PBS and NPR prepare for a showdown with Congress.

PBS is practicing the answers with lawyers. NPR managers are preparing to monitor the relapses. Congress members are promoting the star witnesses – the leaders of the two goals of the public media – as if they were fighters in a prize clash.

Everyone is preparing for an audition on Wednesday-tree-up “Airwaves anti-American”, organized by the Marjorie representative Taylor Greene, the Georgia Republican who guides a subcommittee of the Chamber linked to Elon Musk’s efforts to cut federal expenses.

Mrs. Greene declared in an interview that she had planned to call the two best witnesses, Paula Kerger, CEO of PBS, and Katherine Maher, CEO of NPR, to face what she sees as liberal prejudices in their organizations. He also reiterated his support for Having PBS and NPRA move driven by many supporters of President Trump.

The managers claim to be ready to defend the work produced by their organizations and the financing of the government that help to support it.

“Everything is at stake,” said Mrs. Kerger in an interview. “The future of some of our stations throughout the country will be in danger if this funding has not continued.”

The employees of NPR and PBS, as well as the supporters of the organizations, look forward to the hearing. For more than half a century, the Republicans at Congress tried to reduce funding for PBS and NPR, without results. But perhaps the threat has never been greater.

This year the Congress Republicans have introduced invoices that would eliminate funding for public media and Musk publicly requested something similar from its government efficiency department, a secret office that has targeted federal expenses.

The cuts from the congress or effort of Mr. Musk could weaken the networks of TV and radio stations of organizations, which extend from New York City on behalf, in Alaska.

The Corporation for Public Broadcasting, the organization supported by the government that supported radio and public television since its creation in 1967, received $ 535 million from the government for this year. While the financial support that the company for public transmission gives to NPR and PBS is relatively small – about 1 % of the NPR budget and 15 percent of the PBS – provides a greater percentage of funding for some of their smaller stations.

“As a member of the public average system, we know that federal funding are essential to ensure that all America can listen and be listened to on a truly national network,” said Maher in one and -mail.

Some fear that Mrs. Kerger and Mrs. Maher will be subject to the same combative interrogation that Harvard’s presidents and the University of Pennsylvania have faced in an audition on the anti -Semitism of the campus in 2023. Both presidents resigned not long after their testimony.

The conservatives were particularly critical of NPR and MS. Maher. Many seized an essay written a year ago by Uri Berliner, a former senior publisher of NPR, who The perceived prejudice of the left has targeted at npr. THE wiseFor free printing, a digital start -up, he landed weeks after Mrs. Maher He joined NPR Following a period like the best manager of Web Summit, an organization that organizes technological events all over the world.

Mrs. Maher, 41, said she met Congress members in the last year to listen to their concerns and that the network had implemented “measures designed to strengthen our commitment to journalism for all Americans”.

NPR critics also focused on social media posts by Mrs. Maher before joining NPR, in which she express support For progressive politicians and causes. They also questioned a speech, pronounced before joining NPR, in which Mrs. Maher said that “the reverence for the truth could be a distraction”.

NPR said in April, when criticisms about social media has arisen, that Mrs. Maher had confirmed her code of ethics since her arrival. Mrs. Maher said that the clip of her speech “misunderstood ideas” that was exploring “on the ways in which people use the word truth to refer to issues of belief, rather than factual issues, and how this can be a barrier in search of common ground”. He said that the speech had also affirmed “the value of the truthful facts”.

Ms. Kerger, 67, who joined PBS as a CEO in 2006, said she was prepared for the hearing by examining her testimony with a legal consultant. Mrs. Maher told the staff members last month that was preparing with the so -called murder advice, rigorous sessions of questions and answers that aim to exhibit potential weaknesses and that the NPR managers are planning to monitor the hearing.

“I am cute what you are-all-what-what, and this is what I am sure you will also see in the hearing,” said Mrs. Kerger. “But I have to make sure to pay attention to the details, so I am as accurate as possible.”

Both PBS and NPR have taken measures to get in accordance with the new rules of the Trump Administration. In February, PBS Closed Its diversity, equity and inclusion office. Last week, NPR’s work lawyer said His union of employees that language in his contract relating to diversity was null.

The reversal of NPR on the question is remarkable, in part, because it was a pin of the network strategy Under Mrs. Maher’s predecessor.

“This was a strategy established by my predecessor,” said Mrs. Maher. “I was led to bring a new energy, concentration and ambition to our work.” He added that NPR remained “committed to supporting a diversified workforce”.

In the past, when the congress has targeted the financing for public media, the directors of the stations have put pressure on legislators in states such as Alaska, where public media are one of the few options for news, entertainment and emergency warnings for residents in remote areas. And recent efforts to weaken public media organizations at state level have decreased in defeat, providing a glimmer of hope to PBS and NPR. Last week, the North Senate Dakota defeated a bill that would have banned state and federal funding for public broadcasts with a vote from 41 to 6.

But PBS and NPR are also under political pressure not related to the congress. Brendan Carr, the new president of the Federal Communications Commission, Announced in January That his agency would have investigated the subscription – paid messages similar to advertising – at NPR and PBS. That investigation is continuing.

“We are about to accumulate all the material to be reviewed,” said Mrs. Kerger. “I am totally confident of operating in the guidelines of the FCC and our documentation are sure.”

Mrs. Greene, president of the subcommittee for the delivery of the government’s efficiency, claimed to expect that the hearing would have faced the coverage of the public media of the Hunter Biden laptop, the ties of the Trump campaign with Russia-I called “the lunch of Russian collusion” -and other stories that were “left-wing even to the propaganda point”.

“I think the important thing for the Americans is: is this here that our taxpayers’ money must go?” he said. “To the extremely left transmission and political prejudices that do not represent all of America?”

On social media in the last few days, Mrs. Greene has shared a video, marked disturbing music, which included a clip of a history of “Pbs Newshour” on Drag Queens and an NPR microphone that bumps Mr. Trump in the chin.

The tension in view of the hearing was encapsulated by an event this month in front of the NPR headquarters in Washington, with public media supporters dressed as Big Bird, Elmo and Count Von Count, characters of “Sesame Street”.

While the costume supporters marched, a puppeteer from the Daily Caller, a conservative website co-founded by Tucker Carlson, began to scream questions.

“Reply now, helmet!” the puppeteer scream. “Are you a globalist?”