In his latest probe of public media, Sen. Ted Cruz says that left-leaning foundations are “buying” news coverage from NPR.
In a July 12 letter to NPR CEO Katherine Maher, Cruz complained about a perceived lack of objectivity and balance in NPR’s reporting. He cited the essay for The Free Press by former NPR editor Uri Berliner, who complained about what he saw as bias in the newsroom. Cruz claimed foundation funding was partially to blame for the bias.
“The timing and content of certain NPR articles align with earmarked, multi-million-dollar donations from left-wing nonprofits looking to advance their own narratives in the press,” he wrote.
Cruz is the ranking member of the Senate’s Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, which has oversight authority of CPB.
“NPR’s newsroom is independent and free from outside influence; our supporters have no input into our editorial decisions and no access to our journalists,” NPR spokesperson Isabel Lara said in a statement. “We’re grateful to all who support public media’s mission to deliver impartial, fact-based news and reporting to the American public.”
Cruz claims that after receiving foundation funding, “NPR churned out content mirroring its donors’ agendas.”
He pointed to an article in January that followed a $4 million grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation in November. The grant supported “ongoing coverage of global health and development issues and data infrastructure.” The article quoted Bill Gates and disclosed that NPR receives Gates funding.
Cruz also highlighted a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation grant of $2.75 million that NPR received last year to support coverage of health and health care. Cruz focused on the grant description’s statement that the coverage would “address the fundamental inequalities of health and healthcare in America” and the “social determinants of health,” which he said included structural racism, though the grant’s description did not use that phrase.
Cruz then pointed to articles about racism in health care as examples that NPR “has strayed far from its ethos of ‘independent journalism in the public interest’ by allowing its liberal donors to buy desired ‘news’ coverage.”
A memo linked to in a Tuesday press release points to more perceived conflicts of interest in NPR’s coverage of the climate crisis, elections, immigration and DEI. The memo highlights grants supporting those priorities and headlines from NPR articles on the subjects.
Cruz also took issue with CPB’s funding model, under which stations receive funds to pay for programming. The fees stations pay NPR are “pass throughs to launder taxpayer dollars moving from CPB to NPR,” Cruz wrote.
Cruz included a list of seven questions for Maher to answer by Thursday. He asked for a list of all revenue received from each member station since fiscal year 2019 and is also seeking all gifts, awards or grants from private entities greater than $5,000 since FY19.
“What precautions does NPR take, if any, to ensure that financial contributions from its donors do not impact its editorial decisions?” Cruz asked.
He also asked how NPR’s source diversity tracking influences editorial decisions.
NPR’s Lara did not answer Current’s question about whether the network has responded to Cruz.
Cruz has been targeting public media since late last year when he questioned the requirements in CPB’s Community Service Grant program regarding diversity practices and disclosures by stations. He followed up with further questioning of CPB about board meeting audio and funding for NPR.