NPR Head Maher the Grouch Is Suing Trump, the Count

AP Photo/Charles Dharapak, File

This is a novel approach to doing battle with someone who doesn't like you very much and can pretty much prove the bias he's claiming you openly display without so much as breaking a sweat - file a First Amendment lawsuit.

Advertisement

Who knew?

Seriously. The weirdo that is Katherine Maher, head of National Public Radio, for whom the truth is sometimes a big impediment to delivering the message and censorship the only tool for dealing with those who would oppose the message...

...has decided there's some God given natural right to buttloads of taxpayer dollars to fund her fiefdom. In classic AWFL fashion, no loud-mouthed, abhorrent Bad Orange Man-whatever his gig - has any right to interfere with her collecting those treasury checks.

You can't make this stuff up.

'It's an AFFRONT!' she sniveled, dabbing at her sodden, streaming eyes.

 National Public Radio and three Colorado-based public radio stations have filed a lawsuit against President Trump, contesting an executive order that seeks to cut federal funding to public broadcasters, including NPR and PBS. 

The lawsuit was lodged in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday. The plaintiffs are seeking to block implementation of the order, claiming it infringes upon public broadcasters’ constitutional rights and jeopardizes their mission to provide fair, independent reporting. 

“The Executive Order is a clear violation of the Constitution and the First Amendment’s protections for freedom of speech and association, and freedom of the press,” NPR’s CEO, Katherine Maher, said in a statement. “It is an affront to the rights of NPR and NPR’s 246 Member stations, which are locally owned, nonprofit, noncommercial media organizations serving all 50 states and territories. Today, we challenge its constitutionality in the nation’s independent courts.”

The executive order, issued on May 1, directs the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and other federal agencies to halt federal funding for NPR and PBS. The order further instructs agencies to eliminate indirect sources of public funding for these broadcasters.

Advertisement

Oh, how dare he! 

WE CHALLENGE HIM TO A CONSTITUTIONALITY! FREE SPEECH! FREE BIRD!

...Key allegations in the lawsuit include claims that the executive order serves as retaliation for content critical of Mr. Trump, thereby threatening the media outlets’ First Amendment rights. “The Order’s objectives could not be clearer: the Order aims to punish NPR for the content of news and other programming the President dislikes and chill the free exercise of First Amendment rights by NPR and individual public radio stations across the country,” the lawsuit says.  

It's chilling, Maher says.

Trump says it's not about me, chica. It's about you and your 'unbiased' little outfit there.

And then Trump said, 'Let me count the ways...'

I'll only give you a few here from the middle of the stack. It's a long list.

  • An NPR editor found that registered Democrats outnumbered Republicans 87 to zero in the newsroom’s editorial positions.
  • NPR’s President and CEO admitted that she regards “truth” as a harmful “distraction” from NPR’s objectives.
  • To illustrate its partisan capture, NPR management asked its editors to avoid the term “biological sex” when discussing transgender issues.
  • NPR has run stories defending looting and suggesting that crime fears are racist and has described its diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) practices as “inseparable” from its content.
  • NPR refused to cover the Hunter Biden laptop story, calling it a waste of time and a distraction, despite that it was highly relevant to the presidential election.
  • NPR repeatedly insisted COVID-19 did not originate in a lab and refused to explore the theory.
    • The FBI, CIA, and Department of Energy have all since deemed the lab-leak theory the likely cause.
  • NPR ran a Valentine’s Day feature around “queer animals,” in which it suggested the make-believe clownfish in “Finding Nemo” would’ve been better off as a female, that “banana slugs are hermaphrodites,” and that “some deer are nonbinary.”
  • Research shows that “congressional Republicans faced 85% negative coverage, compared to 54% positive coverage of congressional Democrats,” on PBS’s flagship news program.
  • Over a six-month period, PBS News Hour used versions of the term “far-right” 162 times, but “far-left” only 6 times.
Advertisement

The most important point is the last one, and it can't be emphasized enough - where is the First Amendment right to taxpayer dollars for anything?

  • No media outlet has a Constitutional right to taxpayer subsidized operations, and it’s highly inappropriate for taxpayers to be forced to subsidize biased, partisan content.

Most observers are are shaking their head at what appears to be the tilting at windmills aspect of the lawsuit, so black and heavy are the NPR misdeeds to the Left side of the scale.

Are our tax dollars paying for this lawsuit, too?

And why should I give a flying fig if a taxpayer-supported, supposedly non-biased 'news' outlet is getting hammered when its own defenders are crying 'viewpoint discrimination!'

Hang on there, dudes and dudettes - there isn't supposed to BE any 'viewpoint' from you all, remember? That was the whole point of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting to begin with. It was meant to be neutral for all points of view.

And I haven't heard or seen my point of view in literally decades. But I have heard it attacked, belittled, denigrated, dismissed, vilified, and ignored as the overwhelmingly progressive viewpoint voices of NPR and PBS drowned out the middle and center right.  

Advertisement

Trump can count the ways in his sleep.

In fact, most of us can.

NPR is most certainly welcome to First Amendment themselves away and continue saying and reporting on anything their shriveled little progressive hearts desire.

The catch is that now they'll get to do it on their own dime.

Join the conversation as a VIP Member

Trending on HotAir Videos

Advertisement
John Sexton 8:00 PM | May 29, 2025
Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement