National Public Radio on Monday ran a so-called "sponsor message" promoting pharma giant Procter & Gamble’s nerve-relief drug Nervive, "designed to reduce occasional nerve aches, weakness and discomfort." The message, effectively a commercial, is tied to one of hundreds of advertiser deals that are far more important to NPR than government funding. NPR brought in $100 million from corporate sponsors in 2023, compared to only $7 million in federal funding.

The thinly disguised commercials such as the "sponsor message" from Procter & Gamble—aimed straight at NPR’s rapidly aging audience with aching hands and feet—are now the focus of the new Federal Communications Commission chairman, Brendan Carr, who may have found the powerful news giant’s Achilles' heel. Carr has now launched an investigation into whether the news nonprofit’s "sponsor messages" have violated federal rules that prohibit taxpayer-funded radio stations from "airing commercials or other promotional announcements on behalf of for-profit entities."

NPR—whose $100 million sponsorship haul in 2023 came from around 450 corporate sponsors—has been criticized for decades by conservatives who object to an overtly liberal news outlet with enormous reach receiving taxpayer dollars.

"I am concerned that NPR and PBS broadcasts could be violating federal law," wrote Carr, a longtime commissioner of the FCC who is also backing similar probes of CBS, NBC, and ABC for allegations that their news coverage improperly favored Kamala Harris despite getting access to lucrative public airwaves. Regarding NPR, Carr took issue with providing the organization with taxpayer money, which, while dwarfed by sponsorship revenue, is believed to be essential to NPR’s operations. NPR airing advertisements for for-profit companies "would further undermine any case for continuing to fund NPR and PBS with taxpayer dollars," Carr said.