Below is my column in the Hill on the termination of funding for National Public Radio. Now that we have ended government-sponsored media, the question is whether the media will cease acting like a state media. The good news is that the market could force a correction that the media has largely refused to make.
Here is the column:
With the final elimination of public funding for National Public Radio as part of a $9 billion savings package, the era of the American state media will technically come to an end. However, what makes for state media is not state support alone.
So, the state media is dead — long live the state media.
That variation of the traditional mourning cry of the British monarchy will be heard more in whispers than proclamations this week in Washington.
The government subsidy for NPR has long been a subject of controversy. Many opposed NPR for its open bias in reporting news, a record that thrilled the left and outraged many on the right. Just before the final vote, NPR CEO Katherine Maher gave another interview that left many agape. She denied any such bias and asked whether anyone could point to a single story that showed a political or ideological slant.
Ignoring a myriad of such examples, Maher then went from defiant to delusional, insisting that NPR was trying hard to “understand those criticisms.”
It was a bit late for Maher to feign surprise or confusion, particularly as a CEO whose selection to take over the struggling NPR many of us opposed. Her glaring and overt bias did not seem like the antidote to NPR’s shrinking audience and revenue.
In 2024, NPR had a window to actually “understand” the criticism and make adjustments. Instead, it treated the government subsidy as an entitlement, backed by Democratic members in Congress. The board would have done better to select a neutral journalist. Instead, it doubled down, hiring a candidate with a long record of far-left public statements against Republicans, Trump, and others.
This is the same CEO who attacked respected senior editor Uri Berliner when he tried to get NPR to address its bias and restore greater balance on the staff. Berliner noted that NPR’s Washington headquarters has 87 registered Democrats among its editors and zero Republicans.
Maher slammed the award-winning Berliner for his “affront to the individual journalists who work incredibly hard.” She called his criticism “profoundly disrespectful, hurtful, and demeaning.”
Berliner resigned after noting how Maher’s “divisive views confirm the very problems at NPR” that he had been pointing out.
But I have argued that NPR’s well-established bias and publication of baseless conspiracy theories are not the real reasons for taking away its federal funding. The truth is, NPR represented an embrace of a state media model used in other countries that Americans thoroughly reject.
Maher bizarrely tried to rally support for government funding by insisting that we must “keep the government out” of the media. Congress just did precisely that by clawing back NPR’s funding.
The government has occasionally supported the media, but generally to benefit all media outlets. For example, in 1791, Madison declared that Congress had an obligation to improve the “circulation of newspapers through the entire body of the people” and sponsored the Post Office Act of 1791, giving newspapers reduced postage rates.
Notably, those same Democrats in Congress who decried the reduction of funding for NPR would have revolted over funding for more successful radio outlets, such as Fox Radio. Indeed, some of the same members had previously pushed cable carriers to consider dropping Fox News, the most popular cable news channel.
What Congress did with prior funding of a single preferred media outlet was wrong. Liberals and Democrats fought to protect the funding even though NPR’s shrinking audience is now overwhelmingly white, affluent, and liberal.
However, the end of government subsidies will not necessarily mean the end of an effective state media. As I noted in my book “The Indispensable Right,” we have seen how the media can create the same effect as state media by consent rather than coercion.
For years, media outlets have echoed the same party line, including burying negative stories and repeating debunked stories. Actual readers and listeners abandoned the mainstream media in droves. “Let’s Go Brandon” became a national mantra mocking journalists for their inability even to see and hear if the sights and sounds don’t fit their preconceived narratives.
Just as Maher has expressed utter confusion on how anyone could view NPR as biased, these editors and journalists will cling to the same advocacy journalism, rejecting the principles of objectivity and neutrality.
However, there is still one hope for restoring traditional journalism: the market.
Now that NPR is off the public dole, it will have to compete fairly with other radio outlets for audiences and revenue. It is free to alienate most listeners who have center-right viewpoints, but it will have to sustain itself on a smaller share of the market.
Other outlets are facing the same dire choice. Recently, the Post encouraged writers and editors to leave if they were unwilling to get on board with a new direction at the newspaper.
Previously, Washington Post publisher and CEO Will Lewis had told his writers that the newspaper was experiencing massive losses in readers and revenues because “no one is reading your stuff.” It triggered a revolt on the staff, which would have rather run the paper into insolvency than return to objectivity and neutrality.
The same preference was seen with the cancellation of Stephen Colbert’s late-night show. What had been David Letterman’s formidable program had become a shrill echo chamber for the far left as Colbert engaged in nightly and mostly unfunny diatribes against Trump and Republicans. As its ratings and revenues fell, Colbert was unmoved. At the same time, Fox’s Greg Gutfeld continued to crush the competition as viewers abandoned CBS and other broadcast networks.
The year’s second-quarter ratings showed Fox News’s “Gutfeld!” drawing an average of three million viewers. Gutfeld’s more conservative takes on news remain unique among these late-night shows.
In comparison, “The Late Show” with Stephen Colbert came in second last quarter with an average 2.42 million viewers, despite being a far more costly program.
As liberals expressed outrage over the cancellation and alleged that CBS’s owner, Paramount, was seeking to garner favor with the Trump Administration, even CNN admitted that the show under Colbert had become “unfortunately unprofitable.”
Colbert’s show was reportedly losing $40 million a year with a bloated staff and declining audience.
Paramount issued a statement insisting that Colbert’s cancelation was “not related in any way to the show’s performance.” Perhaps, but media companies are hardly in the habit of cancelling profitable, high-performing programming.
Ultimately, the market is correcting what the media would not. Roughly half of this country is center-right, and 77 million people voted for Trump. They are turning to social media and new media rather than remain a captive audience to a biased legacy media committed to advocacy journalism.
As media outlets fail, there may also be more pressure on journalism schools to return to core principles rather than crank out social justice warriors no one wants to read or hear from.
In the meantime, Maher and NPR can continue to stay the course and try to make up in pledge drives what they lost in public subsidies. However, the whole thing will now have to pay for itself without passing along costs to the rest of the non-listening country.
Jonathan Turley is the Shapiro professor of public interest law at George Washington University and the author of “The Indispensable Right: Free Speech in an Age of Rage.”
Stock Market soars to new record today.
Where is that idiot Elvis, claiming he made 200k shorting stocks? Lmao.
Where are the idiots George and Dennis, who claimed the tariffs would cause a depression?
-Rabble:
I think they lost their voices (or funding to post here) after a week of well-wishing and alt-contributor articles without comments.
They never said that. They did say inflation would be rising under the Trump tariffs and inflation is rising.
Whatever happened to the 90 deals in 90 days? Seems Trump’s TACO deals are becoming the norm.
Hahaha, still doing the TACO thing? Get some new programming, bot.
TACO is still a real thing. Trump continues to fail on making deals he says he can make. Where are the 90 deals he promised?
Ask your mullah friends how TACO worked out for them. You still helping them dig through the radioactive pieces? So sorry that Trump went and blew up Obama’s precious Iranian bomb program.
What are you talking about? Trump’s bombings didnt’ do much damage. All they did was set back their program by a few months. I wouldn’t be surprised if the Iranians had other facilities besides the well known ones. They did move the Uranium out of the Furtow complex before the bombings thanks to Trump’s big mouth.
It’s cute that you actually seem to believe your own conspiracy theories. Face facts, it’s done. Obama’s Iranian legacy of shame got blown to radioactive bits.
What legacy? It was Trump’s unilateral breaking of the agreement, one that was working, that made things worse.
What agreement? The vapid nuclear “deal” which was nothing more than Obama blessing AND FUNDING the Iranian production of nuclear weapons? Trump pulled out of that terrible deal? GOOD.
Also, it’s nice to see that you’ve accepted that fact that Trump blew their program to bits. You were looking pretty nutty there with your conspiracy theory.
OT
“NOTE TO SELF, SUSAN RICE”
“President Obama began the conversation by stressing his continued commitment to ensuring that every aspect of this issue is handled by the Intelligence and law enforcement communities ‘by the book’. The President stressed that he is not asking about, initiating or instructing anything from a law enforcement perspective. He reiterated that our law enforcement team needs to proceed as it normally would by the book.”
– Susan Rice, January 5, 2017
CYA
Lmao who takes notes like that.
Pure evil.
Yet she raked in millions from Netflix, doing god knows what. What a joke she is.
Another reason to defend NPR: We are broke.
Dear Prof Turley,
PBS had some good science stuff.
Big Bird is dead .. . her Majesty was a pretty nice girl, but she didn’t have a lot to say.
As I understand it, 4 or 5 large international conglomerates, controlled by 2 or 3 billionaires, own the U.S. media and about 1/2 the ‘means of production’. .. Lock, stock and barrel.
Karl Marx and the Soviet Union had nothing on these people.
Today, Putin and Xi probably have a better understanding of free-market mechanics. That’s why their economies are booming. .. despite, or because of, Biden’s U.S. Holy writ sanctions and Trump’s threat of unilateral Tariffs.
The free-market is a force of nature – human nature. Like water or electricity, it finds the path of least resistance .. . overcoming the institutional logjams of information and the static of political ideology.
Eventually, the market will find a way.
Do you know where the Epstein files are . .. or not?
*ask not what you can do for a King.. . ask what the King can do for you.
The post above is logically incoherent and factually wrong. It reflects juvenile chaos, empty rhetoric, and unsupported conclusions born of ignorance.
Easy for you to say. .. I’ll bet it just rolls off your tongue, like water off a duck’s back.
*is that you Alan .. .
Were you calling me? I’m not the only one on this list. Most people don’t bother with your writing ability. I discuss your content, which leaves much to be desired, discussing the Ignorance you are so proud of, but I can’t disagree with what the writer said.
“The post above is logically incoherent and factually wrong. It reflects juvenile chaos, empty rhetoric, and unsupported conclusions born of ignorance.”
I repeated his words. Now you can blame me for saying it. I wish I had.
@dgsnowden
Have you even watched PBS since 1988? It isn’t Doctor Who and nature anymore, and hasn’t been for *some* time. Neither has NPR been Prairie Home Companion and kids learning classical guitar from books. Modern dems *really* need to acknowledge the fact that they haven’t paid attention to much of anything but tagentially whatsoever for at least 30+ years. Must be nice. 🤷🏻♂️ I suspect you at least knew Obama was black, and that was all that mattered to your white, tone-deaf behinds (vote blue, no matter who! So I don’t have to think too hard).
“Have you even watched PBS since 1988? It isn’t Doctor Who and nature anymore”
As a life-ling, hard-core science fiction aficionado, I feel compelled to make a semi-OT point – Doctor Who was pretty damned lame most of the time. I’m sure there was quite a bit of other legacy PBS content that was the same. When you eliminate competition, the product usually lacks quality.
Dear Mr. Turley, NPR/PBS lost me years ago when they were incredibly rude about the first President Bush. He was such a decent man and yet they tore him to shreds. Their bias was evident back then. I am glad the government will no longer fund them. They can go out and dig up business advertisers just like the rest of the stations.
“the first President Bush. He was such a decent man and yet they tore him to shreds. ”
Seriously? The ex-CIA spook instigator of our first misadventure in Iraq? I have no recollection of what PBS/NPR used as a pretext to attack him, and as a right-leaning libertarian, I doubt that I would have agreed with what they were pushing at that time, but I am not willing to excuse that huge and costly mis-step to the point of allowing you to nominate him for sainthood, unchallenged, either.
State media won’t quite be dead until Faux News runs out of sponsors and/or the Murdochs go bankrupt.
The good news is that Fox will die with Rupert Murdoch.
According to the irrevocable trust he set up, control of his empire passes to his children, James, Prudence and Elisabeth.
They are all bleeding heart liberals who have vowed to turn Fox into an actual news organization, rather than a MAGA propaganda machine
“Actual news” meaning more left-wing crap? Oh, so the entire company will collapse, a la Colbert? Nobody watches left-wing crap anymore. Advertisers won’t pay for ads if nobody is watching. CNN, MSDNC, Washington Post, all dying.
@Anonymous
I restate my case about many liberals not paying attention to anything whatsoever outside of their personal living box they call a reality for decades at a time: Fox was bought by Disney. Not a secret. Given your frothy-mouthed support of NPR or PBS, I would think Disney would be near the top of your list, too. They said the news outlet wouldn’t be affected, but if you are still touting ‘Rupert Murdoch’, or, ‘The Koch Brothers (one of whom is dead)’, or even Ann Coulter: 1995 called, and they want their crusty conservatives and people’s opinions of them back. And do you honestly think Disney hasn’t stuck their fingers in the pie? Pfft.
Really, step into the next century in your thinking, because at this point you just sound like an out of touch geezer. Nothing I have said is outside of the public eye, and it goes back years at this point. Wake up, Rumpelstiltskin.
James
WOW !!!!!
You really do live in a bizarre fantasy world completely divorced from reality.
Murdoch did not sell Fox to Disney.
He sold 21st Century Fox, the movie studio, that was just one part of his empire.
He then reorganized his empire into News Corp., which runs his publishing properties, and Fox Corp. which handles broadcast and entertainment, and includes Fox News.
Of course, this empire in its present form collapses when Rupert dies, and his 3 liberal children take control.
So, having 6 or 7 major news companies be overtly leftist, progressive, and insane is perfectly fine, but having just ONE voice for the other side is too much?
Pot calling, 1984 on Line Two.
“having 6 or 7 major news companies be overtly leftist, progressive, and insane is perfectly fine, but having just ONE voice for the other side is too much?”
And one estrogen-dosed, token, voice, at that…
Article 1, Section 8: Congress has no power to tax for or fund broadcasting; Congress has no power to regulate broadcasting.
The subject is entirely moot.
The singular American failure is the judicial branch, with emphasis on the Supreme Court.
Your eyesight is better than mine. You see things that aren’t there or, maybe you’re paraphrasing. I don’t want the gov funding broadcasting, either. Courts allowed the gov to hang their hat on commerce clause to give constitutional authority to regulate broadcasting maybe this, in Article 1 Section 8 was a kicker?: “promoting science and the useful arts” but, then, NPR is neither.
““promoting science and the useful arts”
“Promoting” and “owning” or even “managing” are completely divergent concepts, then and now.
In a stunning development, a group of fifth graders on a school trip to Mar-a-Lago stumbled upon the Epstein list in one of the club’s public bathrooms, the group’s teacher confirmed on Monday.
“The kids were really surprised to find the list,” said Carol Foyler, who traveled with her summer school students from Daytona Beach. “They wondered how it made it all the way from Pam Bondi’s desk.”
Liam Dorrinson, 11, said that he and his classmates plan to publish the Epstein list in their school’s newspaper, and dismissed concerns that Donald Trump might sue them.
“I wouldn’t do that if I was him,” the fifth grader said. “We also found his taxes.”
Yawn. Get better material. You’re just boring.
So funny I forgot to laugh.
A stumbling-block for your leftist screed, is that even children are not that stupid -https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/31f8fd8e959cece8ca9598ad06ca84512b909f7112e2575c8d1b18b3c516621f.jpg
I bet they didn’t find Hunter Biden’s taxes now did they? Did they find Bill Clinton’s flight bag and Viagra/Coke stash? How about Hillary’s blackberry or hard drive?
Given these names came with their public origins and they no longer have that mission, National Public Radio and Public Broadcasting Station are now misnomers. They should be forced to have a name change. Seriously.
But not so seriously…let’s make suggestions: NPR can become Nothing Plausible Radio and PBS can become Probably Bullschitt Station.
” NPR can become Nothing Plausible Radio and PBS can become Probably Bullschitt Station.”
They could merely drop the letter “l” (2nd instance in the 1st example)… Probably not what you were looking for, but imo indicative of the content quality.
In Other News: “DNC Announces Newly Approved ‘Direct To Internet’ James Bond Style Franchise after Demise of NPR Funding”
~+~
The Democratic National Committee partnered with a Hong Kong based generative AI book writing firm to produce Direct to Internet movies featuring stories appropriate for its membership. The first installment will feature a new political/spy thriller catering to liberal sensibilities.
The stories written by ChatBot NODE1736A-HK-CN, better known under the pen name Ian Lemming, feature the main protagonist, trans agent Jane Blonde, who works for the British Intelligence agency MI6 without the toxic masculinity of previous secret agents. Upcoming titles include:
Dr. Fauxcahontas
From Russia Russia Russia with Love
Gold Digger
Blunderball
You Only Vote Twice?
On Hillary’s Secret Server
Diamonds Are For Leverage
Live and Let Lie
The Man Who Emboldened Gun Control
The Guy Who Loved “Me Too!”
Muckraker
Grab’em By The Octopussy
The Living Gaslights
Licentious Bill
Gold And Lies
The War Is Not Enough
DEI Every Day
BlueSky Fall
Lecture
No Time To Indict
*. Humor, yes, humor.
PT, does AI have freedom of speech and press? As all written and spoken communication is pumped into the AI black hole it is inevitably overwritten and injected with DEI. It’s made real strides infringing upon normatives. It’s managed to make lies into truth and changed rational man into lunatics. The essence of illogic is madness.
It’s basically a death cult.
*. Nearly all media is AI generated now. AI writes blues, rock n roll, country music now. AI decided a radio is a noise box and television, too. Radio is screeching garbled tin pans banging cacophony. AI decided tv is girls, guns and gore. It injects DEI as dubs into old shows and movies.
Apparently AI is the creator.
Yeah,
Stephen Colbert interviews former FBI Director Andrew McCabe.
We will get him. Don’t forget to buy my book.
Correction, Former FBI Deputy Director….Buy my book
Ms Maher sheds crocodile tears. She knows as well as anyone that her liberal donors will simply make up the loss of taxpayer funding by increased donations. Got to keep that lieberal agenda running. As for Colbert, this is just a ploy to increase viewers. If they were truly concerned the corporation would have simply bought out his contract and cancelled the show immediately. It’s why I call the network See BS.
“…liberal donors will simply make up the loss of taxpayer funding by increased donations.”
Probably, but why should NPR/PBS get to keep their non-profit, no-tax status? Obivously the shouldn’t; that’s just another subsidy from taxpayers who don’t listen them.
-g
That’s an excellent point. I had completely forgotten about them being tax exempt. I agree. Pull the funding and end their special treatment.
Thanks.
A personal media diary:
Friday, July 18, 2025, the United States Director of National Intelligence releases documents implicating President Obama, Brennan, Rice, others, & media organizations of orchestrating the 2016 Russian Election Hoaxes to prevent, then impede new Pres. Trump’s term.
This is not old news. It is CURRENT and important, proven by the virtual blackout of the story, ignored by the legacy media organizations for at least an entire weekend.
Sat. July 19, the NBC Nightly News said nothing. They did reports on Epstein rumors, Katie Perry near concert malfunction, Bad Bunny, a friend’s reunion, a found wedding ring, and a 2nd round baseball draft-pick.
The same night, CNN at 7:00PM, EDT, led with more about Epstein and the Wall Street Journal birthday card.
From what I saw, the morning Sunday “news” shows did not mention the DNI statements or document releases.
Monday Morning, 7/21/2025. The NBC Today show said nothing about this, not even to refute it.
Maybe they are waiting to be told how to respond, so we can see a coordinated synchronized effort.
We need no further proof than this that these organizations are complicit. If it wasn’t real, they would’ve led with it and proved it was fake.
They are the State media – we are the witnesses.
https://x.com/dnigabbard/status/1946271402971312514?s=46
It’s just the next disaster.
I like all the people on the left, who have such little faith in NPR’s ability, go on to claim it is doomed without tax payer funding!
(However, there is still one hope for restoring traditional journalism: the market.) That line is only partly correct. If nothing is done about the same blind bias in our education industry then more and more mis-educated sheeple will continue to flow into the market place and support those rags that spew the progressive nonsense that makes these same sheeple feel safe in hearing the echo chambers of delusions.
Until we strike at, and disinfect, our education industries we will achieve nothing towards setting this society straight. Just how many truly misinformed, indoctrinated tools are out there now without the barest clue about reality but smug in their self-righteousness ( an outgrowth of nanny parents and radical educators) to the point of their ignorance of their own ignorance.
Disinfect? Are you sure you have a conscious? Sick F.
disinfect is EXACTLY what I meant, to cleanse and remove toxic elements that have destroyed any semblance of a cultural core of shared and agreed upon moral standards which have ALWAYS been a requirement of a successful society and culture. If you cannot or will not comprehend that then I would suggest a few years of studying human culture and history to understand why your sick {F} reaction is so primitive and illiterate.
You demonstrated the need – perfectly.
*. She meant a computer virus and malware program.
I thought Cheryl Crow selling her Tesla to support NPR was indicating that it should be privately funded and people like are willing to do it! Or Did I get the wrong message from her public claims of her private action?
I think there might be a great difference between the self-promoting acts of a celebrity that could just buy another status-symbol car and the meager contributions made at local PBS stations by less well financed individuals who may be only able to support $50/year memberships but who will now use that money to better purposes within their own communities.
I supported our local PBS station by donating framing to our yearly auction/fundraiser until I was so disgusted by their radical shift to the far left. I believe that they will have difficulty winning back support like mine at this point. Yes the market will have its effect, but there are, with each passing year, less and less better educated viewers who can tell the difference between facts and fantasy.
There is another more descriptive term for “advocacy journalism.” That term is “propaganda.” Goebbels’ ghost is likely bemoaning what has finally befallen PBS and NPR.
The mainstream media is doomed to continue what they are doing – it’s all about sensational headlines, particularly if they are anti-Trump or MAGA. No hope they will ever change.
The problem is that there aren’t enough crazy leftists to make that a viable business model. Just ask the non-comedian Colbert. Or the Washington Post.
Bezos is a businessman and when his Washington Post was hemorrhaging money/readers he made a rational decision based on market economics. People like soros and gates are not driven by market viability but by fanatic ideological concepts that have little to do with reality. It will be the gates and soros types that will continue to fund propaganda machines of whatever nature is viable to spew their ideology.
If we think progressive ideologies will be tamped down by cutting NPR funding, that is a laughable concept as long as our universities remain the creation points of radical, progressive ideologies whose endgame is a progressive world control mechanism. And we all know that in order to achieve such a goal, the largest impediment to that is a vibrant, capitalist free America – and that is why they are trying, so desperately, to destroy this nation.
I have to give these left-wing lunatic billionaires their due, I had assumed that they were flushing their own money down the drain on their garbage, but it turns out that they managed to get taxpayers to do it for them. I guess the old adage is still true, you don’t get rich by spending your own money. Pretty crafty of them.
Another excellent piece. Like many, I don’t mind that NPR exists, but I don’t need to be funding it against my will. I think the hardest part of this for the likes of Maher is the modern left’s biggest bugaboo: *actual* democratization, and the shattering of their echo chambers and cocoons of privilege. Watching that web unravel is fantastic, and agreed, whig: about damn time.
Media will continue to be owned by wealthy manipulators and intelligence agencies. At least there is a possibility of cutting off the IC funding.
In the context of today’s technology maybe the only legitimate roles for government are improving connectivity and nuking foreign ownership of US communications assets, real estate, and politicians
It’s about damn time. Took over 40 years but it finally got done.
Still, I do like Masterpiece Theater on PBS, so I assume we will pay to stream the British crime shows. I haven’t listened to NPR in forever, so that’s no loss.
My only exposure to NPR is through conservatives analyzing examples of it’s bias. Have no idea where it’s to be found on “the radio dial”.
FM stations, usually near 88.8MHZ or in that vicinity, not that it matters. Here in the Richmond VA they are at 88.3. In Norfolk they are at 90.3.