ONLY STATE-RUN MEDIA CAN SAVE DEMOCRACY FROM ITSELF: NPR CEO Maher Tells Colbert Public Radio Needed To Protect Democracy Itself.

CBS’s Stephen Colbert welcomed NPR CEO Katherine Maher to Thursday’s taping of The Late Show for a grieving session on the latter being defunded. According to Maher, the fate of democracy depends on NPR, and only people who seek to divide and pit Americans against each other could possibly support defunding it.

Colbert put the ball on the tee for Maher by repeating the idea that public broadcasting is of vital importance for local news, “And while it’s possible now to, like, use streaming wherever you are and basically get another radio station, one of the things, as I understand it, is that with the decline of local newspapers and local news, these NPR stations are critical sources for people to know about their own community.”

Flashback: NPR’s CEO Katherine Maher on CNN: “As far as the accusations that we’re biased, I’d stand up and say, ‘Please show me a story that concerns you.’”

In addition to all of the examples at the link, these responses from Maher are quite concerning:

An absolute clinic from @realBrandonGill here. pic.twitter.com/tEA0CAwhT0

— Luke Thompson (@ltthompso) March 26, 2025

Incidentally, it’s great to see Colbert, on his victory lap before his show’s retirement, continue to deliver the megawatt superstars of the entertainment world that the American public are absolutely clamoring for…