Jim Jordan Shows No Mercy Confronting NPR CEO With Whistleblower's Accusations Of Bias

2 days ago

Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) questioned NPR CEO Katherine Maher at today's House DOGE Committee hearing.

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Transcript

00:00Thank you Madam Chair. Ms. Maher, who is Uri Berliner? Mr. Berliner is a former

00:06senior editor. That's all? A former senior business editor for NPR. How long do you

00:11work at NPR? I believe he was there just over 25 years. 25 years? Award-winning

00:16journalist? Did he win any awards? Our time to talk about that. Peabody Award, that's pretty important,

00:21isn't it? That is. A pretty distinguished journalist, right? Certainly. And he

00:26wrote a long story about what you do at NPR. Is NPR biased? Congressman, I have

00:32never seen any instance of political bias determining editorial

00:36decisions, no. Well, Mr. Berliner, in his story last year, wrote,

00:45in the DC area, editorial positions at NPR, he said he found 87 registered

00:52Democrats, zero Republicans. Is that accurate? We do not track the numbers or

00:58the voter registration, but I find that concerning. Was the award-winning journalist who worked 25 years

01:02at NPR, Mr. Berliner, was he lying when he wrote that? I am not presuming such, I

01:08just don't have, we don't track that information about our journalists. 87 to

01:12zero, and you're not biased? I think that is concerning, if those numbers are

01:16accurate. It's concerning. I mean, it wasn't 44-43, it wasn't 60-27, it wasn't 70-17, it

01:24wasn't even 80-7. It was 87 Democrats, zero Republicans, and you say NPR is not

01:32biased. How about the big stories over the last few years? According to Mr.

01:36Berliner, again, he wrote on the Trump-Russia story, he wrote, at NPR, we

01:42hitched our wagon to Trump's most visible antagonist, Representative Adam

01:47Schiff, and he said they interviewed him 25 times. Is that accurate? I was not there at

01:51the time, but those numbers sound accurate. Those sound accurate, but then

01:54he said when the Mueller report came out, and they said, Mueller said, Robert

01:57Mueller said he found no evidence of collusion, he said Russiagate faded from

02:02our programming. Is that accurate? Again, I was not there at the time, I'm not, I

02:06couldn't say. You couldn't say? I was not at NPR at the time. You didn't prepare for

02:10that? You knew we were gonna ask you about this guy, didn't you? It's come up like 6,000

02:13times already in the hearing. I just couldn't say whether it faded from our

02:17coverage, sir. How about this story? October 2020, New York Post had the

02:21Hunter Biden laptop story, and one of those editors, I guess one of those 87

02:27Democrat editors, said this, we don't want to waste our time on stories that are not

02:32really stories, we don't want to waste the listeners' and readers' times on

02:35stories that are just pure distractions. Was that a pure distraction story? Our

02:39current editorial leadership believes that that was a mistake, as do I. Yeah, the

02:44whole country knows that was a mistake. Definitely impacted the election, or I

02:47think it certainly impacted the election. How about the COVID origin story? That's

02:51pretty big story too, right? Mr. Berliner said, we became fervent members of the

02:56team Natural Origin, even declaring that the lab leak was debunked by scientists.

03:01Turns out, though, the lab leak is what most people think actually caused the

03:04COVID virus. Sorry, sorry, is there a question there? There is. You guys were 0

03:09for 3 on the three of the biggest stories in the last five years, you

03:13guys were 0 for 3, and yet you maintain that NPR is not biased? Congressman, I do

03:19not believe we are politically biased, no, we are a nonpartisan organization.

03:23Nonpartisan organization. What's happening to your listeners over the

03:26last five years? Went up, down, or stayed the same? It has gone up and down and is

03:31now going back up. Well, I thought five years ago was at 60 million, and you said

03:36in your opening statement, I think 43 million. That's correct. So, 43 million

03:40now, and it was at 60 million five years ago. I can do some math, that looks like

03:44it went down. And is now going back up. Is now going back up? Yes, it is. How much has

03:48it went back up? It's gone up a couple of millions over the past year. Oh, so you

03:52went from 60 million to 41 million, now you're back up to 43 million? In a year's

03:58time, I'm very proud of that growth, sir. Okay, you're proud of that that growth,

04:00okay. But over five years, it's went down 18 million? That is correct, sir. Okay.

04:04Should taxpayers subsidize NPR? I believe that taxpayers should subsidize

04:09local stations, sir. That is the vast majority. Well, I thought you said you got

04:1211 million from Corporation of Public Broadcasting, which is taxpayer funding

04:16directly to you, right? That is to support the public. And then local stations get

04:20it from the Corporation of Public Broadcasting, right? They get tax money.

04:23100 million that goes to the local stations. 100 million goes to local stations, and then there's

04:26local stations buy back programming content from you. So, that money goes to

04:29local stations, comes back to you, gets routed through the local stations, all

04:33taxpayer money. Those fees are actually based on private donations rather than

04:36on federal funding. Well, we all know money is fungible, so some of it gets put

04:40in there. Certainly, we could agree that money is fungible. What? More money

04:45for less listeners. You fired the guy who pointed all this out, who said that you

04:49were so biased to the left that you lost listeners, which is exactly happening, and

04:52you're here maintaining that, oh, you need to continue to get taxpayer

04:56money. I did not fire Mr. Berliner, sir. Okay, the guy that left after all that.

05:01I understand, I understand. Are you fundraising off today's hearing? Sir, I

05:05believe that there was a message that went out earlier today letting people

05:09know we were coming in, yes. Yeah, and at the bottom of the message it said, donate

05:13now, right? I don't recall the exact language. I can show it to you, right there it is.

05:17Donate now. I mean, I'm not against fundraising. We all do it. I mean, I get it,

05:21but I assume this fundraising is probably going to all the left

05:26listeners who are subsidized content by the taxpayers, and that's the wrong. The

05:31gentleman's time has expired. That's the wrong. I yield back. I now recognize Ms. Randall from

05:37Washington for five minutes. Thank you so much. You know, I

Jim Jordan Shows No Mercy Confronting NPR CEO With Whistleblower's Accusations Of Bias

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