Amongst our story classes at NewsBusters, there’s one referred to as “Covert Liberal Activists.” Immediately’s CNN This Morning supplied an ideal instance of the phenomenon.
The panel [which the show calls the Group Chat] was discussing yesterday’s vote by the Senate to finish federal [i.e., taxpayer] funding of NPR and PBS.
The panel included one self-disclosed NPR veteran, Lulu Garcia-Navarro, who acknowledged that she did so for the aim of transparency.
But additionally on the panel was Noel King, who was described each by substitute host Jessica Dean and within the chyron [see screencap] solely because the co-host of the Immediately, Defined podcast.
What CNN did not reveal was that King is the previous co-host of NPR’s flagship “newscast” Morning Version! And in distinction with Garcia-Navarro’s nod to transparency, King did not disclose that herself…or that her Vox Media podcast airs throughout America on NPR stations.
King mentioned that, rising up in rural New York State, “NPR was what we [who’s “we?”] turned on once we wished to be taught if a snowstorm had blocked the roads.” She claimed that “rural stations present information to folks in rural America who cannot get it elsewhere.” They at all times faux there are not any business radio or stations…or any web.
For her half, Garcia-Navarro had the chutzpah to assert that NPR is “not beholden to a political occasion. It’s impartial.”
So “not beholden to a political occasion,” that as NPR staffer Uri Berliner discovered:
“In D.C., the place NPR is headquartered and many people dwell, I discovered 87 registered Democrats working in editorial positions and 0 Republicans. None.”
Berliner additionally reported that in reporting the phony Russiagate story:
“We hitched our wagon to Trump’s most seen antagonist, Consultant Adam Schiff. Schiff, who was the highest Democrat on the Home Intelligence Committee, turned NPR’s guiding hand, its ever-present muse. By my depend, NPR hosts interviewed Schiff 25 instances.”
Garcia-Navarro claimed that defunding constitutes an “assault on the free press.” So, to be free, the press have to be funded by the federal government? Guess that made Pravda the freest press ever!
Substitute host Jessica Dean additionally bewailed the defunding. Turning to [MRC alum] Rob Bluey, Dean parroted the liberal occasion line:
“I am fascinated about Noel and her mother and snowy streets, but in addition latest Texas flooding. , simply there’s so many elements of America which might be rural and are on the market and reliant on, on this info for his or her security.”
Rob wished NPR and PBS nicely, however mentioned they would wish to hunt personal sources of funding, simply as he has needed to do in founding the Each day Sign.
It is merely unfaithful that NPR is the one supply of emergency notifications in rural counties. For instance, the county authorities of my rural North Carolina county sends out textual content messages to alert residents within the occasion of hurricanes, tornadoes, wildfires, and different emergencies. It follows up with an automatic cellphone name. And the published TV stations we obtain break into regular programming to dedicate intensive protection to such emergencies. And by coincidence, simply this morning I obtained an e-mail from the small city [population 395] the place I used to dwell, simply two miles away from my present house, encouraging residents to enroll in emergency emails and alerts.
Notice: That is the second day working that CNN This Morning has certified for the Covert Liberal Activist class. On Thursday’s present, to debate the Trump administration’s plan to extend the variety of ICE brokers by 10,000, host Audie Cornish introduced in Garrett Graff, who was innocuously described as a “journalist.”
This is the transcript.
CNN This Morning
7/18/25
6:03 an EDTJESSICA DEAN: All proper, becoming a member of us now within the group chat, Lulu Garcia-Navarro, CNN contributor and New York Occasions journalist, Noel King, co-host and editorial director of the Immediately, Defined podcast, and Rob Bluey, president and government editor of the Each day Sign. Good to see all of you. Good morning to all of you.
. . .
Advocates say, for the tens of millions who depend on public media, it may change what they see, they hear, and be taught on daily basis. I need to deliver again in our group chat now. Thanks, guys, for sticking with us.
Let’s begin first. Noel, I simply need to begin with you. We simply heard from Randy Advantageous there making the argument that the deficit is what it’s. He cannot in good conscience hold supporting this when the deficit is so excessive. What do you say to him?
NOEL KING: I grew up in rural America, and NPR was what we turned on once we wished to be taught if a snowstorm had blocked the roads. It was what we turned on if we wished to know what was occurring in iireally native politics. I am not speaking about what was occurring in New York Metropolis. I am from Central New York. If we wished to know what was occurring in our neck of the woods, we might activate WAMC, proper?
So, I perceive what Consultant Advantageous is saying. I actually do. I’m wondering how a lot he’s listening to from his constituents who perhaps worth this service, who perhaps worth NPR or PBS. And perhaps none of them do. And that is the actually tough half right here. I feel NPR’s new CEO, Catherine Moore, has accomplished an excellent job of explaining that rural stations present information to folks in rural America who cannot get it elsewhere.
. . .
DEAN: President Trump has at all times talked about reducing funding to NPR and PBS. The place do you suppose the road is by way of precise fiscal duty, like what we have simply heard, what we have been speaking about? Or is that this extra focusing on totally different journalism retailers?
LULU GARCIA-NAVARRO: So, I am a former NPR host. I labored for NPR for 17 years, for full transparency, so that is clearly a topic very near my coronary heart.
. . .Once we take into consideration what public media does, it’s there for the general public good, proper? The concept is that you’re offering information and knowledge that’s not beholden to an algorithm, not beholden to a political occasion. It’s impartial. That’s the reason the Company for Public Broadcasting was an impartial entity, which supplied these funds by way of Congress. And so, to Noel’s level, I do suppose that it is a loss, and I do suppose that is one other assault on the free press.
. . .
DEAN: Rob, what do you suppose, broadly? And in addition, too, what about this piece? I am fascinated about Noel and her mother and snowy streets, but in addition latest Texas flooding.
There are such a lot of elements of America which might be rural and are on the market and reliant on this info for his or her security. How do you type of sq. all of that? The place ought to they be searching for that?
ROB BLUEY: Properly, I might wish to see all media retailers flourish, together with NPR and PBS. I simply suppose that they will accomplish that with out counting on taxpayer funding.
And as any individual who began my very own information group, the Each day Sign, and has needed to give you inventive methods to seek out funding for it, I hope that NPR and PBS can now look to the personal sector with a view to fund a number of the journalism that Lulu and Noel have been speaking about.
