NPR president who said truth is a 'distraction' is summoned by DOGE to sing for her supper

The embattled National Public Radio president, who erstwhile called information a 'distraction,' has agreed to attest earlier Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) congressional subcommittee.

On Monday, Marjorie Taylor Greene, the DOGE subcommittee chair, called connected the National Public Radio (NPR) and the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) bosses to testify connected Capitol Hill to support the authorities backing they usage to stock 'systematically biased content.'

The subcommittee's letter to NPR specifically called retired a Ted Talk institution president Katherine Maher gave successful 2022 while she was the CEO of Wikipedia.

During a conception of the code titled 'What Wikipedia Teaches Us About Balancing Truth and Beliefs,' Maher called the information a 'distraction.'

'That possibly for our astir tricky disagreements, seeking the information and seeking to person others of the information mightiness not beryllium the close spot to start,' Maher said.

'In fact, our reverence for the information mightiness beryllium a distraction that's getting successful the mode of uncovering communal crushed and getting things done.'

Musk posted a akin clip of Maher to X connected Tuesday with the caption, 'Defund NPR. It should past connected its own.'

'I deliberation our reverence for the information mightiness person go a spot of a distraction that is preventing america from uncovering statement and getting important things done,' Maher said successful the undated video.

NPR responded to the summons, stating the institution 'welcomes the opportunity' to attest and prides themselves 'to the highest standards of journalism.'

'Our President and CEO Katherine Maher received a petition to attest earlier the Subcommittee connected Delivering connected Government Efficiency successful March,' the outlet said.

'We invited the accidental to sermon the captious relation of nationalist media successful delivering impartial, fact-based quality and reporting to the American public.'

Greene said that the section plans to code its concerns astir the station's 'blatantly ideological and partisan coverage' astatine the hearing, scheduled for either the week of March 3 oregon March 24. 

The missive sent to Maher cited NPR's determination not to study connected a laptop belonging to the erstwhile president's son, which contained information critics assertion implicates members of the Biden household successful a corruption scandal.

The subcommittee past cited a connection made by NPR successful October 2020 successful regarding the laptop, stating: 'We don't privation to discarded our clip connected stories that are not truly stories, and we don't privation to discarded the listeners' and readers' clip connected stories that are conscionable axenic distractions.' 

DOGE besides mentioned a scathing essay penned by Uri Berliner, erstwhile elder concern exertion for NPR.

Berliner, who worked for the outlet from 1999 until April 2024, blasted NPR for its far-left governmental bias portion referring to the outlet arsenic 'an assembly line.' 

'There’s an unspoken statement astir the stories we should prosecute and however they should beryllium framed,' Berliner wrote astatine the time.

'It’s frictionless—one communicative aft different astir instances of expected racism, transphobia, signs of the clime apocalypse, Israel doing thing bad, and the dire menace of Republican policies. It’s astir similar an assembly line.

This is conscionable 1 of the galore caller moves made nether Trump's medication and DOGE.

On Monday, staffers moving for the Agency for International Development (USAID) were instructed to stay retired of the agency's DC headquarters aft Musk announced that the president had agreed to unopen it down. 

The billionaire 'first buddy,' who is leading a civilian reappraisal of the national authorities done the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) has claimed the bureau is simply a 'criminal organization.'

'It became evident that it's not an pome with a worm successful it,' Musk said successful a unrecorded league connected X Spaces aboriginal Monday. 'What we person is conscionable a shot of worms. You’ve got to fundamentally get escaped of the full thing. It’s beyond repair.'

'We’re shutting it down.'

USAID, whose website vanished Saturday without explanation, administers billions of dollars successful humanitarian, improvement and information programs successful astir 120 countries.