Gary Knell is about to find out it's a lot easier to stick up for Bert and Ernie than "All Things Considered."
National Public Radio’s new president and CEO takes the helm of a news organization under increasing attack from conservatives for its perceived liberal bias and still reeling from a brouhaha that forced out his predecessor, Vivian Schiller.
The mounting national deficit and a series of high-profile scandals have emboldened Congressional Republicans to try to strip NPR, long a piñata for the right, of millions in federal backing.
Even Knell, 57, the former CEO of Sesame Workshop, acknowledges it’s a fight he may lose.
Also read: Here They Go Again: House GOP Tries to Strip NPR of Federal Funding
“We’re going to work like heck to make the case, and we need to do a better job of making that case, but I can’t predict what’s going to happen with the Super Committee [the bi-partisan group charged with cutting $1.2 trillion] or the budget cuts,” Knell told TheWrap. “We’ve got to make sure we have the ability to withstand any storms or southward turns.”
To that end, he said he’s committed to growing the financial backing NPR receives from listeners and foundations. Knell doesn’t step into his new post until Dec. 1, but he may have to act fast.
Last week, the GOP-dominated House Appropriations Committee unveiled its latest budget proposal.
It prohibits funds from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) from trickling down to NPR and requests a report from the CPB on how to wean public radio off of public support by fiscal year 2014.
Also read: NPR and PBS -- This Time It's the Fight of Their Lives
Compounding matters, public radio is still reeling from a series of scandals, such as the firing of commentator Juan Williams over anti-Muslim remarks and a video sting by a conservative activist that captured NPR fundraisers calling the Tea Party “racist.”
“I want to depoliticize the debate,” Knell told TheWrap. “NPR has been unfairly labelled as having a political agenda. This is a journalism organization that is on balance fair.”
But the series of scandals called into question NPR’s claims of being non-partisan and confirmed to many Republicans what conservatives had been asserting for years -- that the organization is little more than a liberal mouth piece.
Knell hopes to turn a page on that painful period in NPR’s history, one that led to a shakeup at the top of the 40-year old organization, with Schiller's exit in March.
“Those people aren’t working here anymore,” Knell said. “It’s my hope that we don’t inflict wounds upon ourself, and I’m going to try like heck to make sure I don’t do anything that will.”
Despite the headlines generated by each Republican threat to cut off public support, NPR receives a small portion of its budget, some 2 percent, from federal funds.
