To Celebrate NPR Losing Federal Funds, Here Are Seven Of Its Worst Stories

The Senate voted in the early hours of Thursday morning to end federal funding of NPR programs deemed wasteful and ideologically driven. Liberals say the move will reduce safety warnings for rural America, while conservatives point out that NPR has a history of pushing leftist narratives.

To celebrate ending its federal funding, here are some of the worst NPR articles from over the years.

Hunter Biden’s Laptop Is A “Pure Distraction”

When the New York Post broke the story about Hunter Biden’s laptop in 2020, media outlets rushed to suppress the story. NPR decided not to cover it at all, saying, “We don’t want to waste our time on stories that are not really stories, and we don’t want to waste listeners’ and readers’ time on stories that are just pure distractions.”

Why haven’t you seen any stories from NPR about the NY Post’s Hunter Biden story? Read more in this week’s newsletter➡️ https://t.co/CJesPgmGvo pic.twitter.com/jAi7PnpbZf

— NPR Public Editor (@NPRpubliceditor) October 22, 2020

In an “analysis” of the story, NPR said the Post’s scoop was “marked more by red flags than investigative rigor.”

In 2022, NPR quietly admitted the Hunter Biden story might have been worth paying attention to, after all.

Consider The “Gay Asylum-Seekers”

One story NPR did find worth covering was a 2021 piece titled “Trump Years Were Terrifying For Gay Asylum-Seeker.”

The piece explains the life of a gay man afraid of being deported during President Donald Trump’s first term.

Gay immigrants seem to be one of NPR’s favorite topics. You can read about gay Muslims living in Russia, gay refugees fleeing Ukraine, gay refugees from Uganda, or a Mexican shelter for gay immigrants coming to the United States — and that’s not even half of NPR’s gay immigrant coverage.

The Trump administration is deporting illegal immigrants because they broke the law, not because of anyone’s sexual orientation. Despite being obsessed with the subject, NPR has yet to find one immigrant who was deported for being gay.

Everything Is Racist

In 2020, NPR ran an interview titled “Fat Phobia And Its Racist Past And Present.” The interview went “all the way back to the transatlantic slave trade to understand the racial origins of fat phobia.”

The interviewee claimed diet culture came from Europeans deciding to “be slender” to “make [them] the premier race of the world,” and added, “There are so many problems” with “telling people to lose weight.”

For more NPR gems about racism, consider stories such as “Experiencing racism may physically change your brain,” an article about how “nice white people” are still racist, or a long article detailing next steps if you “flunked a racism test.”

Transgender Truckers

Have you ever driven past a semi on the interstate and wondered if the driver was transgender? He (or she, or they) might be, NPR explained in an interview about “diverse” trucking.

The interviewer talked to the founder of a company that screens trucking companies to find out if they “support LGBTQ drivers or if their health insurance covers things like trans health care.”

“It’s trying to bridge the gap between the regular LGBTQ community and trucking community, letting them realize that there is [sic] drivers out here, that it’s a good option for a job and paying for surgeries and whatever, you know, your personal goal is,” the company’s founder said.

NPR also talked to a trans-identifying man to learn about the world of “women truckers” and what “they tell us about about living and working alone.”

Brandie Diamond describes himself as a “transgender truck driver/chef/Jill-of-all-trades” who used his “windshield time … to explore her [sic] identity as a transgender woman.”

Alone time is a great way to plot how to change your gender, NPR seems to suggest.

“What’s Bugging You?”

In 2013, NPR ran a story with the headline “Maybe It’s Time To Swap Burgers For Bugs, Says U.N.”

In 2017, NPR said, “At Bug-Eating Festival, Kids Crunch Down On The Food Of The Future.”

In 2018, the outlet mused, “Your Ancestors Probably Ate Insects. So What’s Bugging You?”

And in 2023, NPR wondered why so many conservatives were refusing to eat bugs: “This right wing conspiracy theory about eating bugs is about as racist as you think.”

One X user summed up the saga perfectly.

pic.twitter.com/aVHK47gXsk

— Cogent Curmudgeon (@1HonestLiar) July 17, 2025

COVID-19 Was Not Created In A Lab

NPR blasted Americans who believed the “baseless conspiracy theory that the coronavirus was created in a lab in China,” saying “there is zero evidence for this.”

A new poll finds 40% of respondents believe in a baseless conspiracy theory that the coronavirus was created in a lab in China.

There is zero evidence for this. Scientists say the virus was transmitted to humans from another species.https://t.co/GDTo2geUng

— NPR (@NPR) December 31, 2020

The problem? The CIA now says COVID-19 originated from a lab leak in China.

Transgender Dinosaurs

NPR once spent 10 minutes describing the battle between pro- and anti-trans activists over the dinosaur emoji. To help explain the controversy, the outlet spoke to a trans-identifying science writer who uses she/they/it pronouns.

LGBT activists love dinosaurs and use terms like “allysaurus” and “transceritops,” NPR explained between updates about January 6 hearings.

But then anti-trans activists started using dinosaur emojis.

“Dinosaurs are ours,” the science writer said, even though he admitted he doesn’t know why the LGBT Subreddit loves dinosaurs so much.

“This is a dark day,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said in response to the NPR cuts.

Well, maybe it is for the transgender dinosaurs. The rest of us are just fine.