The CEOs of NPR and PBS testified before a U.S. House subcommittee on government efficiency Wednesday morning. They sought to defend public broadcasting against accusations by Republican lawmakers of political bias.
At the heart of the hearing was the question of whether public broadcasting should receive federal funding. The hearing was heated from the start, with Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene calling the two public media organizations “radical left-wing echo chambers.”
The Conversation spoke to Mary Louise Kelly, a co-host of NPR's afternoon newsmagazine show “All Things Considered,” ahead of the congressional hearing. She discussed holding powerful people accountable — and the role of facts and opinions in the newsroom.
Her memoir, set to be released in paperback on April 8, chronicles a story that “every parent who wrestles with that mythic beast called ‘work-life balance’ can relate to,” with a focus on her journey as her first child prepares to leave for college.
Interview Highlights
On being a part of “All Things Considered”
MARY LOUISE KELLY: One of my favorite moments of my day every day is the 9:30 a.m. eastern "All Things Considered" editorial meeting where the whole team, from senior hosts and executive producer to the new intern, are all gathered at a conference room table… We really live up to the “All Things Considered” name, so people are pitching stuff all over the map, and I love it because, at that time of day, anything is possible. No one's turned us down yet, and every day I come in and think, "What am I curious about? What are my questions? Who could answer them? Let's get 'em on the phone." It's so much fun.
On her new memoir
KELLY: The flip is writing a book like "It. Goes. So. Fast." which was an attempt to put a pen in one particular year... I was writing this in real-time a couple of years ago, and as I look back, I think, "Gosh, I've already forgotten some of these details. I'm so glad I put them down on a page. I've already forgotten exactly how that conversation unfolded, or how funny it was in the moment." And it makes me realize it's the advice you always get about, you know, take a photograph, not just of the big smiling people formally posed at a ceremony or a birthday or whatever, but of the little things, you know, of your kids sprawled on the floor during their homework. That's the stuff that I miss. And that's the kind of thing that I was trying to capture in this book.
On the role of the newsroom amid Wednesday's hearing
KELLY: I feel more committed to the mission now than when I was starting out in this business. I look at the news media today, we face all kinds of challenges… One of the things I love about working at NPR is that we will cover ourselves and this debate as we would any other story. That is firewalled from our PR team or the big corporate bosses. The leaders of NPR will have no input into the journalism that's being conducted in the newsroom on this story, and that's a great thing. I think what I can do in this moment is continue to ask questions in the service of finding out what decisions are being made and why, and holding people in positions of power to account. That's what we do… I think, if anything, the value of old bootstrap reporting is elevated in this moment. We are trying to operate with facts in a fact-based reality. And there is huge value in journalists going out into our country, into our communities, and out in the world, and sharing with our audience what we see, what we hear, what it looks like, and then people can make up their own minds what they want to think about it. That kind of journalism is expensive. It costs money to send our correspondents out into the world. It costs money to send me and my team out to report stories, and NPR continues to do that on a tight, nonprofit public radio budget because we believe in that and the value that it brings to people who are in our audience listening and reading our work.
On choosing a range of interviewees to speak with
KELLY: These are discussions that we have in our newsroom all the time. "What voices are we booking? Who do we wanna hear from? What's the range of voices that we put on air?" Part of the job of hosting a program like “All Things Considered” is we're gonna put all kinds of voices with all kinds of views. I don't feel any obligation to balance truth with lies, but I do feel an obligation to put people with a range of views, and people who are in positions of power, who are making decisions that impact our country in real-time, to ask them respectful but tough questions about why they think what they think, why they're doing what they do, how that scores with the facts. And then again, people can make up their own mind what they want to think.
Editor's note: HPR receives some federal funding from the Corporation of Public Broadcasting.
This interview aired on The Conversation on March 26, 2025. The Conversation airs weekdays at 11 a.m.
