Ten Questions for NPR’s Katherine Maher

What Republicans should ask the public radio CEO when she testifies before Congress

Katherine Maher is preparing for the hot seat. The embattled NPR CEO is scheduled to testify before Congress later today and will face intense scrutiny from Republicans who have already introduced legislation to defund the left-wing radio station.

Last year, I published exclusive reports on Maher’s background as a US-backed regime change agent in the Middle East and North Africa, her role in censoring information as CEO of Wikipedia, and her troubling social media history, which revealed significant left-wing ideological bias and support for removing the political opposition from digital platforms.

I have prepared briefing notes for members of the committee, focusing on Maher’s most controversial statements and actions. Here are ten questions members should ask her when she sits down for her testimony:

1. According to a report in City Journal, you worked for US government-backed NGOs that advanced regime change campaigns in the Middle East and North Africa. A former cabinet minister in the Tunisian transitional government publicly accused you of working with the CIA. When you were working in that region, did you ever work for, speak with, or advocate in parallel to anyone in the American intelligence services?

2. In 2020, you wrote that “America is addicted to white supremacy” and expressed support for race-based “reparations.” Do you still believe that America is addicted to white supremacy? And do you still support wealth transfers from one race to another?

3. In 2016, you chastised Hillary Clinton for using the words “boy and girl,” arguing that “it’s erasing language for non-binary people.” Can you tell us what a “non-binary person” is? And can you define the word “woman” for us?

4. In 2021, when describing your work as CEO of Wikipedia during a presentation for the Atlantic Council, you stated that the First Amendment was “the number one challenge” for suppressing “bad information” on the internet. Do you still believe that the First Amendment is a problem and that censoring dissent is the best method of eliminating “bad information”?

5. In that same speech, you explicitly stated that you “took a very active approach to disinformation and misinformation” during the Covid pandemic and the 2020 election. You further explained that you censored information “through conversations with government.” With which governments did you consult about these issues and, specifically, what information did Wikipedia censor?

6. In 2020, when President Trump was banned from all major social media platforms, you wrote: “Must be satisfying to deplatform fascists. Even more satisfying? Not platforming them in the first place.” Do you still believe that banning the political opposition is consistent with the First Amendment and, more broadly, a culture of free speech?

7. That same year, you called Donald Trump a “deranged racist sociopath.” Do you still hold this opinion? In your estimation, how many Republicans are “deranged racist sociopaths”? And why should conservative taxpayers continue to subsidize someone with such obvious contempt for them?

8. In an interview, you stated that, as CEO of Wikipedia, you abandoned a “free and open” internet as the organization’s mission, because those principles recapitulated a “white male Westernized construct” and “did not end up living into the intentionality of what openness can be.” What is a “white male Westernized construct”? And do you still oppose a “free and open” internet?

9. We have identified dozens of left-wing reporters who work at NPR. Can you name a single conservative reporter that works in your newsroom? Why should right-leaning Americans continue to subsidize a station that promotes a uniformly left-wing worldview?

10. On Twitter, you have written that you were “so done with late-stage capitalism,” derived from Marxist economic theory, and suggested that you would support efforts to “go punch Nazis.” Do you still oppose the system of American capitalism? And do you still support physically harming political opponents?

At this point, NPR deserves all of the scrutiny coming its way. There is a strong argument that the state should not subsidize the media, much less hyper-partisan media that always arrives at a left-wing consensus. When Republicans consider the budget later this year, they should not hesitate to defund NPR. If they are successful with today’s hearing, the vote will be that much easier.