Column: NPR Is National Public Relations for the War on Trump

February 21st, 2025 5:57 AM

At the top of every hour, hundreds of taxpayer-subsidized National Public Radio stations in 50 states transmit leftist public relations, badly disguised as news. You can get talking points jammed in your ear on your rush-hour commute.

On the morning of February 20, NPR anchor Korva Coleman promoted an anti-Trump lawsuit, and notice there are no labels for the activists. They’re just for “civil rights.”

Coleman began: “Civil rights groups are suing the Trump administration over executive orders they call illegal. As NPR’s Sandhya Dirks reports, the Legal Defense Fund and Lambda Legal are suing on behalf of three nonprofits.”

Dirks continued this audio press release: “The nonprofits provide housing, work programs and medical care to black, queer, and trans communities. The lawsuit claims the Trump administration, by banning anything it labels diversity, equity, inclusion, and trans people violates the right to free speech and due process and prevents the nonprofits from helping those disproportionately impacted by systemic racism and bigotry.”

Nobody is allowed to question the concept of “systemic racism” on NPR. They’re deeply invested in that ideology. It’s why NPR favors describing race riots against cops as “rebellions.”  

Left-wing media outlets wage war on Trump’s takedown of “diversity, equity and inclusion” campaigns, which are horribly named. The left doesn’t want any diversity or inclusion that allows any dissenting space for their opponents, and “equity” is a code word for discrimination in favor of the “marginalized” groups.

NPR then presented a soundbite from Lambda Legal CEO Kevin Jennings. Coleman explained he “says the consequences of the president’s orders are more than just overturning decades of civil rights.” Translation: Trump’s going to kill people. Jennings said “If people cannot get preventative care, if people cannot get care once they have HIV, people will die!

That recycled Reagan-era line is still lame. Unless left-wing groups get federal funding, people will never get health care. That’s a cartoon argument, but NPR is very willing to promote it.

Coleman closed with a half-argument from the other side: “Trump has said his executive actions are about doing away with programs that he calls discriminatory.” 

NPR ran pretty much the same press release on the same lawsuit on the evening of February 19. Anchor Jack Spear led off the hour: “Civil rights groups are suing the Trump administration over executive orders they say effectively is hamstringing their work. As NPR’s Jennifer Ludden reports, the suit claims orders targeting DEI and transgender rights are unconstitutional.“

Ludden sounded the same notes as Dirks: “The National Urban League, the National Fair Housing Alliance, and the AIDS Foundation of Chicago all help black, brown, and LGBTQ people. They say those groups have historically been denied equal access to housing, health care, and other rights, and if they can’t specifically target them, they can’t do their jobs.”

Once again, Trump gets a half-argument. Ludden threw in: “Trump says he’s ending policies to quote, ‘socially engineer race and gender.’ But the lawsuit alleges the orders violate constitutional amendments on free speech and equal protection.”

So it’s a little odd that these leftist lawyers would complain Trump violates the “right to free speech by censoring and chilling their views on diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility.” For years now, NPR has clearly censored and chilled any viewpoints that are critical of the DEI lobbyists.  

The half of the country that voted for Trump shouldn’t have to support this clearly hostile radio network with our tax dollars. Lambda Legal and all the other leftists should pony up for NPR’s supine press releases, since NPR’s “newscasts” aren’t diverse or inclusive enough for conservatives.