The new House subcommittee designed to complement the work of Elon Musk has named its first target: the nonprofit news media.
The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee’s “Delivering on Government Efficiency” Subcommittee — or DOGE, mimicking its Musk-run analogue, the Department of Government Efficiency — is asking the leaders of PBS and NPR to testify next month.
DOGE Subcommittee Chair Marjorie Taylor Greene, a Georgia Republican, put out the request to the executives in a letter Monday morning, specifying a preference for the weeks of March 3 or March 24.
“As an organization that receives federal funds, both directly and indirectly through its member stations, NPR’s reporting should serve the entire public, not just a narrow slice of likeminded individuals and ideological interest groups,” Greene wrote in her Monday letter sent to NPR CEO Katherine Maher, with nearly identical language sent to PBS.
Greene’s letter to Maher specifically cited the network’s decision not to report on the Hunter Biden laptop scandal in October 2020 and the April 2024 essay from former NPR editor Uri Berliner alleging systemic liberal bias across the company.
In her letter to PBS CEO Paula Kerger, Greene pointed to PBS reporting last month saying the billionaire and DOGE co-founder Musk “gave what appeared to be a fascist salute” at President Donald Trump’s inauguration celebration — a characterization that Greene alleges “was clearly false.”
The fight over funding for public broadcasting is nearly as old as the system itself and largely falls along party lines, with conservative budget hawks calling for elimination of federal support and Democrats backing the free news services that reach millions across the country.
Federal funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting totals around $535 million, with federal dollars for CPB making up about 15 percent of public television and 10 percent of radio broadcasting funding.
“During the 119th Congress, the DOGE Subcommittee is committed to investigating the activities of PBS and NPR and assessing the value of continued federal funding of these entities,” according to a press release announcing the panel’s plans.
