PBS and NPR each faced the difficulty on Wednesday night of covering their own bosses taking tough questions from Republicans at the Capitol in a hearing on Wednesday. PBS actually aired a Republican citing us -- just as a "conservative media watchdog group." NPR didn't want to seriously engage in anything....
PBS correspondent William Brangham included plenty of Republican and Democrat soundbites from the hearing. He also aired PBS boss Paula Kerger claiming that the drag queen singing to children "The Hips on the Drag Queen Go Swish Swish Swish" were never broadcast on TV. Subcommittee chairman challenged that, saying WNET in New York aired it on April 20, 2021. The video is available across the country at the PBS website.
Here's where the studies on PBS tilt were mentioned:
Rep. PAT FALLON (R-TX): Propaganda wing of the Democratic Party.
WILLIAM BRANGHAM: The PBS News Hour was criticized as well. Representative Pat Fallon, Republican of Texas, cited a conservative media watchdog group that says it analyzed the News Hour's coverage of the 2024 presidential conventions.
FALLON: Seventy-two percent of the coverage of the GOP convention was negative; 88 percent of the coverage of Democratic Convention was positive.
Rep. ROBERT GARCIA (D-CA): A large majority of Americans say they trust PBS. And that's exactly why extremists are trying to tear it down.
As usual, Brangham claimed their funding was a tiny percentage of the enormous federal budget, and cost about $1.50 a day per American...as if the issue was merely fiscal, and not about all their horrendous daily "news" product.
NPR media reporter David Folkenflik always arrives with the disclaimer that no NPR executive has reviewed his copy, but it still sounds like tinny self-defense. Online, he huffed:
The hearing, entitled "Anti-American Airwaves: Holding the Heads of NPR and PBS Accountable," appears arranged more to score points than to find facts.
He's not looking in the mirror to see if this applies to NPR "news." On All Things Considered, notes.