Karyn Gattermann: Losing trust in public media's unbiased journalism

To The Daily Sun,

Our tax dollars should not support NPR, PBS which have no credibility. An NPR reporter recently admitted that they did not report (“underreporting”) about Joe Biden’s cognitive decline, the Hunter Biden laptop, etc. As late as May 19, a PBS reporter stated that Donald Trump Jr. was repeating “unfounded claims” that Biden clearly had dementia. Knowingly not informing the public of the facts on a timely basis is the opposite of keeping the public informed and demonstrates a complete lack of credibility. I was a financial supporter of NPR for more than 20 years but stopped over 10 years ago when it became clear that their reporting was no longer unbiased journalism.

In 2023, U.S. foreign aid spending was almost $750 billion. USAID was responsible for distribution of $3 of every $5 spent. Per Business Insider, 33% of the 2024 USAID spending was on governance and administration. Newsweek reported the figure at 50% of the spending. Other charities would be slammed for spending more than 25% of donations in this way. There have been ongoing allegations of misspending and complaints about USAID that occurred long before Trump was elected and include diversion of funds to multiple terrorist organizations. Eight auditors for the USAID inspector general’s office sounded the alarm to the Washington Post in 2014 that negative findings surrounding the agency’s work were removed from final reports and audits. Just one example provided was that in the wake of the 2011 Egyptian Revolution, USAID established NGO-led, pro-democracy programs in the nation, though the NGO workers were not registered to work in the country. Egypt arrested 16 American NGO workers, for operating illegally in the country, with USAID quietly paying Egypt $4.6 million to bail out the Americans. USAID responsibilities have been transferred to the State Department.

Karyn Gattermann

New Hampton