Comer to Newsmax: NPR, PBS Don't Deserve Federal Funds

Rep. James Comer, R-Ky., chair of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, told Newsmax on Wednesday that testimony from the heads of NPR and PBS earlier in the day did not change his mind that they should no longer receive federal funds.

Katherine Maher, president and CEO of NPR, and Paula Kerger, president and CEO of PBS, testified before the Oversight Subcommittee on Delivering on Government Efficiency to address the perceived liberal bias displayed by the publicly funded news outlets.

Comer told “Finnerty” that Maher and Kerger didn’t say anything to change his mind. The networks combined reportedly received $535 million annually in taxpayer revenue from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.

“They didn't make the case why we need to continue funding those two networks,” Comer said. “They just apologized for getting stories wrong. Stories like Russian collusion, stories like the origins of COVID-19, stories like the Hunter Biden laptop.

“I referenced a story [NPR] did on me that they copied and pasted from The Huffington Post, and they call themselves journalists. I grew up listening to public radio. I lived in a rural community and that was all you could get, but I don't even recognize public radio today.

“I mean, they are a left-wing outlet and, you know, I believe in freedom of speech, right? But at the end of the day, taxpayer dollars should not go to those networks to continue to spread disinformation to their liberal base.”

Comer said it should be a “no-brainer” for House Republicans to come together on this issue and pass a measure to defund the networks.

“Hopefully, my Republican colleagues in the house and hopefully our Republican colleagues in the Senate will stand together and officially defund [NPR and PBS] because today was a pretty good display of their failed leadership and their inefficient use of our tax dollars,” he said.

Rep. Jasmine Crockett, D-Texas, said in the hearing that “free speech is not about whatever it is that y’all want somebody to say. And the idea that you want to shut down everybody that isn’t Fox News is bull****.”

“We need to stop playing because that’s what y’all are doing in here, you don’t want to hear the opinions of anybody else,” she said. “And the Constitution says, 'Congress shall make no law respecting or establishing of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech or of the press.”

Comer said Crockett’s statements were a “joke.”

“Look, we all believe in freedom of speech,” he said. “If they want to be like MSNBC and The Huffington Post and misinform their viewers, they have a right to do that. I'm just not going to give them any tax dollars. They don't deserve a penny of our tax dollars.

“When you receive tax dollars, you're supposed to be honest and fair. They are not. They didn't make the case today that they were going to change and they were going to improve.”

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