The Left is working double time in the shadows to win this election in November. But now the light is being shone on them.
And Ted Cruz cracked open a Democrat backroom scheme that will leave your jaw on the floor.
Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas is demanding answers from National Public Radio (NPR) about whether its coverage on topics like climate change and health care is influenced by wealthy donors.
As the senior Republican on the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, Cruz announced Tuesday that he sent a letter to NPR CEO Katherine Maher.
He raised concerns about a potential connection between NPR’s reporting and the interests of its deep-pocketed benefactors.
Cruz pointed out that the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation gave NPR $4 million in November to support coverage of “global health and development issues.”
Then, in January, NPR published a report featuring Bill Gates discussing how the 2024 election would be crucial for health and climate issues.
Cruz also highlighted a $250,000 donation from a charitable trust focused on poverty and homelessness, which NPR followed with an interview with former Housing and Urban Development Secretary Marcia Fudge on addressing a “racist” system.
“The timing and content of certain NPR articles align with multimillion-dollar donations from left-wing nonprofits aiming to push their own narratives,” Cruz said.
“NPR may be running a payola scheme to leverage its fading credibility as a nonpartisan news organization to assist partisan, left-wing megadonors.”
NPR firmly denied Cruz’s allegations, stating:
“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. We’re grateful to all who support public media’s mission to deliver impartial, fact-based news and reporting to the American public.”
Cruz emphasized that NPR must maintain “objectivity and balance in all programs or series of programs of a controversial nature” due to its federal funding from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB).
Though NPR received less than 2% of its revenue from CPB in 2022, local stations do get federal funding and pay fees to NPR for content.
Cruz set a Friday deadline for NPR to provide details on its funding, including all private grants, awards, and donations over $5,000, and to explain how it ensures that financial contributions don’t influence its editorial decisions.
The senator also released a memo listing eight instances he believes show a correlation between donations and NPR’s coverage.
“These examples indicate that NPR has veered away from its mission of ‘independent journalism in the public interest’ by allowing its liberal donors to purchase favorable ‘news’ coverage,” Cruz wrote.
“If American taxpayers are going to fund a public broadcaster, they deserve nothing less than fair and unbiased reporting.”
Stay tuned to the Conservative Column.
