Public media giants National Public Radio and Public Broadcasting Service are to be warned Wednesday that taxpayer funding is likely to be cut off this year, care of conservatives and a president who feel they’ve been taking it on the chin from the liberal outlets.
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA), who is holding a budget-cutting hearing Wednesday focused on taxpayer funding of public radio and TV, told Secrets that she will announce her plans to turn off the spigot of money.
“They can hate us on their own dime,” Greene said of the outlets that conservatives believe are heavily liberal-biased.
“They’re not going to force a regressive tax on the American people and force all Americans to pay for their Marxist, leftist propaganda,” added Greene.
Do you want your hard earned tax dollars to fund far left ideology and propaganda on PBS and NPR?
Tune into my DOGE Committee hearing on NPR and PBS tomorrow at 10:00 am!
It’s a must watch. pic.twitter.com/1wPcXbtfdn
— Marjorie Taylor Greene
(@mtgreenee) March 25, 2025
Republicans have long voiced support for defunding public radio and TV and the umbrella Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which is set to get $535 million from taxpayers this year.
“Absolutely, they need to be defunded,” Greene said.
While considered a conservative issue, there are few fans in Washington of public funding of any media. Even the non-profit public affairs network C-SPAN doesn’t accept taxpayer support, and its founder, Brian Lamb, recently called public funding a “very bad idea.”
Greene, who chairs the newly-created House Oversight Subcommittee on Delivering on Government Efficiency, has called Katherine Maher, CEO and president of NPR, and Paula Kerger, president and CEO of PBS, to testify Wednesday.
According to reports, the media presidents plan to press for continued public funding while also explaining how they’ve moved to soften their left bias by, for example, trimming diversity programs.
But for Greene, it is too late. What’s more, she said that President Donald Trump agrees. “This has been a promise of every Republican president,” said Greene, adding, “I am confident President Trump will be the president that finally gets it done.”
Greene said defunding has nothing to do with the First Amendment or support for business. “Any media company that can operate on their own, they’re just like any private business in America. I am pro-business, and I’m also a big defender of our First Amendment,” Greene said in an interview.
Instead, she said, her focus is on “the customer” and making sure the taxpayer-customer gets a fair and unbiased return.
“The customer is king. You deserve to know where your money went and how it was spent, and that’s what these two presidents of NPR and PBS need to come before our committee under oath and tell the American people how they spend their money,” she said.
Greene expects to hear that the money the Corporation for Public Broadcasting distributes among stations helps make news and special programming accessible to all, especially in rural districts like the one Greene represents.
But Greene said she won’t accept being lectured to by liberal, big city media leaders.
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“The argument that they make is, oh, well, this is so important for rural America that they receive information. Well, let me let everybody in on this because this infuriates me. I represent a very rural district. And I can tell you right now, if you think that this is the way, the only way, that people in my district or in other rural districts get information, that is completely insulting from these over-educated, affluent, and bored white liberals that control NPR and PBS,” said Greene.
“I really don’t appreciate them talking down and looking down on the people that live in my district because they can receive their information on a smartphone, they receive their information on the internet, and they don’t need NPR and PBS to spoon-feed them Democrat bulls***,” she added.