NPR President Katherine Maher Awarded a 1st Amendment Prize — Despite Her Hostile History Towards the 1st Amendment

NPR President Katherine Maher Speaking Against the !-A

It seems National Public Radio is intent on being the torch bearer of inflamed journalism. An announcement came out that the head of NPR will be honored later this month, and it becomes another example of the news industry not taking itself seriously…while posturing in a very serious manner.

Although the outlet is not directly behind this current farce, the details are steeped heavily in what has brought down the credibility of NPR. The network President Katherine Maher is being honored by Harper’s Magazine with its “First Amendment Award”, and the headshaking it induces is involuntary.

Of course, when the concept of free expression is shackled in a sentence with NPR, the mind instantly goes to that outlet’s most infamous move regarding open dialogue. That would be the move to suppress the reporting on the Hunter Biden laptop.

In that instance the network not only held back on reporting on that brewing news; the NPR heads actually came out and declared it would not touch that story. The public editor came out and stipulated, “We don’t want to waste our time on stories that are not really stories.” Of course, they failed to actually investigate and show how there was no veracity to the news.

As is known today, the site ended up coming out later (safely after the 2020 election) to admit the Hunter laptop was legitimate. It did so in a hoped-for overlooked manner. It admitted its error as an editor’s note at the end of a book review on Hunter Biden’s memoir.

Last spring Katherine Maher herself admitted to this dose of shame her network holds to this day. At a Congressional hearing she was asked pointedly about the decision, and she fessed up, albeit in a terse, one sentence response. “NPR acknowledges that we were mistaken in failing to cover the Hunter Biden laptop story more aggressively and sooner.”

The folks at Harper’s are intent on puffing up Maher for their event, facts being secondary, apparently, when handing out 1st Amendment prizes.

Maher has led the nation’s most trusted public media institution through a period of heightened scrutiny and challenge, including successfully battling Trump’s 2025 executive order aimed at terminating federal funding for NPR and PBS.

“Successfully”, really?! Federal funding for NPR, and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting has, in fact, been terminated. The gang at Harper’s may be referring to a judge’s ruling that the executive order from President Trump was invalid, but this was the embodiment of a moral victory while losing the game.

The funding for public broadcasting was cut by Congress, and that remains to be case. The CPB has been shuttered as a result, and the breadth of TV and radio stations across the country have been grappling with curtailed budgets.

But there is one main reason that Katherine Maher being celebrated for First Amendment nobility is a complete farce: It is Katherine Maher’s own words in speaking not only against free expression, but the First Amendment in particular.

In a TED Talk she gave in 2021, just prior to taking on the role of NPR’s head, Maher was discussing the need to control speech for the purpose of preventing what she – and others – consider inappropriate discourse. “Our reverence for the truth might be a distraction,” she announced quixotically, and then, in praising the efforts seen in other countries to suppress certain speech, she showed contempt for…(wait for it)…the First Amendment.

The #1 challenge that we see here is, of course, the First Amendment in the United States. So, you know, in a lot of countries—in Europe, for example—there’s a lot more willingness to pass legislation to restrict certain kinds of content. In the United States, the First Amendment makes it a little bit trickier.

I’m sorry but, while acknowledging that she has every right to express that thought, taking that position should be considered a disqualifying trait for anyone tabbed to lead a journalism outlet. It should certainly eliminate her from any consideration for praise regarding upholding the First Amendment.

Yet the think tank at Harper’s appears oblivious to these dogmatic positions that Maher and NPR have displayed and wants to fete her with their neutered award. The irony being they are allegedly celebrating truth in journalism by completely overlooking the facts regarding their honoree.

This is an opinion piece. The views expressed in this article are those of just the author.

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