Poll: Taxpayers Turning on Funding NPR

NPR radio daze
AP Photo/Charles Dharapak

Taxpayers are turning on the public funding of National Public Radio (NPR), according to the latest DailyMail.com/TIPP survey.

The survey asked respondents, “Do you agree or disagree: NPR should lose taxpayer funding due to its political bias?”

Across the board, 44 percent agree that NPR should lose its funding, compared to 26 percent who disagree. Another 31 percent remain unsure:

The survey comes weeks after veteran NPR editor and reporter Uri Berliner resigned from the broadcaster after publishing an article blasting the network’s left-wing bias in an op-ed published in the Free Press:

In the article, he claimed that the newsroom employs 87 registered Democrats in editorial positions but zero Republicans in the same positions in its Washington, DC, headquarters — an admission he made despite leaning left himself.

As Breitbart News reported:

“[P]olitics were blotting out the curiosity and independence that ought to have been driving our work,” he explained. His concerns came to a head when he told management in 2021 that NPR, which presents its news stories as unbiased, had a bias problem within the network.

Afterward, he was suspended without pay from NPR, and he offered his resignation letter in April.

“I am resigning from NPR, a great American institution where I have worked for 25 years,” Berliner posted at the time.

“I respect the integrity of my colleagues and wish for NPR to thrive and do important journalism,” he continued, adding that he “cannot work in a newsroom where I am disparaged by a new CEO whose divisive views confirm the very problems at NPR I cite in my Free Press essay.”

Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) is among those pushing to defund NPR, backing former President Donald Trump’s own sentiments toward the organization.

“The mainstream media has become obsessed with doing the Left’s bidding and taking down strong conservatives — and NPR has led the pack,” Blackburn told Fox News.

“It makes no sense that the American people are forced to fund a propagandist left-wing outlet that refuses to represent the voices of half the country. NPR should not receive our tax dollars,” she added.

Trump also called for “NO MORE FUNDING FOR NPR,” calling it “A TOTAL SCAM!”

“EDITOR SAID THEY HAVE NO REPUBLICANS, AND IS ONLY USED TO ‘DAMAGE TRUMP,’” Trump wrote in April. “THEY ARE A LIBERAL DISINFORMATION MACHINE. NOT ONE DOLLAR!!!”

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