PBS Chief Paula Kerger Dismisses Trump’s Claims of ‘Bias’ After Executive Order Targeting Network: ‘There Isn’t Much to Talk About’

PBS CEO Paula Kerger told Katie Couric she doesn’t fully comprehend why her network is accused of a left-wing bias following President Donald Trump’s executive order barring appropriated public funds.

Kerger recently joined Couric for a sit-down interview in Washington, D.C. during which she pushed back against Trump’s claims of “bias” against her network. In a May 1 executive order, Trump ordered that public funds bound for PBS and NPR be withheld.

“What does matter is that neither entity presents a fair, accurate, or unbiased portrayal of current events to taxpaying citizens,” the president said. “I therefore instruct the CPB Board of Directors (CPB Board) and all executive departments and agencies (agencies) to cease Federal funding for NPR and PBS.”

In her sit-down with Couric, Kerger said she does not know what the “issues” are that Trump and others have with PBS, and Couric laid some of them out, citing coverage of the Covid-19 pandemic and Hunter Biden, the controversial son of former President Joe Biden.

Couric said:

I’ll tell you what some of the issues are, according to them, the president and Republican Party say the impetus for all of this is bias in your coverage and creating quote, left wing propaganda. The White House released a document accompanying the executive order criticizing PBS and NPR’s coverage of the pandemic and Hunter Biden, among other things. To say that this, you know, that the information that you all are disseminating on PBS and NPR is basically biased. And I’m curious to hear your response to that.

Kerger insisted “there isn’t much to talk about” when it comes to what the White House determined was “biased.”

She said:

In terms of the you know, the Covid origins, we actually did fairly extensive coverage of, you know, the various theories, including the Wuhan lab theory. So that I don’t understand the criticism and always when people say we see bias in your program programs and by the way we get that on both sides. You know, I get as many calls from people on the more progressive side as on the conservative side that have issues every night with every night’s broadcast. You know, I see this or I see that.

Kerger argued that people feel news should “reaffirm” their own beliefs, an issue she said runs through both sides of the political aisle.

“We’re in a difficult time right now in our country around news coverage where people forget that news is news and it is not about hearing information that is reaffirming what you think you know,” she said.

NPR and three Colorado public radio stations filed suit on Tuesday against Trump and his administration over the order barring public funds, calling the president’s actions “textbook retaliation” and a “clear” violation of the Constitution.

Watch above via Katie Couric on YouTube.