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‘PUBLIC’ Broadcasting Watch: PBS and NPR Trashed the Trump Speech

March 6th, 2025 9:25 AM

PBS and NPR know that Trump, Musk, and the Republicans are looking at defunding them, but they inevitably covered Trump’s speech to Congress with their usual anti-Trump tilt.

PolitiFact on SOTU: Trump Gets NINE 'False' Ratings, Biden Gets None

March 5th, 2025 2:12 PM

It's natural that "independent fact checkers" would pounce on State of the Union speeches. But it depends on who's president. PolitiFact socked Trump with six "False" ratings and three "Mostly False" for his 2025 speech. But a year ago with President Biden, PolitiFact never ruled Biden was "false"...on anything. They'd say "exaggerated," or "this needs context," or "this merits asterisks." Too…

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PBS: Trump Rifling ‘Dictator’s Playbook’ Like Philippine Strongman

March 4th, 2025 5:26 PM

Monday’s PBS News Hour featured former CNN reporter Maria Ressa, who was awarded the 2021 Nobel Peace Prize for her “efforts to safeguard freedom of expression,” but her tough experiences as a journalist in the Philppines taught her the wrong lessons -- that freedom of speech on social media is responsible for the rise in authoritarianism around the world, using the left-wing excuse…

NPR's 'Public Editor' Dismisses Bias Claims, Pushes for NPR Subsidies

March 4th, 2025 12:40 PM

NPR's Public Editor is supposed to represent the audience. They proclaim, "The Public Editor stands as a source of independent accountability. Created by NPR's board of directors, the Public Editor serves as a bridge between the newsroom and the audience." But more often -- especially now with the threat of defunding -- there's not independence or accountability. There's just pro-NPR lobbying…

NewsBusters Podcast: 'SNL' Lets Shane Gillis ROAST Biden, Ken Burns

March 3rd, 2025 10:54 PM

Who let this happen on Saturday Night Live? Comedian Shane Gillis uncorked a monologue that mocked Joe Biden's cognitive fitness, liberal moral arrogance, and PBS documentary star Ken Burns as making dreadfully boring films. Plus some of the latest hatred of DOGE.

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On PBS, Amanpour's Kooky on Hillary and Handmaid’s Tale 'Manosphere'

March 3rd, 2025 4:18 PM

Christiane Amanpour is an international affairs correspondent, but for Friday’s PBS edition of Amanpour, she interviewed playwright Joe Murphy and actor Stephen Kunken at the Soho Place theatre in London, where the climate change message play Kyoto, cowritten by Murphy and starring Kunken, is being performed. Amanpour, who surely considers herself an intellectual, sounded like any…

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'PUBLIC' Broadcasting Watch: NPR's Tamara Keith Is NOT 'Independent'

March 2nd, 2025 9:20 AM

NPR White House correspondent Tamara Keith joined the conga line of journalists protesting President Trump for taking the press-pool and press-credential powers away from the White House Correspondents Association. As a former WHCA president, Keith tweeted: “An independent press makes our leaders more accountable and our nation stronger.” Keith is not independent. NPR and PBS both rely on her…

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PBS Tries Blackmail on GOP Budget Chair: Job Loss in Your District?

March 1st, 2025 10:01 PM

On Wednesday’s PBS News Hour, co-host Amna Nawaz tried emotional blackmail to stop spending cuts – any kind of spending cut – in an interview with Rep. Jodey Arrington (R-TX) chairman of the House Budget Committee. After challenging Arrington on Medicaid spending in the just-passed House GOP budget framework (“….Is it possible for you to guarantee that none of the 70 million people…

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PBS Freaks Trump Entering 'Sinister Territory' Amid Press Pool Changes

March 1st, 2025 9:50 AM

The cast of Friday’s PBS News Hour was not interested in subtlety, nuance, or level-headedness as they discussed recent media news. Host Amna Nawaz wondered if “we’re in much more sinister territory now” due to the changes surrounding the White House press pool. Both Washington Post associate editor Jonathan Capehart and New York Times columnist David Brooks agreed,…

NewsBusters Podcast: Trying NOT to Yell at NPR's CEO Dismissing Bias

February 28th, 2025 11:04 PM

NPR CEO Katherine Maher came for a 15-minute interview at a Semafor summit on "trust in media," but it was a softball session. Instead of being pressed on NPR's liberal tilt, Semafor reporter Maxwell Tani was incredibly vague: "What have you done in your first year to build or restore trust in NPR?" I was in the room, and suppressed the desire to yell about the answer (and the question).

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PBS Defends IRS From Trump Firings: Helps 'Ultra-Wealthy' Evade Taxes

February 25th, 2025 11:02 PM

When PBS News Hour reporter Laura Barron Lopez spoke on Monday with the recently resigned IRS commissioner Daniel Werfel, it was the tax-funded news network’s latest defense against DOGE’s cuts in federal spending and staff reductions. PBS dutifully crammed the hypothetical budget cut highway with awful-sounding blockades, and added an old-fashioned soak-the-rich twist.

MRC Launches 'Defund PBS & NPR' Campaign with Billboard Truck in D.C.

February 25th, 2025 5:35 PM

The Media Research Center launched its "Defund PBS & NPR" campaign Tuesday with a digital mobile billboard driven on roads around the Capitol and House and Senate office buildings calling for defunding. The van will be on the roads in Washington and in Virginia through Thursday.

PBS Soft on Terror? Hezbollah’s Slain Boss Revered as ‘Father Figure'

February 25th, 2025 12:05 PM

PBS News Mideast “special correspondent” Simona Foltyn reported from Lebanon for Sunday'sPBS News “special correspondent” Simona Foltyn reported from Lebanon for Sunday's PBS News Weekend, from a funeral service celebrating the life and legacy of….Hassan Nasrallah, who led the Iran-backed anti-Israel terrorist group Hezbollah before dying months ago under Israeli bombardment. Foltyn…

Lame-Brained NPR Can't Identify Any 'Extremism' on the Leftist Side

February 24th, 2025 5:55 AM

We at NewsBusters have often explained that “public” broadcasters like NPR pay reporters to be an “Extremism” correspondent, but strangely, the ideological spectrum seems to go from the “far right” extreme to some sort of center-left. They cannot seem to acknowledge with the slightest fraction of honesty that there is any identifiable or newsworthy extremism on the Left.