NPR CEO’s Comedy Tour Continues: We Are a ‘Centrist….Nonpartisan News Organization’
4th June 2025
Give her credit: Chief executive Katherine Maher is not afraid to look ridiculous on her quest to save National Public Radio from the federal chopping block. On Thursday’s edition of the Wall Street Journal’s podcast, hosted by Ryan Knutson and Jessica Mendoza, Maher claimed “we are consistently found to be centrist in reporting….we are a nonpartisan news organization.”
Maher was on to talk about NPR filing a lawsuit, alongside three Colorado-based stations, challenging the Trump administration’s executive order to cut funding for NPR out of the federal budget.
First, Maher falsely labeled Trump’s executive order a violation of the First Amendment.
Katherine Maher: ….And what I mean by that is the executive order very clearly engages in what is called viewpoint discrimination, which is to say that the president has stated that NPR and PBS should not receive federal funding because he disagrees with our programming and our editorial choices, in terms of the story selection that we cover or the way that we cover the news….
But no outlet has a First Amendment right to the public treasury, and Mendoza quoted a Trump spokesperson saying such.