Waste of the Day: NPR’s Trickle-Up Economics

Topline: National Public Radio frequently claims that less than 1% of its funding comes from the federal government, an argument used to criticize President Donald Trump’s executive order cutting funds for NPR and the Public Broadcasting Service.

NPR gets its money indirectly from the federal government

The reality is more complicated, as detailed in a recent report from OpenTheBooks.com. 

Key facts: NPR’s most recent tax return shows that it received just $40,000, or .04% of its budget, from the taxpayer-funded Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB).

However, most of the CPB’s $535 million budget is spent on “community service grants” to local TV and radio stations. By law, radio stations must use 23% of their grants for “acquiring or producing programming that is to be distributed nationally and is designed to serve the needs of a national audience.” That means local stations are required to give those federal funds to NPR to license its content or risk losing funding.

NPR brought in $99.33 million from those programming fees in 2024. Not all of the money originated with the CPB, but a “significant portion” did, NPR’s own website admitted last year. The web page has since been edited.

Search all federal, state and local government salaries and vendor spending with the AI search bot, Benjamin, at OpenTheBooks.com.

NPR and PBS pay their execs a little too handsomely

Background: NPR and PBS have enough revenue to make millionaires out of their top employees.

PBS CEO Paula Kerger earns $1,055,135 in salary and $113,526 in “other compensation,” per tax returns. Three other PBS employees make more than $500,000, and another ten make more than $300,000.

Former NPR CEO John Lansing made $590,252 in 2023, and anchor Steve Inskeep made $532,188. At least four other NPR hosts earned more than $450,000.

Summary: Regardless of one’s opinions on NPR’s federal funding, the station should be more forthcoming about how much taxpayer money it actually receives.

The #WasteOfTheDay is brought to you by the forensic auditors at OpenTheBooks.com

This article was originally published by RealClearInvestigations and made available via RealClearWire.