Chicago City Wire

15th Ward Ald. Ray Lopez is applauding President Donald Trump’s move to defund NPR and PBS, arguing that taxpayer support for media outlets like the Chicago Sun-Times and its parent, Chicago Public Media, undermines journalistic integrity. He said the Sun-Times has “lost its moral and journalistic clarity.”

The Sun-Times recently defended Chicago Public Media’s $2 million in federal funding, calling it essential to journalistic freedom — an argument Lopez flatly rejected.

“‘Freedom of the press’ means that media could and should be free of government censorship and intrusion,” Lopez told Chicago City Wire. “It is not a constitutional requirement that government provide funds to sustain media. Government routinely creates stipulations for grants on a variety of issues, from public health to housing to public safety – and public access television.”

Chicago is served by WBEZ (95.1 FM), the region’s NPR affiliate operated by Chicago Public Media, which also owns the Sun-Times, and WTTW (Channel 11), the city’s primary PBS station.

For Lopez, the issue cuts deeper than partisan politics—it’s about credibility, accountability and transparency in journalism.

“The CST [Chicago Sun-Times] chose several years ago to transition from a for-profit media outlet to a non-profit model that was funded, in part, by public sector unions,” Lopez said. “That dynamic removed the media to a non-political realm while oftentimes relying on issue-friendly reporting sympathetic to various Labor-related positions. I believe they have lost their moral and journalistic clarity, often parroting press releases and political talking points in lieu of actual investigative journalism.” 

Lopez argued that the Sun-Times’ reliance on government funding is a symptom of deeper issues with the paper’s editorial direction and market appeal. 

“The CST, in its nonprofit model, is unable to find private donors (or advertisers) willing to invest (and advertise) because of how the paper has transformed itself and its product,” Lopez said. “Requiring government subsidies should be the option of last resort; however, their financial wounds directly correlate to their journalistic problems as well as their loss of confidence & relevance to the general public.” 

Lopez said legacy media, once respected, has allowed bias to erode its standing—and that new, decentralized platforms are beginning to fill the void.

“The purpose of any true news outlet is to report fact, not opinion masquerading as fact,” he said. “There are plenty of cable news outlets that currently do that. The lack of balance & non-biased reporting has taken hold of legacy media at both the local and national levels. This is why emerging media and influencers are gaining in stature because often their content, while raw, is often more trusted.” 

He added that in today’s media climate, too many journalists are forgetting a basic rule of the trade.

“There is a saying in the media: report the story, don’t become the story,” Lopez said. “In becoming the story, and injecting their personal opinions as matters of fact, legacy media has caused measurable harm to their once noble profession.” 

Trump’s executive order titled “Ending taxpayer subsidization of biased media” cited mounting concerns about political bias in public broadcasting. 

Trump’s order states that government funding should be provided to “only fair, accurate, unbiased, and nonpartisan news coverage.”  

In an op-ed published in The Free Press, former veteran NPR senior editor Uri Berliner alleged a deep and growing left-wing bias within NPR. 

Berliner wrote that over the past 15 years, NPR has shifted sharply left, alienating a politically diverse audience and replacing balanced journalism with a progressive agenda. He pointed to the network’s decision to ignore major stories like the Hunter Biden laptop controversy and promote the now-discredited Trump-Russia collusion narrative as evidence of its bias.

Additionally, a recent congressional hearing revealed that NPR’s Washington newsroom includes 87 registered Democrats and no registered Republicans. 

NPR CEO Katherine Maher, who also serves on the board of the encrypted messaging app Signal, has become a lightning rod in the debate, particularly for her past advocacy of limiting free speech during her tenure as CEO of Wikipedia.

At a recent congressional hearing, Maher was confronted about past tweets reflecting controversial left-wing views including her 2020 assertion that “America is addicted to white supremacy,” that the concept of a “free and open” Internet was a “white male Westernized construct” and Trump is a “deranged racist sociopath.” 

Conservative watchdogs like the Media Research Center and Americans for Tax Reform praised Trump’s order, describing NPR and PBS as out-of-touch institutions that no longer reflect the values of the American taxpayer. 

Rapid Response 47 went further, accusing the networks of spreading “radical, woke propaganda” under the guise of journalism.