It’s easy to point out that there’s not much difference between MS NOW and “public” broadcasters. On Friday night, MS NOW broadcast a special program recorded in front of an audience in Philadelphia on June 25 titled We The People: America 250. MS NOW’s leading lady Rachel Maddow put on her smirky face to tout the patriotism of National “Public” Radio and how it’s so misunderstood by stupid conservative tweeters. It began like this:
MADDOW: On July 4th, 2017, NPR did something that it does every year National Public Radio, NPR. They every year they have their broadcasters read the declaration of Independence on air in full. In 2017, NPR also posted the declaration online. They just posted the whole thing unedited in a long series of tweets. This is an annual tradition for NPR. This is how they mark the country's birthday every year.
Fact check? False.
Rachel Maddow tells rapt MS NOW-fan audience that NPR has an ongoing annual tradition of reading the Declaration of Independence, and in 2017, some idiots misunderstood it.
— Tim Graham (@TimJGraham) July 6, 2026
Fact check: NPR stopped reading the Declaration in 2022. It was suddenly too racist after the 2020 riots. pic.twitter.com/qMdRIc3hvk
Maddow somehow missed that NPR stopped this tradition after 33 years in 2022.
In 2021, NPR ran it for the last time with the note: “But after last summer's protests and our national reckoning on race, the words in the document land differently.” In 2022, NPR co-host Leila Fadel announced on Twitter they were scrapping that tradition to analyze what Thomas Jefferson meant by "all men are created equal." They brought two liberal historians on Morning Edition to bemoan America's failures.
NPR subsequently issued an “editor’s note” on previous July 4 readings, warning the Declaration of Independence is “a document that contains offensive language, including a racial slur.”
Maddow indulged in smug recollection over a 2021 Washington Post headline: “Some Trump supporters thought NPR tweeted propaganda. It was the Declaration of Independence.” NPR had tweeted out the Declaration in little dribs and drabs, including this one: “it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government”. This led to tweets from low-follower accounts about NPR pushing a revolution.
The MS NOW star read this response in a cartoonish stupid voice: “So NPR is calling for revolution. Interesting way to condone violence while trying to sound patriotic. Your implications are clear.”
And: “Propaganda is all that you know how to do. Try supporting a man who wants to do something about the injustice in this country.”
And then this one: “Please stop. This is not the right place.” The crowd roared.
She noted CNN.com ran a piece echoing The Washington Post that was simply headlined: “No, NPR was not trying to start a revolution.”
Before you embark on a lecture about Stupid Conservatives, it might be a smart idea to actually Google about whether NPR is still reading the Declaration on their formerly taxpayer-funded airwaves. Then you might not look as stupid as the much less famous people you're mocking.
