“Real Time” host Bill Maher has thrown his support behind conservative efforts to strip federal funding from NPR and PBS after hearing testimony from NPR CEO Katherine Maher, who previously criticized the First Amendment as an obstacle to journalism.
Katherine Maher — no relation to the liberal HBO host — appeared before the House Select Committee on the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) earlier this week, where she faced intense questioning from Republican members. All GOP lawmakers on the panel support President Donald Trump’s proposal to eliminate federal funding for both NPR and PBS.
During the hearing, Rep. William Timmons (R-SC) disclosed that NPR’s editorial staff includes 87 registered Democrats and zero registered Republicans. The NPR CEO acknowledged the figure as “concerning” but insisted that neither her personal views nor those of her staff influence the organization’s journalistic coverage.
Bill Maher said during his online “Overtime” segment on CNN that the hearing made a strong case for privatizing both NPR and PBS. Responding to a listener question, Maher repeatedly criticized his “namesake” for suggesting the outlet could remain impartial despite the overwhelming partisan imbalance within its newsroom.
“Give me a break, lady,” the HBO host responded. “I mean, they’re crazy far-left.”
The host went on to argue that the notion of taxpayer funding going to outlets like NPR and PBS is a dated concept.
“Why do we need to subsidize?” Maher asked. “We’re so polarized. These outlets became popular at a time when Republicans and Democrats didn’t hate each other and weren’t at each other’s throats and didn’t think each other was an existential threat. In that world, you can’t have places like this, I think, anymore. They have to be private.”
WATCH:
Commentator Bill Maher criticize NPR for being too ‘crazy far left,’ and proposed that the publication join the private sector. pic.twitter.com/qiOBwMZp37
— liten drage (@DrageLiten) March 30, 2025
Katherine Maher, who previously served as CEO of both the Web Summit and the Wikimedia Foundation before taking the helm at NPR, has drawn controversy over a series of past partisan political statements. She has referred to Trump as a “racist” and has openly questioned the relevance and limitations of the First Amendment.
“The number one challenge here that we see is, of course, the First Amendment in the United States,” Maher said while speaking with the Atlantic Council. “It is a fairly robust protection of rights. And that is a protection of rights both for platforms, which I actually think is very important that platforms have the right to be able to regulate what kind of content they want on their sites.
“But it also means that it is a little bit tricky to really address some of the real challenges of where does bad information come from, and sort of the influence peddlers who have made a real market economy around it,” she added.
Trump on Thursday took to his Truth Social page to call on the Elon Musk-led DOGE team to claw back billions of U.S. taxpayer dollars allegedly paid out to a Georgia Democrat’s organization and Washington, D.C.-based media outlet Politico.
“Whatever happened to the $8,000,000 given by our ‘government’ to Radical Left Politico magazine, or whatever you would call it. Owned by wealthy guys, this money should be taken back by DOGE, ASAP,” Trump wrote.
“Also, is Stacey Abrams going to give back the Two Billion Dollars they funneled into her “environmental fund” just prior to my assuming office. She went from $100 in donations to $2,000,000,000 in just one day? Not bad!!! Get back the money,” Trump added.
In early February, the White House announced “that federal agencies are in the process of terminating expensive contracts with Politico after Elon Musk, leader of the Department of Government Efficiency cost-cutting initiative, called them a ‘wasteful’ use of taxpayer money,” the New York Post reported.
According to usaspending.gov, Politico was allocated about $8.4 million in taxpayer funds over the 12 months ending September 30, 2024. The website now shows the current award amount as $8.2 million
This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.
