Maine Public Broadcasting Network ran a national story Wednesday on the layoffs, not so much as even mentioning whether its own $2.5 million annual cut will result in job losses.
Facing loss of taxpayer funding, NPR management slashed its workforce Wednesday, never addressing the root cause of the financial crisis – one-sided reporting favoring Democrats.
The public-broadcast network is up against loss of government subsidies, thanks to Republican lawmakers who put their foot down a year ago.
After Congress, led by President Trump, dropped taxpayer funding the leftist network’s stations nationwide went into panic.
But though they realized the fat lady had finally sung, they never acknowledged that she and the public were tired of their liberal bias.
The decision to shutter the Corporation for Public Broadcast came after Trump signed a bill canceling its $1.1 billion in federal funding.
The White House has called the taxpayer-financed, public-media system politically biased and an unnecessary expense.
Its shutdown comes two years after longtime NPR senior business editor Uri Berliner published an essay blasting its coverage as increasingly reflecting a rigid progressive ideology.
Berliner has been the lone voice speaking truth to power.
After he said NPR’s partisan leftist bent was losing the public trust, was suspended and then resigned in the wake of his outspoken editorializing.
He had claimed that the network’s new focus on diversity hiring wasn’t reflected in its on-air product due to its allegedly limiting a wide range of political viewpoints.
Berliner’s essay was published by The Free Press, an online site embraced by journalists who believe that the mainstream media has become too liberal.
“It’s true NPR has always had a liberal bent, but during most of my tenure here, an open-minded, curious culture prevailed. We were nerdy, but not knee-jerk, activist, or scolding,” he wrote.
“In recent years, however, that has changed,” he said. “Today, those who listen to NPR or read its coverage online find something different: the distilled worldview of a very small segment of the U.S. population.”
He said that while government broadcasting was always considered to be left of center, it had recently morphed into a virtual political movement telling listeners how to think.
NPR science reporter Nell Greenfieldboyce, who was laid off Wednesday after 20 years, said she’s confident that Thomas Evans, the network’s top editor, will succeed managing what’s left of the company.
“Tommy has got good instincts,” she said. “He’s obviously a good news person.”
Apparently not, actually.
