Last Updated on July 5, 2022
National Public Radio (NPR) is currently taking criticism for a discussion the radio station hosted on July 4th. Going back to 1988, NPR has famously hosted a reading of the Declaration of Independence on July 4th to celebrate the founding of America and spread the message that all Americans are united under this founding document and its principles. This year, NPR hosted several historians to discuss America’s founding through the lens of racial grievance and attempt to use the founding to push a leftist agenda.
The early part of the discussion talked in depth about slavery, and how some of the Founders, such as Thomas Jefferson, were hypocritical for owning slaves. Then, the talk went into whether or not a country that has ended slavery and Jim Crow has somehow not lived up to the words in the Declaration. “Thomas Jefferson and other founders wrote those words, and the country has spent 246 years debating what they mean, especially the line that all men are created equal, words the founders were not exactly living by,” said NPR host Steve Inskeep.
The concept of equality almost always seems to be the animating force of the political left. The NPR segment leaned heavily into what they believe is an ongoing process to achieve “equality.”
“And many of our debates on this July 4th turn on what equality means. What voting rules really give equal access to the ballot? Do abortion laws give a woman equal control over her body? At what point is a fetus entitled to equal rights?”, asked Inskeep.
This overtly political messaging from a major media outlet on a day meant to unite the country led to many people calling for NPR, an outlet that is in part funded by taxpayers, to have its funding cut. #DefundNPR has been trending on Twitter since last night.
House Republicans, led by Rep. Doug Lamborn (R-CO), attempted to defund NPR in 2011, but to no avail. As per usual, some establishment Republicans joined Democrats to protect the media institution.
NPR is not the only outlet to showcase anti-American sentiment on Independence Day. CNN and ESPN brazenly produced scathing op-eds attacking the country and its people. Recent Supreme Court decisions protecting gun rights and the right to life were seized on by left wing media outlets as reasons to attack conservative, freedom-loving, and patriotic Americans.
In recent years, left-wing media and activists have used many uniquely American holidays to denigrate the nation and push a liberal, universalist, and woke agenda. Thanksgiving has not even been safe from leftist activists, as think pieces about colonialism and the oppression of Native Americans are commonplace.