NPR boss Katherine Maher has squirmed in Congress while being quizzed about a call she made for white people to pay ‘reparations’ on social media.
The 41-year-old former tech tycoon was grilled by Republican Rep Brandon Gill about a post she made on Twitter, now known as X, on January 20, 2020, at a hearing centered around whether NPR should receive federal funding on Wednesday.
‘Yes, the North, yes all of us, yes America. Yes, our original collective sin and unpaid debt. Yes, reparations. Yes, on this day,’ Maher wrote in the 2020 tweet.
Maher initially denied making the comment while being probed by Gill, but after the lawmaker read her tweet aloud, she claimed it had a different meaning.
The former Wikipedia boss said she didn’t ‘believe that was a reference to fiscal reparations’ – prompting Gill to push for clarification on ‘what kind of reparations’ she did mean.
‘I think it was just a reference to the idea that we all owe much to the people that came before us,’ Maher said.
Earlier in the session, Maher also owed up to not giving the Hunter Biden laptop story the coverage it deserved on NPR.
She made the admission after being grilled relentlessly by Marjorie Taylor Greene on Capitol Hill about the broadcaster’s alleged bias.
NPR boss Katherine Maher has squirmed in Congress while being quizzed about a call she made for white people to pay ‘reparations’ on social media
The 41-year-old former tech tycoon was grilled by Republican Rep Brandon Gill about a post she made on Twitter , now known as X, on January 20, 2020 (shown above)
The 41-year-old former tech tycoon was grilled by Republican Rep Brandon Gill (pictured) about a post she made on Twitter, now known as X, on January 20, 2020, at a hearing centered around whether NPR should receive federal funding on Wednesday
‘I do want to say that NPR acknowledges we were mistaken in failing to cover the Hunter Biden laptop story more aggressively or sooner,’ Maher said.
Greene also confronted Maher about some of her more opinionated comments.
This included statements to social media penned in the past, like one that slammed Donald Trump as a ‘racist’ and ‘sociopath’ in 2020.
When asked by GOP Rep. Tim Burchett about such tweets, Maher said: ‘I regret [them] today.’
The CEO also said she and her team ‘has work to do’, when it comes to offering access to reliable reporting.
Joining Maher was PBS boss Paula Kerger – but due to the makeup of her staff and past comments, Maher appeared to bear the brunt of the beatdown.
This led to some bombshell admissions – including the one surrounding the recently pardoned son of the former president.
‘Our current editorial leadership thinks that was a mistake, as do I,’ Maher said of NPR’s failure to immediately cover the the scandal surrounding contents found on his laptop, which surfaced in late 2020.
Joining Maher was PBS boss Paula Kerger – but due to the makeup of her staff and past comments, Maher appeared to be the one to bear the brunt of the verbal beatdown
She made the admission after being grilled relentlessly about NPR’s practices by Marjorie Taylor Greene on Capitol Hill, during a hearing centered around the broadcaster’s alleged bias
Contents of emails taken from the laptop shed light on Hunter’ business dealings in Ukraine and China, when his dad was vice president
At the time, the owner of a Delaware computer shop, John Paul Mac Isaac, said the laptop had been left by the eventual president’s son.
Still, the story wasn’t taken seriously – that is, until more facts continued to come out that ultimately could not be ignored.
Contents seized from the laptop shed light on Hunter’s business dealings in Ukraine and China – all while his father was vice president.
On March 31, 2021, NPR published an article stating U.S. intelligence had discredited the story, before issuing a correction the very next day – one saying officials actually never made such a statement.
It took a federal investigation being called the next year for the outlet to take the story somewhat seriously – after authenticated emails revealed Hunter’s vision to help a Ukrainian natural gas company without being a lobbyist.
They also unmasked a Chinese energy company with links to the Chinese communist government – one that made Hunter Biden seven figures in a series of business deals.
Mac Issac, meanwhile, previously told DailyMail.com how he was met with pushback from government officials in December 2020 while filing for unemployment – something he perceived as purposeful pushback from the former administration.
NPR boss Katherine Maher has squirmed in Congress while being quizzed about a call she made for white people to pay ‘reparations’ on social media
‘I would open up a case, wouldn’t hear anything, then open another case, then open another case – and then I was told to stop opening up cases,’ Mac Isaac told DailMail.com in December of 2022.
‘And they would keep closing these cases.’
In September 2021, Mac Isaac also received what he perceived as threats from the IRS, demanding a supposedly overdue $57 from a 2016 tax return.
He told the Post how he sent the agency the $57 almost immediately.
The laptop – and its contents – ultimately proved integral in federal prosecutors’ case against the president’s son, who was charged and found guilty of several felonies last year.
Then-President Biden, however, erased any chance of him doing time with his sweeping array of pardons this past January – saving Hunter in the process.
The whole ordeal left egg on the figurative faces of outlets like NPR, who, for whatever reason, refused to report on the story.