As you should expect, NPR Morning Edition anchor Steve Inskeep is a cheerleader for his “news” network. On his Substack page came a titled “Public radio may be stronger in 2026.”
Inskeep objected to a recent puff piece on NPR’s CEO by Benjamin Mullin in The New York Times, as it discussed the “terrible blow” of losing taxpayer funding, the system is “far weaker overall.” Inskeep argued his visits to local stations didn’t match that verdict, and insisted that internal ratings reports suggested his show was up a million listeners last spring. But the part about NPR’s bias was ludicrous:
This information allows us to re-evaluate some political debate about NPR. The fact-free hypothesis of NPR’s partisan critics was that NPR lost audience in the early 2020’s because it was too woke. (As I wrote here, much of the “evidence” of bias was imaginary, although I would agree that NPR has sometimes presented stories in ways that exclude people.)
…. It now seems more likely that NPR lost audience in the early 2020’s because many people were working from home and driving less. Much radio listening takes place in the car. People also were suffering from news fatigue. Now people are driving more, and in a time of constant change they really want an independent source of information. Some choose NPR. Surveys place it among the most trusted news brands. This will come as a surprise to partisans.
Inskeep on many occasions was a soft touch in interviews with President Obama, and came away insisting “He’s a cool guy. He has been cool every time that I have talked with him.” But he claims he’s not a partisan at all. His article “refuting” Uri Berliner was incredibly lame. His answer to NPR having 87 registered Democrats and zero Republicans in DC was that he registered as “no party.”
In answering the question of declining trust in media outlets, Inskeep stipulated: “We should prove what we say, citing our sources. We should challenge officials to prove what they say, and take note when they don’t.”
But Inskeep hasn’t been in the business of challenging Obama, or any other officials when they have a (D). On Monday’s Morning Edition, it was all softballs for Rep. Jim Himes (D-Conn.) as he made the usual DNC arguments about how Trump is doing everything wrong, no need to challenge him for proof.
On NPR, Rep. Jim Himes of the Gang of 8 says he wasn’t informed of the Venezuela strikes.
Aside from legality, Himes notes another issue. “As a political matter,” it’s “unwise,” because Trump went in alone — so if it goes wrong, “he owns this.”https://t.co/tiiShGK20a
— Steve Inskeep (@NPRinskeep) January 5, 2026
In 2025, we noted Inskeep’s supportive interviews with MSNBC host Chris Hayes, former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, and Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker, who compared Trump’s immigration enforcement to the early days of Nazi Germany, and all Inskeep could do was underline it: “The governor, who’s Jewish, talked of helping to build a Holocaust museum and said he needed to stand up even at the risk of retribution.”
Inskeep’s claim he should “challenge officials to prove what they say” is as empty as Al Capone’s vault.
