Dupage Policy Journal

Margot Henshaw, owner of The Prince’s Table and Liberty Luxury in Glen Ellyn, has joined the growing number of supporters backing President Trump’s executive order to cut federal funding to NPR and PBS. 

The order, titled “Ending Taxpayer Subsidization of Biased Media,” seeks to ensure public funds support “only fair, accurate, unbiased, and nonpartisan news coverage,” which will impact Illinois stations such as WTTW and WBEZ Chicago, the latter also owning the Chicago Sun-Times newspaper.

“Definitely—taxpayer-funded institutions should not be denigrating America—and this is not limited to news organizations such as NPR and PBS,” Henshaw told the DuPage Policy Journal. 

“The colleges and universities that propagandize our youth and favor foreign students over American students, allowing citizens of enemy states to work on defense research that is fully subsidized by our government is obviously a breach of security and must be dealt with accordingly. Especially egregious in this regard are the 1800s Land Grant Universities, set up by the individual states to promote a better-educated populace. They have completely forgotten about the mission.”

The Sun-Times recently defended WBEZ's $2 million annual taxpayer subsidy, arguing that the loss of funding places the free press “under threat.”

Henshaw is unconvinced. 

“Press freedom—this is a joke—they are not FREE—they have been bought and paid for by taxpayer cash; therefore, they gave up willingly the freedom of the press to the government. What government bestows, government can take away,” she said. 

Henshaw’s comments align with those of former NPR senior editor Uri Berliner, who recently resigned after publishing a scathing op-ed in The Free Press titled “How NPR lost America’s trust,” accusing NPR of abandoning balanced journalism, promoting a narrow progressive worldview, and ignoring stories like the Hunter Biden laptop while advancing discredited narratives such as the Trump-Russia collusion claims.

Henshaw noted the media's role in shaping public opinion, arguing that it fails to accurately represent the views of the broader population. 

“The media in general does not reflect the views of the general public,” Henshaw said. “Their mission is not to report, but to shape public perception of a subject, skewing it ever leftward and being as disrespectful to America.”

The order has drawn widespread support from conservative watchdogs like the Media Research Center and Americans for Tax Reform, who characterize NPR and PBS as the “TV and radio equivalent to MSNBC” out of step with the values of many taxpayers. 

Groups like Rapid Response 47 went further, calling out the networks as platforms for “radical, woke propaganda.”

“NPR, CBS, ABC, NBC, MSNBC—all of these are one-sided and everybody knows it,” Hensahw said. 

“They are covering for the Left and that is certain. When Trump and Biden 'debated'—and I use the term lightly—it was like the story of the Emperor’s New Clothes. We all had been watching and seeing the senile Biden, but it was clear, watching the debacle, that he had nothing to offer and they had been lying and putting one over on us all along. Very nice.”

Trump’s directive followed a congressional hearing in which NPR CEO Katherine Maher admitted the network had avoided covering stories that could politically damage Democrats. 

Maher, a former head of Wikipedia and current board member of Signal, has also drawn criticism for past statements questioning the value of the First Amendment and Western norms of free expression.

In a recent congressional hearing, NPR CEO Katherine Maher admitted the network had avoided stories that could be politically damaging to Democrats while emphasizing others critical of Republicans, regardless of their accuracy.

Maher was also confronted about past social media posts reflecting controversial left-wing views including her 2020 assertion that “America is addicted to white supremacy,” that the concept of a “free and open” Internet was a “white male Westernized construct” and Trump is a “deranged racist sociopath.” 

Henshaw noted Maher’s “un-American statements” and pointed to the congressional testimony, during which Rep. Brandon Gill (R-TX) confronted Maher with past comments questioning traditional free speech values. 

"Maher has made un-American statements and then she was embarrassed by the playing of them for Congress. She denied them even though a U.S. Rep from Texas (Brandon Gill, I believe) played the recordings for her and she sheepishly said she did not mean them... uh huh,” Henshaw said.

Henshaw’s concerns extend to the educational system and its influence on media culture. 

“Our teaching schools since the 1960s have been the target of infiltration and propagandization by the Soviets and now the Chinese,” she said. 

“This was one of the revelations provided by the Soviet defector Yuri Bezmenov in the 1980s. He stated that it was already too late for our educational system, as it had been thoroughly penetrated by the Soviets. They should be very skeptical about ANY taxpayer-funded institution and question the patriotism of any group willing to grab federal money. The journalism schools have likewise been tainted, and the Left has been courting journalists for decades.”