NPR is facing major funding challenges after the Senate voted to eliminate public broadcasting grants—and rural communities are caught in the political crossfire, according to NPR CEO Katherine Maher. Yet Maher’s long history of inflammatory rhetoric targeting conservatives and white Americans casts doubt on her latest plea.
Maher warned Thursday that “the primary impact of this potential rescission is going to hurt communities where they need support most, which are rural stations.” She claimed those rural areas “do not have access to other forms of local news, emergency reporting, emergency alerting.”
But Maher herself has alienated much of rural America. In 2020, she posted on X, “America is addicted to white supremacy,” and called President Donald Trump a “deranged, racist sociopath.” She also declared, “White silence is white complicity.”
Now, as the Republican-led Senate rescinds $9 billion in foreign aid and public broadcasting funds, Maher is pivoting to defend NPR’s role in the very communities her comments once dismissed. “It doesn’t help anyone to take this funding away,” she told CNN, adding, “Please show me a story that concerns you.”
Republicans have pointed to stories such as “Christian nationalism’s support is strongest in rural, conservative states” and “What ‘Queer Ducks’ can teach teenagers about sexuality in the animal kingdom” as evidence of NPR’s partisan tilt.
Sen. John Kennedy and Sen. Eric Schmitt highlighted these headlines as examples of taxpayer-funded bias. And former NPR editor Uri Berliner, who resigned after exposing internal bias, said Maher’s “divisive views” represent the network’s broader cultural rot.
Maher’s damage control tour failed to erase her past. As Berliner warned, “devastating” bias at NPR reflects “87 Democrats and 0 Republicans” in top editorial roles.
