The Arrogant Media Are Not 'Bringing Us Closer Together'

Tim Graham on Jul 18, 2025

As the world of "public" broadcasting faces the rebuke of Congress rescinding its billions of dollars, it spurs a broader thought about the arrogance of liberal journalists at national media outlets. They're not simply arrogant. They sound remarkably insincere.

Start with a man named Michael Tribble, the chief content officer at WAMU, the NPR station in the nation's capital. He sent out a fundraising email after the Senate rebuke, oozing to their liberal supporters: "You're part of a community that believes facts matter, that context matters, and that journalism has the power to bring us closer together."

We'll glide past the notion that Republicans don't believe in facts or context, and highlight the preposterous part about NPR "bringing us closer together." This is a ridiculous myth -- that Team NPR are uniters, not dividers.

WAMU produces a national talk show called "1A." Here's a reminder of how divisive they are. On June 9, 2020, in the throes of the George Floyd rioting, they aired a segment titled "When Journalists Say They're Objective -- What Does That Even Mean?"

The guest host that day began with a proclamation: "In the midst of nationwide protests condemning systemic violence against Black Americans, at '1A,' we support protesters' demands for a right to live and to hold police accountable for using deadly force against Black people." They can't imagine anyone defending police officers or chattering about black-on-black violence. "Solidarity" with the Cause is everything.

The entire hour was a one-sided hootenanny railing against objectivity as a white supremacist construct. The guests were various shades of radical, starting with Nikole Hannah-Jones, whose "1619 Project" at The New York Times pushed the woke notion of systematic racism across the country and into the schools.

The other guests were Ricardo Sandoval-Palos, the "public editor" of PBS, who insisted, "I'm a believer in activist journalism," and an insider, "1A" producer Morgan Givens, a black "trans man" who repeatedly denounced Donald Trump as a "white supremacist fascist."

Now point and laugh at the man who says on behalf of his station that "journalism has the power to bring us closer together." Their "us" is limited to people inside the left-wing bubble. It offers nothing to independent voters and Republicans, who don't trust the national press.

NPR CEO Katherine Maher channels that same arrogant insincerity in her performative interviews. On CNN, Maher batted away any notion NPR is arrogantly liberal. Maher uncorked this whopper, pretending she cares about conservative complaints:

"As a public broadcaster, we do have an obligation to serve all Americans, and we need to make sure that our coverage reflects the interests and perspective -- and we hear from Americans across the political spectrum," she claimed. "That's important to us, and we want to make sure we live up to that."

It should be obvious to anyone with two ears that NPR spews leftist thoughts on an hourly basis, and Donald Trump would be their daily supervillain, if he weren't viewed as incompetent in his villainy. They have doubled down on their bias all year long, despite all the threats of defunding.

The notion of "bringing us closer together" starts with listening to criticism. NPR is unwilling to listen to complaints they think come from "white supremacist fascists." NPR "public editor" Kelly McBride told Brian Stelter in 2021 they can ignore conservative complaints "because they're not really listening to NPR." This demonstrates they are allergic to evidence.

Rebuilding trust in media outlets begins with humility, sincerity and listening to critics. Media outlets that ignore those qualities can expect to keep losing respect and consumers.

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Tim Graham is director of media analysis at the Media Research Center and executive editor of the blog NewsBusters.org. To find out more about Tim Graham and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.