Donald Trump Calls For Defunding Of NPR As Whistleblower Discloses Liberal Bias

Uri Berliner, a business editor and reporter for National Public Radio, detailed the bias within NPR's political reporting in two recent essays for Bari Weiss' news site, The Free Press.

Earlier this week, Berliner claimed his bosses at NPR willfully ignored the Hunter Biden laptop story ahead of the 2020 election at the risk of spreading a story that could help Donald Trump win the election.

"The laptop was newsworthy," Berliner wrote. "But the timeless journalistic instinct of following a hot story lead was being squelched."

He has since spoken out about the outlet's edict after the 2016 election, when NPR journalists were encouraged to find ways to "damage or topple" Trump's presidency.

Per Berliner, the narrative that the Trump campaign colluded with Russia to win the White House "became the catnip that drove reporting" and that "we hitched our wagon to Trump’s most visible antagonist, Representative Adam Schiff." 

While the motives are the same – damage Trump's reputation at call cost – NPR is dissimilar to the New York Times, Washington Post, and USA Today in one way:

You help fund NPR.

Thus, Trump called on Thursday for the "defunding" of the organization:

 "NO MORE FUNDING FOR NPR, A TOTAL SCAM! EDITOR SAID THEY HAVE NO REPUBLICANS, AND IS ONLY USED TO ‘DAMAGE TRUMP.’ THEY ARE A LIBERAL DISINFORMATION MACHINE. NOT ONE DOLLAR!!!"

Tax money should not go toward NPR. The outlet is not a service to the people. It's a cog in the legacy media machine. Its coverage is slanted, compromised, and frequently propagandistic.

However, Berliner doesn't believe that defunding NPR is the answer. 

NPR insists it receives "less than 1 percent of its $300 million annual budget" from the federally funded Corporation for Public Broadcasting, although it also receives fees from federally backed partner stations.

Berliner predicts NPR would continue as is, without said funding. He added the following commentary:

"Despite our missteps at NPR, defunding isn’t the answer. As the country becomes more fractured, there’s still a need for a public institution where stories are told and viewpoints exchanged in good faith. Defunding, as a rebuke from Congress, wouldn’t change the journalism at NPR. That needs to come from within."

Unfortunately, a change within is wholly unlikely. Especially during an election year in which Trump will be on the ballot.