House hearing on PBS and NPR a ‘dangerous mischaracterization’ of U.S. public media

National Public Radio CEO Katherine Maher (left) and Public Broadcasting Service CEO Paula Kerger testify during a House Oversight and Government Reform Committee hearing on March 26, 2025 in Washington, DC. (Photo: AFP/Drew Angerer)
NPR CEO Katherine Maher (left) and PBS CEO Paula Kerger testify in the House during a subcommittee hearing on March 26, 2025 in Washington, DC. (Photo: AFP/Drew Angerer)

The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns the willful mischaracterization of the vital work and role of public broadcasters NPR and PBS during Wednesday’s Congressional hearing, titled “Anti-American Airwaves: Holding the Heads of NPR and PBS accountable.”

“Millions of Americans from major cities to rural areas rely on NPR and PBS for news and information on natural disasters, political developments, and so much more,” said CPJ CEO Jodie Ginsberg. “NPR and PBS provide an essential public service. Casting them as propaganda machines undeserving of taxpayer support is a dangerous mischaracterization that threatens to rob Americans of the vital reporting they need to make decisions about their lives.”

The hearing was chaired by Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., who has accused the two networks of liberal bias, and throughout the hearing referred to NPR and PBS as “radical left-wing echo chambers” with “communist” programming. Taylor Greene called for the “complete and total” defunding and dismantling of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which helps to fund NPR and PBS.

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Also: CPJ, others urge Congress to support public media


Israel kills two more Gaza journalists

Palestinians hold the body of journalist Hossam Shabat, who was killed by an Israeli strike, according to medics, in the northern Gaza Strip, on March 24, 2025.
Palestinians hold the body of journalist Hossam Shabat, who was killed by an Israeli strike, according to medics, in the northern Gaza Strip, on March 24, 2025. (Photo: Reuters/Mahmoud Issa)

On March 24, deadly Israeli strikes hit the car of Qatari-based Al Jazeera Mubasher’s Hossam Shabat near northern Gaza’s Beit Lahia, and the home in southern Gaza’s Khan Yunis of Mohammed Mansour, who worked for the pro-Islamic Jihad, Beirut-based Palestine Today TV.

“CPJ is appalled that we are once again seeing Palestinians weeping over the bodies of dead journalists in Gaza,” said CPJ’s Program Director Carlos Martinez de la Serna in New York. “This nightmare in Gaza has to end. The international community must act fast to ensure that journalists are kept safe and hold Israel to account for the deaths of Hossam Shabat and Mohammed Mansour, whose killings may have been targeted.”

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The Committee to Protect Journalists promotes press freedom worldwide.

We defend the right of journalists to report the news safely and without fear of reprisal.

Journalists Attacked

Myat Thu Tan

MURDERED

Myat Thu Tan, a contributor to the local news website Western News and correspondent for several independent Myanmar news outlets, was shot and killed on January 31, 2024, while in military custody in Mrauk-U in Myanmar’s western Rakhine State.

He was arrested on September 22, 2022, and held in pre-trial detention under a broad provision of the penal code that criminalizes incitement and the dissemination of false news for critical posts he made on his Facebook page. Myat Thu Tan had not been tried or convicted at the time of his death.

The journalist’s body was found buried in a bomb shelter, with the bodies of six other political detainees, and showed signs of torture.

Myanmar’s military junta has cracked down on journalists and media outlets since seizing power in a February 2021 coup.

In at least 8 out of 10 cases, the murderers of journalists go free. CPJ is waging a global campaign against impunity.