National Public Radio (NPR) CEO and president Katherine Maher Says We Don't Care About Your Funding
Segment # 137
To be in a job less than a month and to have the certainty to make a decision that can so fundamentally impact the company is either extraordinarily courageous or unbelievably stupid. Maybe its both.. In the twenty-five years I was involved with PBS it appeared to me that the development efforts for fund raising were challenging at best. To me in my isolated opinion it did not appear to me PBS was highly skilled at attracting financial support. It does not see to me logical that PBS and NPR can afford to blow off federal funding and to at least theoretically isolate the conservatives that comprise part of their private support base. Maybe I am wrong but time will yield the answer. I predict Maher and NPR/PBS will regret not following protocols for damage control. If anything, NPR confirmed Berliner’s assertions and just handed him a larger megaphone.
And moments ago Maher suspended Berliner, further increasing his sphere of influence and leaving no doubt that any consequential impact is irrelevant to NPR.
Katherine Maher was recently appointed as the new President and CEO of NPR, effective March 25, 2024. She will be succeeding John Lansing, who has held the role since 2019.123
Maher is an experienced executive who has led public interest institutions through technological disruption and strategic change. She previously served as the CEO of the Wikimedia Foundation from 2016-2021, where she doubled the organization's fundraising and established its first endowment.123
Prior to Wikimedia, Maher worked on human rights, democracy, and innovation at organizations like Access Now, the World Bank, the National Democratic Institute, and UNICEF.123
Maher is currently the CEO of Web Summit, an annual technology conference held in Lisbon, Portugal. She joined Web Summit in October 2023 during a period of crisis for the organization.2
Maher has extensive experience serving on boards, including as board chair for the messaging service Signal. She has also served on the Foreign Affairs Policy Board in the U.S. Department of State and the Council on Foreign Relations.2
In her new role at NPR, Maher will be tasked with steering the network towards greater stability and audience growth, as it continues to navigate layoffs and broader market challenges facing media companies.23
NPR’s New CEO Scolds 25-Year Veteran For Exposé Outing Network’s Bias | The Daily Wire
NPR’s New CEO Scolds 25-Year Veteran For Exposé Outing Network’s Bias
Apr 14, 2024 DailyWire.com
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Stephen McCarthy/Sportsfile for Web Summit Qatar via Getty Images
National Public Radio (NPR) CEO and president Katherine Maher lashed out at senior Editor Uri Berliner over a scathing op-ed he wrote for The Free Press — in which he claimed that NPR had displayed political bias on a number of occasions and, in doing so, had “lost America’s trust.”
Maher, who stepped into her role at NPR just three weeks ago, claimed that Berliner’s assessment — made after 25 years with the outlet — was “deeply simplistic” as well as “profoundly disrespectful, hurtful, and demeaning.”
Without mentioning Berliner by name — or giving any specifics with regard to his comments — Maher simply claimed that NPR was devoted to providing information to the public, and that the outlet’s “service to this aspirational mission was called in question this week.”
“Asking a question about whether we’re living up to our mission should always be fair game: after all, journalism is nothing if not hard questions,” Maher continued. “Questioning whether our people are serving our mission with integrity, based on little more than the recognition of their identity, is profoundly disrespectful, hurtful, and demeaning.”
Maher went on to suggest that Berliner’s assessment of bias had been based on his own objections to a diverse workplace — when, in fact, he had given a series of examples where diversity of thought had either not been present or had been actively shut down.
It is deeply simplistic to assert that the diversity of America can be reduced to any particular set of beliefs, and faulty reasoning to infer that identity is determinative of one’s thoughts or political leanings,” Maher claimed. “Each of our colleagues are here because they are excellent, accomplished professionals with an intense commitment to our work: we are stronger because of the work we do together, and we owe each other our utmost respect. We fulfill our mission best when we look and sound like the country we serve.”
Maher’s objections raised eyebrows after a number of her old Twitter posts came to light, revealing her personal political leanings
Conservative Support for PBS and NPR
Based on the search results, here is a summary of the political support for PBS and NPR among conservatives: The search results indicate that PBS and NPR tend to have lower levels of trust and higher levels of distrust among conservatives and Republican voters compared to liberals and Democratic voters:
According to the Pew Research Center data, only 27% of Republicans trust PBS, compared to 56% of Democrats. Similarly, only 21% of Republicans trust the BBC, compared to 48% of Democrats.4
The Media Research Center, a right-leaning media watchdog group, has accused NPR of having a left-of-center bias and being a "massive, taxpayer-funded radio network" for "the left".3
NPR's own research shows that only 26% of its listeners identify as conservative or somewhat conservative, compared to 37% who identify as liberal or somewhat liberal.2
The Pew data also shows that only 6% of Republicans regularly listen to NPR, compared to 23% of liberal Democrats.2
So in summary, the search results indicate that PBS and NPR tend to have significantly lower levels of support and trust among conservatives and Republican voters compared to liberals and Democratic voters. Conservative critics have accused these public media outlets of having a left-leaning bias.1234
Federal Support for PBS and NPR
PBS draws roughly 15% of its revenue from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB), which is federally funded.1
NPR receives less than 1% of its annual operating budget directly from federal grants and CPB funding. However, NPR stations receive about 10% of their total revenue indirectly from federal, state, and local government sources.24
The Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which provides funding to both PBS and NPR, received $525 million in federal funding for fiscal year 2024. Of that, $367 million went to public television stations and $126 million went to public radio stations.3
So in summary, while PBS and NPR do receive some federal funding, it makes up a relatively small percentage of their overall budgets. PBS gets around 15% of its revenue from federal sources, while for NPR the figure is less than 10% indirectly and under 1% directly.1234
