President Donald Trump and his administration have been making clear that it's time to defund PBS and NPR, and there's been calls for Congress to get on that as well. The outlets, which have been particularly biased, have laughably claimed neutrality, even as their presidents testified before the House back in March and did not do so well. What pieces and social media they've recently put out there, especially on recent events, have people insisting that defunding the outlets has never been more important.
Trump's executive order to defund NPR and PBS came at the start of the month and was hardly surprising. Tragically, weeks later, two Israeli embassy employees were murdered on Wednesday. A suspect, who was yelling "Free Palestine," has already been charged, with both federal and DC charges brought on Thursday. Reporting from NPR most certainly comes into play, especially with what they had to say about not just Wednesday's murders, but the Israel-Hamas conflict overall.
Absolutely execrable. Can't defund NPR soon enough. pic.twitter.com/PY9gRTBgdn
— Omri Ceren (@omriceren) May 22, 2025
The excerpt in question, as shared by Omri Ceren with Sen. Ted Cruz's office, can be found in a piece last updated on Thursday night, when the suspect, Elias Rodriguez, was charged.
As the piece mentioned:
The affidavit also claimed the suspect held a red scarf, which one witness identified as a keffiyeh, a traditional headscarf closely associated with Palestinian history and resistance.
Many U.S. and Israeli officials identified the attacks as the latest in a marked rise of antisemitic incidents in recent years — and more notably, as Israel ramps up its offensive in Gaza, where the risk of famine looms for a population ground down by a months-long blockade.
While NPR claims that the keffiyeh is "a traditional headscarf closely associated with Palestinian history and resistance," it's more so become a symbol of terrorism and the pro-Hamas cause. The idea of "resistance" has had deadly consequences, as seen with the murders on Wednesday night.
The piece also frames the "marked rise of antisemitism incidents," which has indeed been the case, especially since the October 7, 2023 attack that Hamas perpetrated against Israel, as being a claim from "U.S. and Israeli officials." It's this NPR piece, though, written by several authors, which for some reason finds it relevant to discuss in the same piece and even paragraph about a tragic murder, antisemitism, and what's being investigated as a hate crime, how Israel is moving forward in the Israel-Hamas conflict. Adding insult to injury, the paragraph mentions that this is "more notabl[e]."
When it comes to this "blockade," it's worth reminding that Hamas having been stealing aid to prevent it from reaching those it's meant for, which even the Biden-Harris administration acknowledged last year, though such an admission took its time.
So-called civilians in Gaza have cheered Hamas terrorists parading the coffins of their oldest and youngest victims--including 10-month-old Kfir Bibas and his brother, 4-year-old Ariel Bibas. Hamas is still holding some of the approximately 250 hostages that they took captive on October 7, 2023, close to 600 days ago now. Releasing those hostages would certainly be a welcome step if they cared for the people of Gaza, which is at best debatable considering that they use them as human shields.
The same report also mentions details shared by Robert Milgrim, the father of one of the victims, Sarah Milgrim:
Sarah's father, Robert Milgrim, told member station KCUR that education is important to stop acts of violence like the ones that took his daughter's life. "There just needs to be something done to make people realize that we're many different people living in the U.S., but there's no reason to hate one another," he said. "This hate cannot divide us. We need to overcome it."
That paragraph leaves out details from the victim's father, though, and about the event overall that make Milgrim's murder, and the murder of her boyfriend, Yaron Lischinsky, who was planning to propose next week in Israel, not only tragic but also painfully ironic.
As Matt covered when it comes to remarks from Robert Milgrim shared by The New York Post, he said his daughter was looking for ways to get aid to Gaza. "Last night, she was attending an affair to figure out how to get more aid into Gaza," Milgrim told the outlet on Thursday. "The night she was killed, she was trying to help the situation – that’s the irony."
Jewish Insider also shared more details about the event in a post from Thursday morning.
It was an evening dedicated to humanitarian service — young Jewish professionals gathering under the theme “Turning Pain Into Purpose,” discussing interfaith collaboration and working to counter the rising tide of “us versus them” narratives. The event spotlighted efforts to…
— Jewish Insider (@J_Insider) May 22, 2025
Where NPR does appear to be willing to talk about antisemitism is an investigative report from earlier this week that appears in the report as a suggested piece for supposedly related reading, "Multiple Trump White House officials have ties to antisemitic extremists." Still another piece of suggested reading was published the same day that the shooting took place, "These students protested the Gaza war. Trump's deportation threat didn't silence them."
The claims of a "risk of famine" is not only found in that NPR piece, but also from PBS. The United Nations, which is a particularly anti-Israel body, least of all because of its affiliation with the UNWRA, a terrorist-prone agency, claimed there was a threat of famine and a risk of "imminent death" for children over the span of 48 hours. It was actually corrected to say that was over the course of a year.
PBS quoted the UN in posts over X and Instagram and has since taken them down, but as Marina Medvin shared, along with a screenshot, it's "Too little too late." PBS' post came on Wednesday night, the same night that Milgrim and Lischinsky were killed.
Correction: PBS News has removed posts from X and Instagram featuring a quote from a U.N. official warning that children in Gaza could face imminent death due to starvation. The U.N. corrected the official’s statement, clarifying that the threat of starvation for children exists…
— PBS News (@NewsHour) May 22, 2025
Too little too late. pic.twitter.com/bdueBXW8eE
— Marina Medvin 🇺🇸 (@MarinaMedvin) May 23, 2025
As Nioh Berg also highlighted, Lischinsky appears to have reposted Ambassador Amir Weissbrod for calling out the UN Relief Chief Tom Fletcher over the "blood libel" he was spreading.
Such a post from Weissbrod is his pinned post as of Friday afternoon.
Yaron's final repost on X warned that the "14,000 children" hoax is blood libel that will get innocent people killed.
— 𝗡𝗶𝗼𝗵 𝗕𝗲𝗿𝗴 ♛ ✡︎ (@NiohBerg) May 22, 2025
He was then killed. pic.twitter.com/2yzXmxUGtJ
@UNReliefChief your declaration that 14, 000 babies are at risk of dying in Gaza in the next two days is a blood libel. @UNOCHA and all @UN organisations have obligations to be neutral and impartial. You are breaching constantly these obligations. Your reports are founded on lies…
— Ambassador Amir Weissbrod 🎗️ (@AmirwWeissbrod) May 21, 2025
It's worth reminding, as The Washington Free Beacon's Jonathan Levine has done, that there's been claims of famine in Gaza since days after the October 7 attack was perpetrated by Hamas.
JUST DAYS LEFT OF FOOD — Oct 11 2023
— Jon Levine (@LevineJonathan) May 21, 2025
They think you're stupid pic.twitter.com/7ssc51Uyfg
There are, unfortunately, some other (dis)honorable mentions, still worth bringing up even without taxpayer funding being a factor. It's not merely these outlets, but also The New York Times and NBC News, as Bonchie at our sister site of RedState has covered.
As we addressed when covering Gov. Gavin Newsom's (D-CA) response to the tragic murders, the outlet highlighted how the FBI was seeking a motive. Just as CNN anchor Sarah Sidner had done, and when speaking to Jonathan Epstein, who had been at the Wednesday night event, The New York Times also tried to express concerns for the "Pro-Palestinian Movement."
NYT doing its NYT thing. pic.twitter.com/Js6jLFw2H3
— Ashley Rindsberg (@AshleyRindsberg) May 22, 2025
— Steve McGuire (@sfmcguire79) May 23, 2025
On Friday morning, NBC News put out a post on the influence of "white nationalist, hate and anti-government groups," which was heavily ratioed over X.
CNN's Donie O'Sullivan and deranged "journalist" Taylor Lorenz did a segment last month claiming that extremism came from the right. Even if it was before these murders, allegedly committed by a pro-Hamas individual, it's no less noteworthy.
The number of white nationalist, hate and anti-government groups around the U.S. dropped slightly in 2024, not because of any shrinking influence.
— NBC News (@NBCNews) May 23, 2025
Many feel their beliefs have become more normalized in government and mainstream discourse. https://t.co/WrHBpVSVjF
Independent journalist @TaylorLorenz on what media is getting wrong about Luigi Mangione fans.
— Donie O'Sullivan (@donie) April 13, 2025
Tonight on MisinfoNation: Extreme American 8p ET and PT on @CNN https://t.co/gMKMhdRmnr pic.twitter.com/JZJAJSMcnh
