Katherine Maher
Appearances
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
Trump Hits 100 Days & Canada Celebrates By Electing the Anti-Trump | Katherine Maher
That's right.
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
Trump Hits 100 Days & Canada Celebrates By Electing the Anti-Trump | Katherine Maher
Let's see. Reporting on the impact of the administration on disabled folks. Reporting on veterans issues and the revocation of a program that was designed to keep veterans in their homes following COVID-19. Tiny Desk. Tiny Desk concert.
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
Trump Hits 100 Days & Canada Celebrates By Electing the Anti-Trump | Katherine Maher
My dream? Yes. It was. My dream board was to advocate for NPR in any way that I can in all public media. So if I'm going to go in front of Marjorie Taylor Greene, I'm going to tell her exactly why we're so valuable and beneficial to the country.
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
Trump Hits 100 Days & Canada Celebrates By Electing the Anti-Trump | Katherine Maher
I think I was just trying to sit down. Oh, really? Without falling out of my chair.
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
Trump Hits 100 Days & Canada Celebrates By Electing the Anti-Trump | Katherine Maher
Well, you know, when you get in there, it's a little bit like Mount Olympus. They're very, very far away and very high up, and you're very small and on the ground, and so you're just that thing of looking up. It is actually kind of awe-inspiring. I know that people are sort of cynical about Congress at times, but... I was in awe.
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
Trump Hits 100 Days & Canada Celebrates By Electing the Anti-Trump | Katherine Maher
I mean, I'm sitting there, this is the seat of our legislative branch, and it really was an honor to be able to go in.
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
Trump Hits 100 Days & Canada Celebrates By Electing the Anti-Trump | Katherine Maher
Well, there's also a very big difference between disseminating the news and gathering the news. And what we do is we do news gathering. It allows for people to then be able to come in and add their spin and their commentary on it. So I have no problem with TikTok influencers or other people resharing that news. I think that that's actually great.
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
Trump Hits 100 Days & Canada Celebrates By Electing the Anti-Trump | Katherine Maher
But we want them to have credible sources of news to begin with to be able to base that work on. But more importantly, I think the big misconception is that this money goes to NPR or to PBS. The reality is that the vast majority of funds in public broadcasting resources go directly to local stations. So I'm talking about, I did a little research. I'm talking about WKAR.
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
Trump Hits 100 Days & Canada Celebrates By Electing the Anti-Trump | Katherine Maher
I think it's WMUK, WKAR are the stations where you grew up.
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
Trump Hits 100 Days & Canada Celebrates By Electing the Anti-Trump | Katherine Maher
There you go. Exactly, yes, WMUK.
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
Trump Hits 100 Days & Canada Celebrates By Electing the Anti-Trump | Katherine Maher
And so stations like that, they get a significant part of their funding comes from public funds. And that really matters, especially when you get into rural parts of the country. So I was in Asheville, North Carolina recently, as we all know, devastating damage in Hurricane Helene. They have enormous radio towers that broadcast across that top because it's like this.
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
Trump Hits 100 Days & Canada Celebrates By Electing the Anti-Trump | Katherine Maher
You know, it's the Appalachian Mountains. Same thing's true. Eastern Kentucky. You get out to the Rocky Mountains, same thing is true. Huge swaths of the country. That's expensive to maintain. We cover 99.7% of the country with our broadcast coverage, and that allows for Americans to have access to news, even in places where news deserts are growing, where disasters happen.
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
Trump Hits 100 Days & Canada Celebrates By Electing the Anti-Trump | Katherine Maher
That's what your federal funds go to. They go to your local station. They go to your local reporters.
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
Trump Hits 100 Days & Canada Celebrates By Electing the Anti-Trump | Katherine Maher
Corporation for Public Broadcasting, NPR, PBS, and all of public media.
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
Trump Hits 100 Days & Canada Celebrates By Electing the Anti-Trump | Katherine Maher
It's not great. I think that Americans need to be aware that it is going to be harmful to the system, right? So a lot of us probably grew up on kids' television, PBS Kids. I mean, it is a crown jewel of American public broadcasting programming.
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
Trump Hits 100 Days & Canada Celebrates By Electing the Anti-Trump | Katherine Maher
And whether you think about your history with Mr. Rogers, whether you're thinking about Sesame Street, whether you're thinking about more contemporary programming, That is so important, and that is a threat, under threat. When you think about your local radio stations, those may not be able to provide the same sorts of services.
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
Trump Hits 100 Days & Canada Celebrates By Electing the Anti-Trump | Katherine Maher
And the first thing that's gonna go, I have to tell you, is going to be local reporters' jobs. We have news deserts. 20% of Americans live in a place where they have no local news coverage other than public radio. What that means is that when we lose public funding, we are no longer going to be able to cover things like what matters in the statehouse.
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
Trump Hits 100 Days & Canada Celebrates By Electing the Anti-Trump | Katherine Maher
We're not going to be able to cover natural disasters. We're not going to be able to cover issues of local politics, issues of what's happening in your local sports team. We know that the existence of local news, and public radio in particular, contributes to lower rates of polarization, higher rates of civic engagement, and higher rates of civic trust.
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
Trump Hits 100 Days & Canada Celebrates By Electing the Anti-Trump | Katherine Maher
This is foundational infrastructure for our country. Even when we disagree, this is the sort of thing that can start to heal some of those disagreements and bring us back together.
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
Trump Hits 100 Days & Canada Celebrates By Electing the Anti-Trump | Katherine Maher
I mean, I won't lie. We are always in a tough spot. But what I love about our mission and our mandate is that it's actually our responsibility to try to serve everyone. No other commercial media organization has that same mandate. They can hyper-serve a particular audience, and that contributes to polarization. It's actually our job to bring folks together. What I see this as is, look, our
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
Trump Hits 100 Days & Canada Celebrates By Electing the Anti-Trump | Katherine Maher
Our reporting, our fact-based reporting, is absolutely down the line. I stand by our journalism 1,000%. We recognize that we have some of the best journalists in the business, and they go out there and they find stories, whether they're reporting on Congress or whether they're reporting on issues of climate change, desertification, water rights, et cetera. They're doing great reporting.
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
Trump Hits 100 Days & Canada Celebrates By Electing the Anti-Trump | Katherine Maher
I think what we need to be able to do is to bring more voices onto our air and have folks in conversation about the policies that are being made in this country today. We need to be able to hear from policymakers from across the spectrum. So we invite people from every party onto the air, but not everyone comes.
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
Trump Hits 100 Days & Canada Celebrates By Electing the Anti-Trump | Katherine Maher
I don't think that it's a question per se of us being biased in terms of our actual reporting. What I do think is that we're missing some voices. And so I would just take this opportunity to extend again an invitation to conservative voices who feel like they're not being heard. I also think that we can't shirk from our responsibility to serve all Americans.
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
Trump Hits 100 Days & Canada Celebrates By Electing the Anti-Trump | Katherine Maher
And so another criticism that we see is that, you know, we're too woke. But the reality is this is a very diverse nation. And our mandate under the Public Broadcasting Act is to serve everyone. including the unserved and the underserved. And we can't pull away from that, either. We have to be able to represent America in all of its diversity, even when that makes us sometimes uncomfortable.
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
Trump Hits 100 Days & Canada Celebrates By Electing the Anti-Trump | Katherine Maher
That means expanding the tent to be as big a tent as possible, rather than sort of moving the tent around the country to accommodate different groups.
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
Trump Hits 100 Days & Canada Celebrates By Electing the Anti-Trump | Katherine Maher
I'm imagining Terry in a naughty pine basement, you know?
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
Trump Hits 100 Days & Canada Celebrates By Electing the Anti-Trump | Katherine Maher
Come on. I couldn't tell you what Terry's drink of choice is. Maybe it is bourbon. We would have... That sounds like a great interview.
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
Trump Hits 100 Days & Canada Celebrates By Electing the Anti-Trump | Katherine Maher
The people want to know.
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
Trump Hits 100 Days & Canada Celebrates By Electing the Anti-Trump | Katherine Maher
I barter these for groceries at this point.