Congressional Republicans said National Public Radio’s (NPR) federal funding should be revisited after a senior editor at the publication penned a scathing review of its employees’ partisan make-up.
“NPR has abandoned their own definition of diversity and inclusion with their one-sided reporting and blatantly biased newsroom,” House Majority Whip Tom Emmer, R-Minn., the No. 3 House Republican leader, told Fox News Digital.
“The choice should be simple: Fulfill your obligation to provide accurate, balanced information to the American people or forfeit taxpayer funding.”
Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, also suggested NPR could face consequences for its purported bias under a potential future Trump administration.
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House Majority Whip Tom Emmer and Sen. Ted Cruz are two of the Republican lawmakers laying into NPR. (AP/Getty Images)
“If you get a Republican administration, and that’s increasingly likely, you can expect NPR to suffer if they don’t show a lack of partisanship…And that’s not where they are today,” Romney told Fox News Digital.
Senior business editor Uri Berliner, a 25-year veteran of NPR, recently shared damning allegations about his employer’s viewpoint diversity and the effect it has had on coverage in a piece for the Free Press.
Per Berliner, “I found 87 registered Democrats working in editorial positions and zero Republicans. None,” describing his NPR office in Washington, D.C.
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It’s added fuel to an already-burning fire for the GOP, which has long accused NPR of acting with a liberal bias while receiving some federal funds.
Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, slammed NPR for behaving “like a partisan propaganda institution.” He added that “taxpayer funding” shouldn’t go toward such a publication.
Senator Mitt Romney predicted that a future Trump administration would crack down on NPR.
“I would be more than fine pulling funding from NPR,” added Rep. Andy Ogles, R-Tenn., calling NPR’s overwhelmingly Democratic staff “a free market issue.”
Rep. Eric Burlison, R-Mo., noted “it makes you realize that independent news is, is dead somehow.”
The Missouri Republican pointed to NBC News’ recent hiring and subsequent firing of former Republican National Committee Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel. He noted that her termination was in response to employee backlash at the outlet.
“The people in my district, they see through all of that stuff,” Burlison said. “They know that they can’t trust the…mainstream media.”
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Rep. Andy Ogles said he would be ‘more than fine’ pulling funding from NPR
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Asked if action will be taken in the legislature to address NPR’s funding from the government, which is doled out through a non-profit organization, Cruz said, “I certainly hope so.”
NPR defended its journalism in a statement by its chief news executive Edith Chapin, published in one of its own stories.
“We’re proud to stand behind the exceptional work that our desks and shows do to cover a wide range of challenging stories,” Chapin said.
NPR did not immediately provide comment to Fox News Digital.