PBS and NPR Leadership Face Accusations of News Bias During U.S. House DOGE Subcommittee, While Documentaries Mostly Escape Scrutiny

At Wednesday morning’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) subcommittee hearing, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, joined by several House Republicans, argued for rolling back federal funding of  PBS and NPR due to alleged bias in their content and reporting. 

The brunt of the heat was concertedly directed at NPR, which GOP members lambasted for allegedly “violating journalistic integrity” due to the outlets’ coverage of topics that range from COVID-19 to Hunter Biden’s laptop controversy. 

The meeting, which boasted the title “Anti-American Airwaves: Holding the Heads of NPR and PBS Accountable,” was joined by witnesses Katherine Maher, NPR CEO; Paula Kerger, PBS CEO; Ed Ulman, CEO of Alaska Public Radio, an affiliate of both PBS and NPR; and Mike Gonzalez, an Arredondo E. Pluribus Unum Senior Fellow at the Heritage Foundation, who labeled public media as “like the human appendix: vestigial and purposeless.” 

Greene’s opening remarks established the anti-LGBTQ tenor of the criticisms, branding PBS and NPR as “radical left-wing echo chambers” and accusing the former of being “one of the founders of the trans child abuse industry.” 

The funding in question is a US$535 million federal appropriation that Congress provides via the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB). Due to a $36 trillion deficit, DOGE has been operating under the guise of identifying “waste, fraud, and abuse” in government spending, setting its sights on public media. The funding PBS and NPR receive is 0.1% of the overall federal budget. 

While both PBS and NPR also receive financial support from other foundations, corporations, and viewer donations, Maher, Kerger, and Ulman emphasized that the loss of federal funding would be devastating for affiliate stations, particularly those in rural and underfunded communities. 

“Many of our smaller and actually medium-sized stations would not exist without the federal appropriation,” said Maher. “And when you look at a station like Cookeville, Tennessee, which serves part of Appalachia, 50 percent of their budget comes from the federal government.”

One of the recurring GOP critiques of PBS was its airing of Independent Lens documentaries that grapple with issues of gender and race. Greene at one point asked: “Do you think PBS needs to fund ridiculous materials such as this that the taxpayers are having to pay for?”

“These are documentary films that are point-of-view pieces that are part of our primetime schedule for adults,” Kerger rebutted. 

Several Representatives spoke in support of public media, including Robert Garcia of California, Gregorio Casar of Texas, Emily Randall of Washington, Ro Khanna of California, and Jasmine Crockett of Texas, who described the hearing as “goofy.” 

“The total funding for public broadcasting is just one-sixth the amount that Elon Musk’s companies make off of the government every single year,” said Casar. “But you will not see Elon Musk being grilled by this committee. I’ve seen a lot, but pointing the finger at Elmo to cover for Elon Musk might be a new low for Ms. Marjorie Taylor Greene’s committee.” 

After about two and a half hours, Taylor Greene adjourned the committee, giving members five legislative days to submit “materials and additional written questions for witnesses.” Whether the DOGE subcommittee will succeed in gutting CPB’s federal funding remains, for the moment, unclear.

This hearing isn’t the only federal attack on PBS and NPR. In January, recently-appointed Federal Communications Commission (FCC) chairman Brendan Carr opened an inquiry regarding the airing of corporate underwriting spots, which he stated could be commercials. In the case of PBS specifically, 15-second spots before or after programs are awarded to entities that subsidize programming; PBS member stations do not necessarily see these funds, as they are often passed directly to the filmmaker. 

While the FCC does not regulate NPR and PBS directly, it does oversee individual member stations. Earlier this month, 13 such affiliates received a letter from the FCC asking for more information about on-air sponsorships, with a deadline of March 31 to comply. 

Natalia Keogan is a critic and journalist based in NYC. Her bylines include Filmmaker magazine, A.V. Club, Reverse Shot, and Paste, amongst others.