Last month, when National Public Radio (NPR) veteran reporter Uri Berliner opined that the network had lost America's trust because of a liberal bias, brass at the network launched into damage control mode, deflecting and denying every editorial misstep Berliner cited.
But House Republicans decided to look deeper into the matter and called a Commerce Committee meeting for today at 10 a.m. EST.
Tim Graham of the Media Research Center (MRC) says NPR CEO Katherine Maher was to be the first called to the stand, but "she's not appearing. She claims they have an all-day board meeting."
Graham, however, was prepared to be there with receipts.
"I am going to drive home the point that NPR is remarkably biased," he said before the hearing. "It has no intention of trying to be fair and balanced."
Berliner, who resigned after he was initially suspended, was another no-show, according to the committee.
"He's not on the list here of experts," the MRC spokesman noted beforehand. "One would think that he has been invited; I think it would be good to hear from him, but I think he must have decided it wasn't good for him."
With the star witnesses skipping the proceedings, the hearing will probably not get the publicity for which House Republicans were hoping. Still, Graham says it will send a message to the publicly funded network.
"I think this hearing can be defined as questioning the funding of NPR," Graham submits.
