On Monday's Morning Joe, MSNBC gave author Steve Oney a forum to promote his book, On Air: The Triumph and Tumult of NPR, and to lament the possibility that the "down the middle" NPR will be defunded by Republicans.
After co-host Mika Brzezinski recalled moves by the Trump administration to try to eliminate funding for public broadcasting, Oney compared Republicans to cicadas who keep showing up with attempts to defund:
But they're (NPR) going to face a rocky road in the future, and, every 17 years -- it's like the cicadas returning -- generally, when there's a Republican uptick in power, someone comes after NPR's finances. The last time was in 2011 after the Juan Williams firing by NPR. Before that, Newt Gingrich in 1995 said he would zero out the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
And, prior to that, Ronald Reagan came after them in the mid-80's. So each time NPR survived, but the world has changed greatly, and we don't have the kind of stability in the media landscape that was there even in 2011. So we'll find out. Sorry to be so equivocal, but we'll find out.
He soon painted NPR as unbiased unlike so much of the media that offers audiences confirmation bias:
I think what's changed is we no longer have this idea of -- our information is stove-piped, and we don't live in a world where Walter Cronkite could come on the evening news and say, "That's the way it is." We don't agree on how it is anymore, and people get news that tends to confirm their predispositions and their biases. So NPR is still trying to play it down the middle -- still doing it the old-fashioned way, and we'll see if there's an audience for it. I think there is, but that's what they're going to come up against.
Even Oney doesn't really believe that. His book acknowledges NPR is liberal: “Young, brainy, upper-middle-class, politically liberal, artistically adventurous and typically white, the NPR archetype was taking shape.”
After co-host Joe Scarborough asked his guest what he thought would happen in the latest fight over funding, he advised NPR to push its case more aggressively than last time. NPR "needs to bring a knife to the fight"!
You know, the last fight -- the Juan Williams fight -- Jon Stewart said a very funny thing on his Comedy Central show. He said, "NPR, you got in a fight with Fox News and the Republicans, and you brought a tote bag full of David Sedaris books to a knife fight." And it was very funny, and he got a lot of laughs. And I think this time, NPR needs to bring a knife to the fight. NPR needs to stand up, declare its purposes, declare its value, and not assume anything, and it's going to be a public relations test as much as anything else.
Oney claimed NPR "ties the country together," as if Americans of all political stripes enjoy it. He claimed NPR was "a great American project" like....the Panama Canal.
Transcript follows:
MSNBC's Morning Joe
March 10, 2025
9:48 a.m. Eastern
MIKA BRZEZINSKI: But now the future of the organization is in doubt with the Trump administration eyeing cuts to federal spending. In January, Trump's FCC chair, Brendan Carr, launched an investigation into NPR urging Congress to cut the public broadcaster's funding altogether. Last year, The New York Times obtained internal documents showing NPR drawing a weekly audience of about 42 million listeners. Joining us now, journalist Steve Oney. He's the author of the new book entitled, On Air: The Triumph and Tumult of NPR. It chronicles the public broadcaster's complicated 55-year history while looking toward its uncertain future. And, Steve, why don't we start there? What is the -- how does the future look for NPR?
STEVE ONEY, AUTHOR: Well, if I could tell you that, I would be a seer, and I'm not a seer. I'm a mere mortal. But they're going to face a rocky road in the future, and, every 17 years -- it's like the cicadas returning -- generally, when there's a Republican uptick in power, someone comes after NPR's finances. The last time was in 2011 after the Juan Williams firing by NPR. Before that, Newt Gingrich in 1995 said he would zero out the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. And, prior to that, Ronald Reagan came after them in the mid-80's. So each time NPR survived, but the world has changed greatly, and we don't have the kind of stability in the media landscape that was there even in 2011. So we'll find out. Sorry to be so equivocal, but we'll find out.
(...)
I think what's changed is we no longer have this idea of -- our information is stove-piped, and we don't live in a world where Walter Cronkite could come on the evening news and say, "That's the way it is." We don't agree on how it is anymore, and people get news that tends to confirm their predispositions and their biases. So NPR is still trying to play it down the middle -- still doing it the old-fashioned way, and we'll see if there's an audience for it. I think there is, but that's what they're going to come up against.
(...)
SCARBOROUGH: What do you expect to happen next in this battle between the administration and NPR?
ONEY: You know, the last fight -- the Juan Williams fight -- Jon Stewart said a very funny thing on his Comedy Central show. He said, "NPR, you got in a fight with Fox News and the Republicans, and you brought a tote bag full of David Sedaris books to a knife fight." And it was very funny, and he got a lot of laughs. And I think this time, NPR needs to bring a knife to the fight. NPR needs to stand up, declare its purposes, declare its value, and not assume anything, and it's going to be a public relations test as much as anything else.
And I think the administration, if they go after NPR, will find -- as you say, Joe -- that there are a lot of people out there in every town America who turn on Morning Edition and All Things Considered every day because it's what they have. It ties the country together. It's a -- the book -- the inspiration for the book is really David McCullough's great books about American projects like The Path Between the Seas -- his book about the building of the Panama Canal. And I think of NPR as being a great American project, and I set out to write a history of it -- where it came from, who are these people, how does it work?
