did. I have no doubt that your tweet there is correct, but I don’t recall.
Gill: Do you believe that white people inherently feel superior to other races?
Maher: I do not.
Gill: You don’t? You tweeted something to that effect. You said, “I grew up feeling superior. Ha, how white of me.” Why did you tweet that?
Maher: I think I was probably reflecting on what it was to be to grow up in an environment where I had lots of advantages.
Gill: It sounds like you’re saying that white people feel superior.
Maher: I don’t believe that anybody feels that way, sir. I was just reflecting on my own experiences.
Gill: You think that white people should pay reparations?
Maher: I have never said that, sir.
Gill: Yes, you did. You said it in January 2020. You tweeted, “Yes, the north. Yes, all of us. Yes, America. Yes, our original collective sin and unpaid debt. Yes, reparations. Yes, on this day.”
Maher: I don’t believe that was a reference to fiscal reparations, sir.
Gill: What kind of reparations was it a reference to?
Maher: I think it was just a reference to the idea that we all owe much to the people who came before us.
Gill: That’s a bizarre way to frame what you tweeted. Ok, how much reparations have you personally paid?
Maher: Sir, I don’t believe that I’ve ever paid reparations.
Gill: Ok, just for everybody else.</blockquote>
Representative Tim Burchett (R-TN) also <a href="https://x.com/realchrisrufo/status/1904935282358751593" target="_blank" rel="noopener">went after</a> Maher: “Let me ask you, why did you call President Trump a fascist and a deranged racist sociopath in 2020?”
Maher responded, “Congressman, I appreciate the opportunity to address this,” she answered. “I regret those tweets. I would not tweet them again today. They represented a time where I was reflecting on something that I believe that the president had said rather than who he is. I don&#8217;t presume that anyone is a racist.” “You don&#8217;t believe anyone is a racist?” Burchett questioned. Maher clarified, “I don&#8217;t start by presuming anyone is a racist.”
That&#8217;s weird because she has made statements along those lines. This is entirely the game that NPR has been playing for actual decades. They say something that is overtly to the Left, and then when called on it, they say, “Well, I didn&#8217;t mean that,” or “You&#8217;re just missing the context.”
Why is it that every single error NPR has ever made is in one direction, including NPR&#8217;s decision not to cover the Hunter Biden laptop story in the run up to the 2020 election? NPR overtly said they would not cover that story because they did not think it was of importance.
That was insane since there was a ton of information on there that was of high importance to American voters.
Meanwhile, PBS CEO Paula Kerger <a href="https://grabien.com/story?id=520210" target="_blank" rel="noopener">claimed</a>, “There is nothing more American than PBS. … Our job at PBS is to support our stations so that local stations can serve their communities. We&#8217;ve been proudly fulfilling our mission for nearly 60 years, using the public airwaves and other technologies to help educate, engage, and inspire the American people.”
What they have also done is promote an enormous amount of Left-wing propaganda over the years.
This confrontation with PBS and NPR is a win for President Trump because all of this is now being exposed to daylight.
The fact that we are talking about getting rid of exorbitant spending in these areas is exceptionally important.

US-POLITICS-MEDIA-CONGRESS

NPR CEO Implodes

Ben Shapiro

Congress

Democrats

katherine Maher

Leftists

Opinion

U.S. House of Representatives

This Insane Hearing Is Evidence That State Media Should Be Immediately Eliminated

Federal Government

Matt Walsh

Congressional allies of DOGE grilled the leaders of NPR and PBS, arguing that federal taxpayers are being forced to fund politically biased coverage. The Senate introduced a resolution condemning the spate of attacks on Tesla as domestic terrorism. And prominent conservatives are being targeted in swatting hoaxes.
It’s Thursday, March 27, and this is the news you need to know to start your day. If you’d rather listen to your news, today’s edition of the Morning Wire podcast can be heard below:
<iframe style="width: 100%; max-width: 660px; overflow: hidden; border-radius: 10px;" src="https://embed.podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/lawmakers-probe-signal-gate-conservatives-swatted-3-27-25/id1576594336?i=1000701035481" height="175" frameborder="0" sandbox="allow-forms allow-popups allow-same-origin allow-scripts allow-storage-access-by-user-activation allow-top-navigation-by-user-activation"></iframe>
<h2>Grilling on Capitol Hill</h2>
<div id="attachment_898535" style="width: 874px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-898535" class="wp-image-898535 size-large" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/03/NPR-and-PBS-864x576.jpg" alt="" width="864" height="576" />(Photo by Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)</div>
Topline: Congress continued its investigation of “Signal Gate” on Monday while the House Oversight Committee grilled NPR and PBS leaders on bias at the taxpayer-funded outlets.
The purpose of the &#8220;Anti-American Airwaves” <a href="https://oversight.house.gov/hearing/anti-american-airwaves-holding-the-heads-of-npr-and-pbs-accountable/">hearing</a> was to determine if NPR and PBS should continue to receive federal funding. The Corporation for Public Broadcasting is a government-funded company that <a href="https://cpb.org/pressroom/CPB-Statement-Congress-Approval-Continued-Funding-Public-Media">received</a> $535 million in taxpayer dollars this year, with millions of dollars going directly to NPR and PBS. 
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA), who organized the hearing, slammed PBS and NPR as &#8220;radical left-wing echo chambers&#8221; that publish biased news reports with government subsidies and LGBTQ programming intent on “grooming children.” NPR CEO Katherine Maher admitted under questioning that it was &#8220;concerning&#8221; there were no Republicans on NPR’s editorial board – all 87 are Democrats. Maher said that NPR was “mistaken in failing to cover the Hunter Biden laptop story more aggressively and sooner.” But perhaps the most revealing moment came when Texas Republican Congressman Brandon Gill grilled her about her past tweets:
<blockquote>GILL: Do you believe that America believes in black plunder and white democracy?
MAHER: I don’t believe that sir.
GILL: You tweeted that in reference to a book you were reading at the time apparently, The Case for Reparations.
MAHER: I don’t think I’ve ever read that book, sir.
GILL: You tweeted about it. You said you took a day off to fully read The Case For Reparations. You put that on twitter in January 2020… Do you believe that white people inherently feel superior to other races?
MAHER: I do not.
GILL: You don’t? You tweeted something to that effect. You said “I grew up feeling superior. Ha! How white of me. Why did you tweet that?</blockquote>
PBS CEO Paula Kerger defended her network from allegations of partisanship and bias, arguing that “there’s nothing more American than PBS&#8221; and describing it as a crucial source of accurate information and educational programming for millions of Americans. Several Republican members of the committee disputed that characterization.
“ There was an analysis done on PBS&#8217;s NewsHour from June to November of 2023,” Rep. Pat Fallon (R-TX) said. “Where they found that far-right was used 162 times and far-left was only used six times. “
<h2>Senators Condemn Anti-Tesla Terrorism</h2>
<div id="attachment_884341" style="width: 874px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-884341" class="size-large wp-image-884341" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/02/GettyImages-1423403824-864x576.jpg" alt="WASHINGTON, DC - SEPTEMBER 13: U.S. Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-WV) questions Peiter “Mudge” Zatko, former head of security at Twitter, during a Senate Judiciary Committee Hearing on data security at Twitter, on Capitol Hill, September 13, 2022 in Washington, DC. Zatko claims that Twitter's widespread security failures pose a security risk to user's privacy and information and could potentially endanger national security." width="864" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/02/GettyImages-1423403824-864x576.jpg 864w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/02/GettyImages-1423403824-300x200.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/02/GettyImages-1423403824-768x512.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/02/GettyImages-1423403824.jpg 1024w" sizes="(max-width: 864px) 100vw, 864px" />(Photo by Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)</div>
Topline: Should the attacks on Tesla cars and showrooms be condemned as “domestic terrorism”? A Senator introduces a resolution on the violence.
Amid a wave of vandalism targeting Tesla and DOGE, Republicans in the Senate are bringing a resolution to condemn what they say is an orchestrated “domestic terrorism” campaign empowered by leftist groups. 
Morning Wire spoke with Senator Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) about the attacks.
“It is stunning that we are seeing this take place, and that Democratic leadership is not standing up and calling out these acts of domestic terrorism.” Sen. Blackburn told Morning Wire. &#8220;We have lived through four years, where every time you turned around, they were talking about domestic terrorism, they were calling parents that went to school board meetings domestic terrorists. They were calling individuals that would stand across the street from a Planned Parenthood and pray for the women and the unborn children, and they would call that ‘domestic terrorism.’&#8221; 
“And now we are going through this, where they&#8217;re actually firebombing and shooting up Tesla dealerships. They are destroying the cars of Tesla owners. They are stopping people in the middle of the streets that are driving a Tesla, and are condemning them for owning those vehicles and nothing is being said. So we think it&#8217;s appropriate that we have the resolution, and we give them the opportunity – members of the U.S. Senate from each party and the couple of independents that we have – give them the opportunity to stand up and say we condemn these attacks.”
The resolution is expected to reach the floor of the Senate on Thursday.
<h2>Swatting Surge</h2>
<div id="attachment_898533" style="width: 1034px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-898533" class="size-large wp-image-898533" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/03/SWATTING-1024x512.jpg" alt="" width="1024" height="512" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/03/SWATTING-1024x512.jpg 1024w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/03/SWATTING-300x150.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/03/SWATTING-768x384.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/03/SWATTING-1536x768.jpg 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/03/SWATTING-2048x1024.jpg 2048w" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" />(Photo by Chris Clor via Getty Images)</div>
Topline: Prominent conservatives are being “swatted” – a dangerous hoax where someone falsely reports a serious crime to law enforcement and causes them to show up at a person’s house fully armed.
Swatting has been employed as a vindictive tactic for decades and has sometimes resulted in serious injury or even death, but recently, the number of swatting cases has jumped to alarming levels. <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2025/03/20/media/trump-musk-conservative-influencers-swatting/index.html">CNN</a> reported that at least a dozen Trump-supporting influencers have been swatted in the last two weeks. 
The targets have been an eclectic group: private citizens like social media star Gunther Eagleman, radio show host Joe Pagliarulo, and Infowars&#8217; Chase Geiser, as well as elected politicians like Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) and Senator Tommy Tuberville (R-AL). Matt Van Swol – a former liberal who gained a following in the past six months advocating for Hurricane Helene relief in North Carolina – was also victimized.
“Around 2:00 AM on Sunday night, we heard a loud bang on the door,” Van Swol told The Daily Wire. “We had a really big storm that night. We thought, you know, maybe someone was doing a wellness check. The power was going in and out all night. My wife ran to the door, I was getting my clothes on, and she saw a police officer with his gun drawn at the door. This could have ended horribly … it turns out that the police had gotten a phone call from someone pretending to be me saying that there had been a shooting at the house. That Erin had been shot and killed, that um, I had been shot in the leg and that there were three masked men hiding in the basement.”
Van Swol’s 3 children were at home during the incident – thankfully, no one was harmed. As of now, there have been no arrests associated with the recent swattings, but Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and FBI Director Kash Patel have both said they were looking into the attacks. Senator Mike Lee (R-UT) also <a href="https://x.com/BasedMikeLee/status/1900368280335847854">suggested</a> that those responsible should be charged with attempted murder.

View of Capitol Building

Morning Brief: Congress Grills PBS & NPR, Senators Condemn Anti-Tesla Terror Attacks, Swatting Surges

Morning Wire

Republicans

Swatting

Tesla

Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin left an NPR reporter speechless Tuesday after the journalist attempted to criticize former president Donald Trump at an event focused on raising awareness of fentanyl overdoses.
First Lady Suzanne Youngkin said at the <a href="https://www.facebook.com/watch/live/?mibextid=KsPBc6&amp;ref=watch_permalink&amp;v=525326550011269&amp;rdid=dKIiV4hHAW07QYz7" target="_blank" rel="noopener">&#8220;It Only Takes One&#8221;</a> event that her husband&#8217;s administration had &#8220;all hands on deck&#8221; for a nonpartisan community outreach program aimed at helping &#8220;the most vulnerable&#8221; overcome addiction. Youngkin echoed his wife&#8217;s point, telling the crowd that &#8220;it&#8217;s time to move mountains&#8221; to fight addiction, because &#8220;fentanyl kills.&#8221;
After the event, Brad Kutner, a reporter for NPR affiliate WVTF, attempted to make the conversation about Trump, claiming that the &#8220;peak in fentanyl overdoses occurred during the Trump administration when the borders supposedly were closed.&#8221;
&#8220;Where does the intersection of closing the border and an increase in fentanyl deaths come into play here?” Kutner asked the governor.
&#8220;Here we go,&#8221; Youngkin said, before laying into the reporter.
“You and I will have nice conversations until I see you trying to play politics on an issue that is really disturbing to me,&#8221; Youngkin said.
&#8220;Their children lost their lives, they lost it due to fentanyl, they lost it because it was poisoned,&#8221; the normally mild-mannered governor barked. &#8220;And it is coming across our border. We all know this. Do not try to undermine this article by playing politics.&#8221;
Data from the National Institutes of Health found that the rate of increase in fentanyl overdoses slowed between 2017 and 2019, while Trump was in office. Overdoses picked up again in 2020 amid government-mandated COVID lockdowns.
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Kutner claimed in response that the Virginia Department of Health found overdoses had <a href="https://www.vdh.virginia.gov/drug-overdose-data/overdose-deaths/">declined</a> each year since 2021, under President Joe Biden was in the White House. But data from the National Institutes of Health shows that nationwide, fentanyl overdoses continued to <a href="https://nida.nih.gov/research-topics/trends-statistics/overdose-death-rates#Fig2">rise in 2021 and 2022</a>, the latest year available. Virginia was an exception.
“Do you know how long I&#8217;ve been working on this? When did I become governor?” said Youngkin, who was elected in 2021.
As Kutner struggled to understand a chart, Youngkin queried, “Are you a mathematician?”
“Are you?” the reporter countered.
“Yes, is the short answer,” replied Youngkin, who has degrees in mechanical engineering and business administration.
Read the full exchange between Youngkin and Kunter here:
<blockquote>REPORTER: Peak in fentanyl overdoses occurred during the Trump administration when the borders supposedly were closed. Where does the intersection of closing the border and an increase in fentanyl deaths come into play here?
YOUNGKIN: I&#8217;m not sure you&#8217;re right.
REPORTER: Even in our state, the peak was in 2021. It was rising from 18 up to 2021.
YOUNGKIN: Sorry, who was president in 2021? So don&#8217;t premise a question with a false narrative. We know where this is coming from. It&#8217;s coming across an open border. The Biden administration opened the border and allowed this to happen. And anytime you want to take a deep dive on drug seizures coming across the border go talk to the Texas Department of Public Safety.
REPORTER: Were they seizing less during the Trump administration and thats what was leading to the increase in deaths?
YOUNGKIN: The increase in deaths has happened during the Biden administration.
REPORTER: No, the increase started during the Trump administration. In Virginia they started to go up in 2018.
YOUNGKIN: You premised the question incorrectly. Here we go. What we do know is there has been a systematic effort to bring fentanyl into this country, and at the end of the day it has absolutely rocketed while this border has been opened. And every Virginia parent here will talk to you about what happened to their child. Don&#8217;t try to undermine&#8211;
REPORTER: I&#8217;m not undermining! VDH numbers&#8211;
YOUNGKIN: You and I will have nice conversations until I see you trying to play politics on an issue that is really disturbing to me. Their children lost their lives, they lost it due to fentanyl, they lost it because it was poisoned. And it is coming across our border. We all know this. Do not try to undermine this article by playing politics.
REPORTER: These are your VDH numbers.
YOUNGKIN: Don&#8217;t even try it. 2021 is the peak. Don&#8217;t even suggest&#8211;
REPORTER: There&#8217;s an increase there&#8211;
YOUNGKIN: Are you a mathematician?
REPORTER: Are you?
YOUNGKIN: Yes, is the short answer. 2020, 2021, peaks in 2021. Fentanyl starting coming across the border at an extraordinary rate. It comes from China through California, gets flown into Virginia, trucked up our highways and we seize it every day.
REPORTER: So the decrease that we&#8217;re showing in 22 and then 23, there&#8217;s no part&#8211;am I missing something?
YOUNGKIN: These are overdoses. Do you know how long I&#8217;ve been working on this? When did I become governor? If you want to have an in-depth statistical discussion and decide who is responsible for overdose deaths in Virginia, I&#8217;m happy to go get our secretary of public safety out here and he will take you on a deep dive. But at the end of the day we understand where the fentanyl comes from, we understand that it comes from China into Mexico it comes across our border. It either goes to California and is flown into Richmond, or it comes up our highway system&#8230; We interdict a lot of it. The fact that the federal government has not closed our border and continues to allow fentanyl to come across this border is a travesty, and anybody who tries to suggest differently is trying to make a political excuse for a failed administration in Washington.</blockquote>

Glenn Youngkin Campaigns Ahead Of Next Week’s Gubernatorial Election

Youngkin Slams Reporter For Politicizing Fentanyl Awareness Event

Glenn Youngkin

Media Bias

Virginia

Katherine Maher, who became the CEO of <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/national-public-radio-npr" target="_blank" rel="noopener">National Public Radio (NPR)</a> in March, has turned down an <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/house-republicans-seek-npr-ceo-testimony-about-liberal-bias-allegations" target="_blank" rel="noopener">invitation from House Republicans</a> to testify before Congress this week regarding claims of left-wing bias at her network.
NPR issued a <a href="https://twitter.com/davidfolkenflik/status/1787601110070350115" target="_blank" rel="noopener">statement</a> saying that its board of directors had a previously scheduled meeting on Wednesday, the day the hearing will take place on Capitol Hill. It stressed that Maher would be open to testifying at a future date.
&#8220;This meeting will be Maher&#8217;s first opportunity to review and consult with the Board on the challenges and opportunities facing the organization, including a strategy to lead NPR forward in fulfilling its public service mission to serve all of America,&#8221; the statement said.
&#8220;Maher is therefore unable to attend this week&#8217;s hearing and has communicated that to the committee and proposed alternate dates,&#8221; the statement added. &#8220;Maher will provide written testimony in her absence.&#8221;
Last week, the Energy and Commerce Committee, led by Chairwoman Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA), sent an <a href="https://energycommerce.house.gov/posts/e-and-c-republicans-open-investigation-into-allegations-of-political-bias-at-taxpayer-funded-npr-request-attendance-at-hearing" target="_blank" rel="noopener">invitation</a> to Maher, seeking her testimony in response to allegations raised by a longtime editor, Uri Berliner, who has since <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/npr-editor-who-accused-network-of-liberal-bias-resigns" target="_blank" rel="noopener">resigned</a> from NPR.
The invite also raised concerns about Maher&#8217;s comments and social media posts displaying personal views in favor of <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2024/04/15/business/media/npr-chief-executive-criticized-over-tweets.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">liberal causes</a> and favoring President Joe Biden over former President Donald Trump.
&#8220;It speaks volumes that Ms. Maher has chosen not to appear tomorrow to answer for how her taxpayer-funded news outlet discriminates against the viewpoints of millions of Americans,&#8221; a panel spokesperson told The Daily Wire. &#8220;The Chair looks forward to reviewing her thorough and transparent responses to the Committee’s letter.&#8221;
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The panel&#8217;s calendar <a href="https://energycommerce.house.gov/calendars?start=2024-05-08&amp;end=2024-05-08" target="_blank" rel="noopener">shows</a> the hearing still being set to take place on Wednesday with testimony from American Enterprise Institute senior fellow Howard Husock; James Erwin, federal affairs manager for telecommunications at Americans for Tax Reform; NewsBusters executive editor Tim Graham; and Free Press co-CEO Craig Aaron.
&#8220;To no surprise NPR President &amp; CEO Katherine Maher is declining to come before the committee I sit on — [the House Energy and Commerce Committee] — to answer basic questions about National Public Radio’s extremely liberal culture and reporting,&#8221; Rep. Dan Crenshaw (R-TX) <a href="https://twitter.com/DanCrenshawTX/status/1787902787067498509" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a> in a post to X.
&#8220;Republicans have known of NPR’s public biases for years &#8211; a news broadcast that mostly elite liberals listen to, to feel better about ramming their woke agenda down America&#8217;s throat,&#8221; he continued, adding, &#8220;This just confirms NPR is a waste of taxpayer dollars.&#8221;

Katherine Maher

‘Speaks Volumes’: NPR CEO Declines Invite To Hearing on Bias Allegations, Proposes Alternate Dates

'Speaks Volumes': NPR CEO Declines Invite To Hearing on Bias Allegations, Proposes Alternate Dates

House Republicans have requested Katherine Maher, who became the CEO of <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/national-public-radio-npr" target="_blank" rel="noopener">National Public Radio (NPR)</a> in March, provide testimony to Congress about the allegations of left-wing bias at the network, an invitation that could lead to a high-profile clash on Capitol Hill next week.
Energy and Commerce Chairwoman Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA) led a <a href="https://d1dth6e84htgma.cloudfront.net/04_30_24_Letter_to_NPR_with_Hearing_Invitation_2_aa76bcfe12.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">letter</a> that was sent to Maher this week, asking the media executive to appear before the Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee on May 8 to address claims related to NPR&#8217;s coverage of topics related to politics, COVID, transgender issues, audience figures, the network’s own level of diversity, and more.
&#8220;The Committee has concerns about the direction in which NPR may be headed under past and present leadership. 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,&#8221; the letter said.
Controversy rocked NPR when a longtime editor, Uri Berliner, went public last month with the bias allegations and lamented how NPR had &#8220;lost America&#8217;s trust&#8221; with an increasingly leftist bent. After being suspended for five days, Berliner <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/npr-editor-who-accused-network-of-liberal-bias-resigns" target="_blank" rel="noopener">stepped down</a>, saying he could not work in a newsroom where he was being &#8220;disparaged by a new CEO whose divisive views confirm&#8221; the problems he cited.
Berliner&#8217;s resignation happened after Maher <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/nprs-new-ceo-scolds-25-year-veteran-for-expose-outing-networks-bias" target="_blank" rel="noopener">condemned</a> what she said was a &#8220;deeply simplistic&#8221; and &#8220;profoundly disrespectful, hurtful, and demeaning&#8221; assessment of NPR. Maher faced more blowback as posts and clips spread on social media, showing her being critical of former President Donald Trump and supportive of President Joe Biden. They also displayed personal views in favor of <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2024/04/15/business/media/npr-chief-executive-criticized-over-tweets.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">liberal causes</a>. Maher later <a href="https://www.wsj.com/business/media/npr-chief-defends-coverage-accuses-critics-of-bad-faith-distortion-of-her-views-cc5869ac" target="_blank" rel="noopener">told</a> The Wall Street Journal that critics were making a &#8220;bad faith distortion&#8221; of her views.
The House GOP letter noted many of the allegations raised by Berliner, including a claim that all of NPR&#8217;s editorial staffers in Washington, D.C., were registered Democrats. They also highlighted past comments from Mater about dealing with &#8220;bad information,&#8221; striking a balance with the speech protections under the First Amendment, and warning how the &#8220;truth might be a distraction.&#8221;
McMorris Rodgers and her colleagues wrote the committee is &#8220;concerned that your personal views and opinions on matters of public interest heavily influence your decision making at NPR and may cloud objective reporting of the news at NPR.&#8221; In addition to the invite, they posed questions to Maher on internal NPR matters such as employee party affiliation, asking that the information be provided by May 14.
&#8220;In your own words, &#8216;slowing down a little bit and bringing the conversation in, [] listening with sincerity, debating with respect, consulting widely, and weighing difficult decisions with candor,&#8217; might be what NPR needs to rebuild the damage to its reputation and credibility,&#8221; the letter said.
It was not immediately clear whether Maher would cooperate with the House Republicans. The Daily Wire has reached out to NPR seeking comment on the letter.
Although there has been a renewed push to cut funding for NPR, including a <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/partisan-propaganda-machine-republicans-push-to-defund-npr-over-political-bias" target="_blank" rel="noopener">proposed</a> measure from House Republicans, Berliner rejected the calls to defund the network. &#8220;I respect the integrity of my colleagues and wish for NPR to thrive and do important journalism,&#8221; he said.

Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers

House Republicans Seek NPR CEO Testimony About Liberal Bias Allegations

U.S.

A group of Republican senators reached out to <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/national-public-radio-npr" target="_blank" rel="noopener">National Public Radio (NPR)</a>, urging the network to &#8220;start a course correction&#8221; to shake off a left-wing bias controversy under the leadership of CEO Katherine Maher.
Sen. Kevin Cramer (R-ND) led a <a href="https://senatorkevincramer.app.box.com/s/onanzoiim9oo6h46mixszdniek7jk5an" target="_blank" rel="noopener">letter</a> sent to Maher on Monday, highlighting concerns raised by Uri Berliner, a longtime editor at NPR who <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/npr-editor-who-accused-network-of-liberal-bias-resigns" target="_blank" rel="noopener">resigned</a> this month after he stoked fresh scrutiny of the media organization with claims that it &#8220;lost America&#8217;s trust&#8221; with an increasingly leftist bent.
“It is not NPR’s job to tell Americans what to think but to inform them with unbiased facts. Moreover, the internal cultural shifts and management decisions to prioritize ideological narratives do not just undermine your organization’s integrity; they have also alienated a significant portion of your audience,” the senators wrote in the letter.
&#8220;As Mr. Berliner points out, this has had tangible effects on NPR&#8217;s trust ratings and listener demographics, which have skewed increasingly away from any semblance of a broad, inclusive audience,&#8221; they added.
Berliner announced his resignation during a five-day suspension without pay over his critique of NPR. Although he pushed back on <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/partisan-propaganda-machine-republicans-push-to-defund-npr-over-political-bias" target="_blank" rel="noopener">calls to defund NPR</a>, Berliner said he could not work in a newsroom after being &#8220;disparaged by a new CEO whose divisive views confirm&#8221; the problems he cited.
Maher, who began serving as NPR&#8217;s chief executive in March, had <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/nprs-new-ceo-scolds-25-year-veteran-for-expose-outing-networks-bias" target="_blank" rel="noopener">condemned</a> what she said was a &#8220;deeply simplistic&#8221; and &#8220;profoundly disrespectful, hurtful, and demeaning&#8221; assessment from Berliner.
Resurfaced posts and clips show Maher being critical of former President Donald Trump and supportive of President Joe Biden. They also displayed personal views in favor of <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2024/04/15/business/media/npr-chief-executive-criticized-over-tweets.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">liberal causes</a>.
The GOP lawmakers specifically pointed to NPR&#8217;s handling of major news stories that Berliner <a href="https://www.thefp.com/p/npr-editor-how-npr-lost-americas-trust?utm_source=direct&amp;utm_campaign=post&amp;utm_medium=web&amp;fbclid=IwAR2BI7aGsLrw5JzADcxw-Ddx9IFpaQzQxVieieHiYiYvBozjQ3W_q8XSMoY_aem_Afb8djuPsGMotINI-8VtH0_ouA2n_5T1rMS3kvz8x_-AGiNOlKuozOh6WEdCnd1xeok&amp;triedRedirect=true" target="_blank" rel="noopener">flagged</a> as being problematic, including issues related to the Hunter Biden laptop, the COVID-19 lab leak theory, and the Trump-Russia collusion narrative.
They also noted Berliner&#8217;s finding that all of NPR&#8217;s editorial staffers in Washington, D.C., were registered Democrats.
&#8220;If NPR’s goal was to become an echo chamber, mission accomplished. But as a publicly funded entity, you are responsible for providing impartial coverage that accurately informs all Americans, regardless of political affiliation,&#8221; the senators said.
&#8220;We urge you to start a course correction to address these issues,&#8221; they added. &#8220;If NPR does not want to devolve into a one-sided opinion outlet, it should take a page from its local affiliates and embrace a culture of intellectual diversity and focus on balanced reporting.&#8221;
In addition to Cramer, the letter was signed by Sens. John Barrasso (R-WY), Marsha Blackburn (R-TN), Bill Cassidy (R-LA), Roger Marshall (R-KS), Eric Schmitt (R-MO), and Dan Sullivan (R-AK).
The Daily Wire reached out to NPR seeking comment on the letter.

GOP Senators Urge NPR To ‘Start A Course Correction’ Amid Left-Wing Bias Controversy

GOP Senators Urge NPR To 'Start A Course Correction' Amid Left-Wing Bias Controversy

U.S. Senate

Republicans in the House and Senate are pushing to defund NPR after a now-former editor wrote an essay exposing the liberal bias of the outlet and reports broke on leftist comments made by CEO Katherine Maher. 
Republican Reps. Jim Banks (IN), Claudia Tenney (NY), and Bob Good (VA) all introduced their own legislation to end funding for the outlet. Banks introduced <a href="https://banks.house.gov/uploadedfiles/defund_npr_act.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">his measure</a> on Friday, taking aim at Maher and calling NPR “low grade propaganda.”
“NPR’s new CEO is a radical, left-wing activist who doesn’t believe in free speech or objective journalism,” Banks said in a statement. “Hoosiers shouldn’t be writing her paychecks. Katherine Maher isn’t qualified to teach an introductory journalism class, much less capable of responsibly spending millions of American tax dollars.”
Recently, clips of Maher <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/white-male-westernized-npr-president-said-she-opposed-wikipedias-free-and-open-mission" target="_blank" rel="noopener">posted by</a> journalist Chris Rufo show Maher saying that the “number one challenge” for her in fighting so-called disinformation was the First Amendment, which she called a “fairly robust protection of rights.” She also claimed that former President Donald Trump was a racist and <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/new-ceo-of-npr-is-everything-wrong-with-the-news-media" target="_blank" rel="noopener">posted</a> about her desire to go on a road trip with Vice President Kamala Harris eating “nuts and baklava.”
Tenney, who <a href="https://tenney.house.gov/media/press-releases/congresswoman-tenney-moves-defund-npr#:~:text=%22My%20legislation%2C%20the%20Defund%20NPR,bias%20in%20our%20news%20media." target="_blank" rel="noopener">introduced</a> the “Defund NPR Act of 2024” said that the outlet had become a “partisan propaganda machine.” 
“As a former newspaper owner and publisher, I understand the importance of non-partisan, balanced media coverage, and have seen first-hand the left-wing bias in our news media,” she said. “NPR is using American taxpayer dollars to manipulate the news and lie to the American people on behalf of a political agenda. It’s past time the American people stop footing the bill for NPR, and the partisan, left-wing activists that control it.&#8221;
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Good <a href="https://good.house.gov/media/press-releases/rep-good-calls-defunding-biased-npr" target="_blank" rel="noopener">introduced</a> similar legislation alongside eight co-sponsors, saying that it was “egregious” for taxpayers to be backing partisan news coverage. 
The lawmakers&#8217; push comes after now-former senior business editor Uri Berliner <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/we-lost-americas-trust-npr-veteran-says-network-has-lost-its-way" target="_blank" rel="noopener">wrote an essay</a> in the Free Press saying that the network had lost the trust of Americans because of its coverage of things like gender ideology and refusal to cover the Hunter Biden laptop story in the lead up to the 2020 election. 
Berliner, who resigned days after the essay was published, said that NPR lacked serious viewpoint diversity. 
“It’s frictionless — one story after another about instances of supposed racism, transphobia, signs of the climate apocalypse, Israel doing something bad, and the dire threat of Republican policies,” he wrote.

NPR To Cut 10% Of Staff As Advertising Revenue Falls

‘Partisan Propaganda Machine’: Republicans Push To Defund NPR Over Political Bias

House Republicans

Jim Banks

Leftism

If you don&#8217;t remember &#8220;Car Talk,&#8221; it was a radio show that lasted more than three decades on NPR, until it ended in 2012. The idea was that people called in with practical questions and dilemmas relating to their cars, and then the hosts dispensed advice — whether it was about car maintenance or repair or whatever. The show no longer exists, though, because the NPR that broadcast that show for 35 years no longer exists. The idea of a show that actually addresses people&#8217;s problems in real life, based on knowledge of how markets and automobiles or anything else actually works, has been unthinkable to the management of NPR for some time. Shows that cover the news from an objective factual perspective, to the extent possible, are also out of style. Instead, for the past decade, NPR has been controlled by activists who have devoted themselves to two primary pursuits. 
The first pursuit is blanketing the airwaves with identity politics at every conceivable opportunity. That&#8217;s why they run segments on diverse gender representation in <a href="https://www.npr.org/2022/06/10/1104266396/lgbtq-communitys-battle-for-the-dinosaur-emoji-key-moments-from-jan-6-hearing" target="_blank" rel="noopener">dinosaur emojis</a> for example. 
The second pursuit has been shutting down stories that are inconvenient for the politicians who are voting to spend your money to finance NPR&#8217;s operation. Infamously, NPR&#8217;s executive editor, Terence Samuel, claimed that the Hunter Biden laptop scandal wasn&#8217;t a &#8220;<a href="https://twitter.com/NPRpubliceditor/status/1319281101223940096" target="_blank" rel="noopener">real story</a>.&#8221; He said it was a &#8220;distraction.&#8221; And instead of firing Samuel, NPR promoted him. American University even invited Samuel to deliver a <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WFvV24PWfF4&amp;lc=Ugz7bLd9ECugl009UZF4AaABAg" target="_blank" rel="noopener">lecture</a> entitled, &#8220;How Journalism Can Save Itself and Democracy.&#8221;
It&#8217;s harder to think of a better way to summarize what NPR has become. They aren&#8217;t simply bumbling propagandists. They&#8217;re also incredibly self-satisfied and narcissistic. They believe that they alone can save American democracy. And they think that, in order to do that, they need to control what kinds of information you can see. It&#8217;s not that they thought the Hunter Biden laptop story was &#8220;unvetted&#8221; or &#8220;Russian disinformation&#8221; or whatever the excuse was. They always knew it was factually accurate. But just because something is factually accurate, in NPR&#8217;s eyes, doesn&#8217;t make it true. According to NPR, truth is subjective; whatever&#8217;s most expedient politically for them is what&#8217;s true.
For a long time now, this position — which really amounts to nihilism — was unstated at NPR, at least publicly. But now it&#8217;s explicit, thanks to a new CEO and president by the name of Katherine Maher who recently took over at NPR. Maher very clearly does not believe that the truth is objective. She also doesn&#8217;t believe it&#8217;s worth trying to find out what the truth may be. This is an extraordinary position for the chief executive of a publicly funded news organization to have, but it&#8217;s what Katherine Maher believes. 
This is a speech of hers that&#8217;s been making the rounds this week. It&#8217;s from back when she was running Wikimedia, which is mainly known for Wikipedia. Watch:
<iframe loading="lazy" title="002 Truth" width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/WWEiwvNwsGM?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe>
&nbsp;
This is what passes for good public speaking these days. But she speaks in a robotic, sing-songy voice that makes it sound like she’s a kindergarten teacher lecturing a bunch of 5-year-olds. She has the tone of someone who believes firmly in the superiority of her own intellect, even though what she’s saying is so abjectly stupid. 
She says truth is subjective, and that everyone in the room has his or her own &#8220;truth.&#8221; But here&#8217;s the problem. Truth exists because reality exists. Either something is a part of reality or it isn&#8217;t. To deny objective truth is to deny reality. And you can&#8217;t even deny reality without asserting a reality — the reality that there is no reality. So the relativistic view is not only false, but so false as to be incomprehensible if you think about it for more than two seconds.
Maher&#8217;s remarks are the same idiot relativism that you can hear from any freshman philosophy student, but she goes to great pains to make her take seem nuanced and innovative. She talks in circles and ends back at &#8220;there are many different truths.&#8221; She says this even after acknowledging that the truth exists. Again, those are two contradictory ideas, but that doesn&#8217;t bother Maher for a second. Like most of our overeducated elite class, she&#8217;s incapable of speaking without a parade of cliches while making tedious and absurd ideas sound far more complex than they really are. 
<h4><a href="https://www.dailywire.com/episode/ep-1350-member-exclusive" target="_blank" rel="noopener">WATCH: The Matt Walsh Show</a></h4>
Also according to Maher, we have &#8220;glorious chronicles to the human experience in many different cultures&#8221; because we have &#8220;many different truths.&#8221; But that&#8217;s not what these &#8220;glorious chronicles&#8221; show us. Instead, they show us that the truth is objective and eternal. Different cultures and people across time have had different ways of perceiving the truth — talking about it, accessing it, embracing it, or rejecting it, yes. But the truth remains the same. That is what makes the study of history, and different cultures through history, so fascinating. It is precisely because all of these different people across time and space lived in the same reality, and yet had wildly different ways of existing in it, and responding to it. 
Katherine Maher doesn&#8217;t seem to understand this, or at least she pretends not to. She repeats her theory of truth at every possible opportunity. Here&#8217;s some more footage from a conference two years ago. Maher begins by explaining that Galileo was prosecuted for saying that the Earth and planets revolve around the Sun, which is a basically accurate if wildly oversimplified retelling of that historical episode — although it doesn&#8217;t prove what Maher seems to think it does. Then she makes an incredible statement. Watch:
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&#8220;The truth, by definition, is malleable,&#8221; says Maher. Really? By whose definition exactly? You can make the case that postmodernists thinkers and their precursors — like Machiavelli, Nietzsche, and Rousseau — might agree with that statement. But you won&#8217;t hear many traditional thinkers (prior to, say, Heidegger) saying that the truth is &#8220;malleable.&#8221; So why should we adopt the postmodern belief and not the traditional one? There has to be some reason to side with one school of thought and not another.
In any event, if truth is merely &#8220;malleable&#8221; — if there&#8217;s no knowable, essential structure to it — then definitions themselves are just language games. There&#8217;s no significance to any of it. It&#8217;s just a power struggle. When you get down to it, that&#8217;s really what Maher is saying. She&#8217;s asserting that &#8220;the truth&#8221; is &#8220;malleable&#8221; as an act of political will because she doesn&#8217;t believe in any objectively true definitions. She keeps saying, over and over again, the words &#8220;the truth,&#8221; only to make it clear that she has no idea what that is.
And from that very shaky foundation, Maher starts to derive some very shaky corollaries. At one point, Maher implies that people don&#8217;t trust the media anymore not because the media lied to them, but because people have different mistaken &#8220;truths&#8221; that they&#8217;re clinging to. Watch:
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It&#8217;s another revealing statement that Maher makes without any justification. She&#8217;s implying that democracies aren&#8217;t (or can&#8217;t be) xenophobic or nationalist. But the Greeks were both. Greek democracies were very much “xenophobic” — if that’s how you want to put it — and nationalist in nature. There&#8217;s no doubt about that. So why is democracy the goal here? Is that even her goal?
Really, her only given justification for thinking our traditional conception of truth is inadequate, and needs to be reworked, is that the &#8220;truth&#8221; we have now is the product of a history which is also political. &#8220;History is written by victors&#8221; is one of the many cliches she invokes throughout her speeches. And she says that excludes various potential sources of knowledge like &#8220;indigenous&#8221; perspectives and practices, or women with their &#8220;emotional intelligence.&#8221;
But that&#8217;s not incompatible with the reality that &#8220;the truth&#8221; is real, is universal, and many aspects of it have been uniquely uncovered by Western thought, science, and technology. Even if you bought into Maher&#8217;s talking points about a “plurality of perspectives” being better than &#8220;one alone&#8221; for getting at &#8220;the truth,&#8221; the fact remains that it took 2,000 years of Western, Eurocentric, supposedly white supremacist, heteronormative, misogynist history for us to reach the point at which these minor tail-end improvements she&#8217;s suggesting could be made. 
It took 2,000 years of history to create the civilization that Maher is now critiquing. And if she thinks this new approach will cause some kind of &#8220;scientific revolution,&#8221; it won&#8217;t. The more likely outcome is that it will destroy the civilization that was built over thousands of years. That is the point after all. And this is the essence of what we call wokeness. The Left likes to put conservatives on the spot by demanding a definition of “woke.” Well, here it is — the rejection of truth as a category. That’s what wokeness is, when boiled down to its most fundamental parts.
As for Maher, it&#8217;s tempting to dismiss all of this footage as the ramblings of a single woman who has no idea what she&#8217;s talking about. But it&#8217;s a bit more significant than that. Maher was selected to lead NPR, after an allegedly careful vetting process. There&#8217;s no way that NPR didn&#8217;t scrutinize her beliefs, which Maher has expressed many times over the last few years in public social media posts and numerous speeches.
On Twitter, Chris Rufo has exposed some of the more deranged posts from this woman. There are really too many to mention, but suffice it to say, she&#8217;s like a woke AI bot that churns out the least original woke liberal woman talking points you can possibly imagine. She uses the word &#8220;folx,&#8221; with the &#8220;x&#8221; at the end. She says &#8220;Latinx.&#8221; She called Donald Trump a racist and cried with joy when Biden took office, of course. She wrote that she once dreamed of going on a road trip with Kamala Harris eating &#8220;nuts and baklava.&#8221; She expresses her happiness when she logs into the public WiFi at a COVID clinic and the password is &#8220;HeSheThey,&#8221; recognizing the lived experience of nonbinary patients. She calls the Internet &#8220;sexist.&#8221; 
At one point, she apologized for using the phrase “people who identify as women,” because it&#8217;s a form of “trans-erasure.&#8221; She writes about the importance of &#8220;transit justice&#8221; and vegetarian Thanksgiving, and rants about the &#8220;male gaze&#8221; and &#8220;late-stage capitalism,&#8221; even as she drew a salary of $800,000 a year. There are many more examples; Chris Rufo&#8217;s feed has categorized many of them.
To burnish her intellectual credentials even further, Maher even <a href="https://x.com/njhochman/status/1780638504097022442">sat on a panel</a> with Lizzo at a Ted conference where tickets cost more than $10,000. The name of Lizzos&#8217; talk was, &#8220;The Black history of twerking — and how it taught me self-love.&#8221; 
But Maher doesn&#8217;t need lessons on self-love, she has that covered. What she&#8217;s looking for now is power. 
In a video posted by the Atlantic Council and unearthed by Rufo, Maher explains that the First Amendment — which you&#8217;d think journalists would support, since it&#8217;s the one thing keeping journalists out of prison — is not a sacred constitutional principle. Instead, she says, it&#8217;s a &#8220;challenge&#8221; to be overcome. Watch:
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The only people who view the First Amendment as a &#8220;challenge&#8221; are government censors who want to shut down any dissent by force. And now that she&#8217;s running a state-funded media outlet, that&#8217;s exactly what Maher is. She&#8217;s a state-funded censor.
To that end, she no longer believes in transparency. The irony is that, when she was running Wikimedia, Maher kept talking about the importance of showing people everything that&#8217;s going on inside the company. Every edit on Wikipedia, she said, is public for a reason. Disclosure is sometimes &#8220;painful,&#8221; she said, but it&#8217;s necessary. 
Transparency is key, she said at the time. But apparently this is one of the malleable &#8220;truths&#8221; that Katherine Maher has decided to discard. As you&#8217;ve probably heard, she just forced out an NPR whistleblower who <a href="https://nypost.com/2024/04/17/media/npr-editor-uri-berliner-resigns-after-bombshell-expose-reveals-networks-pervasive-left-wing-bias/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">wrote</a> a damning <a href="https://www.thefp.com/p/npr-editor-how-npr-lost-americas-trust" target="_blank" rel="noopener">column</a> in the Free Press about the organization&#8217;s corruption and overwhelming bias. She <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/npr-suspends-editor-who-accused-network-of-bias-issues-final-warning" target="_blank" rel="noopener">suspended</a> this 25-year veteran of NPR without pay because he pointed out that the organization is now completely one-sided. 
For example, the whistleblower wrote:
<blockquote>Concerned by the lack of viewpoint diversity, I looked at voter registration for our newsroom. In D.C., where NPR is headquartered and many of us live, I found 87 registered Democrats working in editorial positions and zero Republicans. None.</blockquote>
That&#8217;s not the kind of transparency that the new NPR CEO appreciates, apparently. She&#8217;s happy to talk about how NPR employs too many white men. But she definitely doesn&#8217;t want to talk about political bias, or how useless NPR has become. It used to be that NPR at least pretended to be embarrassed about this. In 2011, NPR&#8217;s CEO at the time, Vivian Schiller, resigned after a Project Veritas sting exposed what she thought about conservatives in the Tea Party movement. To summarize: she didn’t like them. Schiller had to resign once her views came to light. Back then, NPR believed that the appearance of fairness was at least a little important.
But that was the &#8220;Car Talk&#8221; era of NPR. Now they believe their CEO can categorically reject the idea that there&#8217;s any truth to report on. This is a belief system that&#8217;s now in vogue in newsrooms all over the country. It&#8217;s a big reason for the rise of transgenderism, COVID hysteria, and all the media&#8217;s lying we had to endure under the previous administration. 
This is the belief system that insists that men can become women, because the meaning of the words &#8220;men&#8221; and &#8220;women&#8221; are subjective. And it will spell the end of Western civilization unless we reject it. That is, of course, the point of everything Katherine Maher is saying. In the absence of truth, there is only a struggle for power. And right now — and hopefully not for much longer — it&#8217;s people like Katherine Maher who have that power.

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