Katherine Maher, CEO of NPR, failed to show up to a congressional hearing aimed at examining the alleged news outlet’s left-wing bias. The issue of NPR’s function as a Democratic propaganda mill has long been the subject of criticism, especially since the organization is funded in part by taxpayer dollars.

Maher declined the invitation to testify because of a scheduling conflict. However, the hearing went on anyway. House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairwoman Cathy McMorris Rogers (R-WA) noted that the committee would “fulfill its responsibility to investigate the allegations against NPR and take appropriate action based on what we find.”

Despite her no-show, Republican lawmakers participating in the hearing still criticized the NPR CEO over the issue of bias. This rankled a few feathers on the Democratic side, who likely did not appreciate their colleagues taking shots at the woman who presides over an organization that has been one of their party’s most loyal allies.

Rep. Diana DeGette (D-CO) became quite incensed at comments Republicans made about Maher and NPR.

“I want to say, shame on this committee for doing this,” Degette said. “Apparently … the majority members keep attacking the NPR CEO Katherine Maher because she’s not here. They gave her one week notice, she’s a brand new CEO and today is her board meeting, her first board meeting as CEO, and you want to haul her in here so that you can rake her over the coals for your partisan issues. Shame on this committee! I’m beside myself. I think it’s outrageous.”

NPR’s bias emerged as an issue once again when Uri Berliner, one of the outlet’s journalists, penned an op-ed giving a behind-the-scenes look at how the outlet’s left-wing bias plays out. In the piece, Berliner noted that the COVID-19 lab leak theory, which was later confirmed, “came in for rough treatment almost immediately, dismissed as racist or a right-wing conspiracy theory.” He further explained that the outlet “became fervent members of Team Natural Origin, even declaring that the lab leak had been debunked by scientists.”

The backlash against the revelations led to the journalist resigning from his position.

Maher herself has come under fire for displaying a decidedly left-wing bias and a distinct disdain for free speech. After Berliner’s article became public, a video surfaced in which Maher, during her days as the head of Wikipedia, decried the platform’s “free and open” approach because it supposedly prioritized a “white male” perspective.

Last month, a group of GOP lawmakers introduced several bills to defund NPR.

Folks on the right have long complained about the fact that NPR, like most other legacy media, functions as a propaganda arm of the Democratic Party. They rightly argue that the government should not be funding any news outlet that promotes a political agenda. However, such legislation is unlikely to pass. Still, Republican lawmakers are pushing bills that would take a miracle to pass, given the current makeup of Congress.

House Freedom Caucus Chair Bob Good, R-Va., Rep. Jim Banks, R-Ind., and Rep. Claudia Tenney, R-N.Y., introduced similar legislation to prohibit federal funding for NPR, including barring local public radio stations from utilizing money from federal grants to “purchase content or pay dues to NPR.”

Over the years, Republicans have made multiple attempts to defund NPR, citing similar complaints. The latest outrage follows an editorial from former NPR Editor Uri Berliner, who criticized the news source claiming it had “lost America’s trust.”

Maher has also been scrutinized for a post on X in which she displayed her support for President Joe Biden and another in which she called former President Donald Trump racist.