One easy way to see how NPR and PBS are taxpayer-funded Democrat Party platforms is to witness their recent interviews with the chair of the Democratic National Committee, Ken Martin. Neither turned to touchy internal issues, specifically the brief career of David Hogg as a DNC leader. The questions seemed geared to this: How do we win? Will Senate Republicans consider this on the defunding proposal this week?
On NPR’s All Things Considered July 3, the online headline looked like a press release:
DNC chair says Republicans sold 'their constituents out to help billionaires'
It was the same for the PBS News Hour on July 9:
DNC chair on the path to winning back voters and lessons Democrats can learn from Mamdani
NPR’s Juana Summers began with this softball: “This is a bill that is widely known as the Big Beautiful Bill, even though I will note, this is not something that will be beautiful for all Americans. So what can members of your party tell their constituents that is as concise and compelling as that, that can explain to people the message that you have?”
PBS anchor Amna Nawaz also led with a softball: “So, Democrats have just started running some ads this week against House Republicans who voted for that Trump budget bill. In your view, is that bill right now sort of the core messaging strategy for Democrats? Is that the strongest argument you have got?”
The most negative question these ladies could offer was citing their own NPR/PBS poll, but the questions were still gentle. Summers tried this: “According to the latest NPR/PBS News/Marist poll, the approval rating for congressional Democrats is at just 27%. That is down from 39% last February. How do you and your fellow Democrats make the case to the American public that they can trust you and that they can support the party?” Then Martin spoke for three paragraphs without interruption.
Nawaz stayed inside the party: “I will put to you the latest numbers from our PBS News/NPR/Marist poll that showed some 43 percent of Democrats, your own supporters, disapprove of the job that Democrats in Congress are doing right now. So why is it that you think your base is so unhappy with how Democrats are leading right now?”
They took slightly different spins on Zohran Mamdani, the far-left Democrat nominee for mayor of New York. Summers suggested the DNC wasn’t supportive enough: “We just saw Zohran Mamdani, a Democratic socialist, win the New York mayoral primary over the establishment candidate Andrew Cuomo. And I'll just note that Mamdani did not have the Democratic Party's support. Does that win make you reconsider your strategy when it comes to backing establishment Democrats in the midterms?”
Nawaz started bland: "What do you take away from Zohran Mamdani's New York City mayoral Democratic primary win? Are there lessons there for the party or the races?"
But then Nawaz, a Pakistani-American, at least asked about Jewish Democrats: "What about concerns from some of your Jewish colleagues in particular about him not outright condemning the phrase globalize the intifada in a recent interview? Some of your Jewish colleagues have said that could be very disturbing, potentially dangerous. Do you agree with that?"
Martin's answer -- he refused to condemn it, just speaking in the vaguest terms of building a "big tent" of different factions of Democrats -- became a hot item on conservative social media, as Twitchy laid out.
But the PBS News X account looked like a press release:
"We have to give people a sense of what we're for, what the Democratic Party is fighting for and what we would do if they put us back in power," DNC Chair Ken Martin said. "One of the lessons from Mamdani's campaign is that he focused on affordability, he focused on a message…
— PBS News (@NewsHour) July 10, 2025
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