NPR CEO: We Have to Be Diverse, 'We're Missing' GOP Voices Because They Don't Come On

On Tuesday’s broadcast of Comedy Central’s “Daily Show,” NPR CEO Katherine Maher said that NPR’s reporting “is absolutely down the line.” And stated that while the outlet gets criticized for being “too woke,” “the reality is is this is a very diverse nation and our mandate under the Public Broadcasting Act is to serve everyone,” and “we’re missing some voices.” But they invite Republicans, and they don’t always come.

Maher said, “[O]ur reporting, our fact-based reporting is absolutely down the line. I stand by our journalism 1,000%. We recognize that we have some of the best journalists in the business and they go out there and they find stories, whether they’re reporting on Congress or whether they’re reporting on issues of climate change, desertification, water rights, etc., they’re doing great reporting.”

She continued, “I think what we need to be able to do is to bring more voices onto our air and have folks in conversation about the policies that are being made in this country today. We need to be able to hear from policymakers from across the spectrum. So, we invite people from every party onto the air, but not everyone comes. I don’t think that it’s a question, per se, of us being biased in terms of our actual reporting, what I do think is that we’re missing some voices. And so, I would just take this opportunity to extend, again, an invitation to conservative voices who feel like they’re not being heard.”

Maher further stated, “I think that we can’t shirk from our responsibility to serve all Americans. And so, another criticism that we see is that we’re too woke, but the reality is is this is a very diverse nation and our mandate under the Public Broadcasting Act is to serve everyone, including the unserved and the underserved, and we can’t pull away from that either, we have to be able to represent America in all of its diversity, even when that makes us, sometimes, uncomfortable, that means expanding the tent to be as big a tent as possible, rather than sort of moving the tent around the country to accommodate different groups.”

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