The man in charge of Alaska’s largest PBS, NPR and statewide publicly funded news organization doesn’t think his media operation has much of a leftwing bias when it comes to news and feature content.
This was the claim of Ed Ulman, president and CEO of Alaska Public Media. He was the featured guest on the Oct. 22 “I’m Glad You Said That” radio show, hosted by Alaska Family Council President Jim Minnery.
Minnery invited Ulman to talk about Congress’ decision to end $1.1 billion in taxpayer funds for the National Corporation of Public Broadcasting, a move that has hit local public media outlets hard. Conservatives, however, have largely praised the cuts, claiming that publicly funded media has pushed a liberal bias and progressive agenda for decades, while relying heavily on the public dime.
Alaska Public Media had about 20% of its $8-9 million annual budget slashed, and has been forced to reach out to corporations and wealthy nonprofits to make up the gap.
Alaska Public Media is comprised of KSKA radio, KAKM-TV, Create TV, PBS KIDS, and alaskapublic.org. It also operates the Statewide News and a shared television service with KTOO in Juneau and KYUK in Bethel.
Since Congress rescinded the funding for national public media, Alaska Public Media has raised $3.6 million thanks to donations from groups like Alaska Community Foundation and the Rasmuson Foundation.
Ulman, who has led Alaska Public Media for the past decade, defended public media as a place to “connect” and provide understanding about where we disagree and what compromises we might make to benefit society and local communities.
He argued that public media can serve communities without being compromised by the need to cater to advertisers. He also said his organization does a good job of responding to the wants and needs of local communities.
Minnery, however, noted that a Pew survey found that 87% of those who named NPR as their main news source were Democrats.
“It seems as though it is catering a little bit more, if not a lot more to a Democratic listener,” he said.
Ulman responded, saying “there’s been a lot of conversation about that on the NPR side of the house.”
“I think it’s something we need to work on,” he said.
Former NPR senior business editor Uri Berliner claimed Americans no longer trust NPR because of its lack of “viewpoint diversity” and its emphasis on diversity, equity and inclusion ideology.
Ulman then quickly pivoted to defend the work of Alaska Public Media, pointing out that his organization operates statewide radio and television programs and produces the only statewide news network. He listed a number of other mainstream media that he partners with, such as the Anchorage Daily News, the Fairbanks News Miner and the Alaska Beacon. While many conservatives see these outlets as left of center, Ulman cited his partnership with these groups as evidence that Alaska Public Media has a wide “breadth of coverage.”
Still, he acknowledged that public media, in general, needs to use the recent funding cuts as a moment to “reflect back.”
He didn’t explain what this might look like in terms of coverage, but said he believes they could win back support from lawmakers and possibly restore their taxpayer funded allotments.
Ulman also noted that the cuts were not as severe as some might assume. For instance, Sen. Dan Sullivan worked with the Federal Bureau of Indian Affairs to get all of the cut funds replaced for 14 rural public radio stations across Alaska.
“We are pleased to see that,” Ulman said, while noting that larger population centers in Anchorage, Fairbanks and Juneau have had to deal with funding cuts.
Minnery pushed back, saying that Alaska Public Media suffers from a lack of opposing perspectives, even on local issues.
Minnery then asked him to comment on a 2024 letter in which former NPR senior business editor Uri Berliner claimed Americans no longer trust NPR because of its lack of “viewpoint diversity” and its emphasis on diversity, equity and inclusion ideology.
Berliner wrote at the time that “an open-minded spirit no longer exists within NPR, and now, predictably, we don’t have an audience that reflects America.” He also admitted that NPR’s audience had always tilted left but was no longer able to make any claim to ideological neutrality.
Ulman told Minnery that Berliner had a right to his opinion, but that it did not really apply to local coverage in Alaska. He claimed local coverage was more balanced because the reporters are stationed in Alaska communities and “know the people they are reporting on.”
He then claimed that criticism about NPR’s leftward bias is focused on just a “few items.”
“You have to look at the breadth of the coverage,” Ulman said.
Minnery retorted, saying that Alaska Public Media suffers from a lack of opposing perspectives, even on local issues. Specifically, he pointed out how the coverage of Typhoon Halong has repeatedly used the storm to warn about the dangers of global warming.
Ulman outright defended public media’s decision to provide LGBTQ content for children.
Minnery said public media, like all other commercial media, definitely brings a bias to its reporting. The difference is that conservative media outlets don’t enjoy government taxpayer funding. He then questioned whether there is really a need to subsidize public media, given the many alternative media sources now available.
Ulman tried to make the case that public media provides some room for conservative views, but he admitted that NPR might need to address “how often they reach out” to conservative politicians in D.C. He also acknowledged that many conservative lawmakers don’t even want to appear on NPR anymore.
Repeatedly, Ulman made the claim that Alaska public media is different than the national desk in that it is more balanced.
Even so, he also acknowledged that Alaska Public Media does air a lot of the national content throughout the day.
Minnery then pointed out that many conservatives are upset with NPR and PBS for their insistence on pushing LGBTQ content in children’s programming.
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“If that is happening in public media, I don’t think government should fund that,” Minnery said. “Would you agree with that?”
Ulman didn’t directly answer the question but said, “Children, ages 0-5, don’t stop growing as adults agree or disagree about various life choices.”
He said the majority of PBS programming is focused on math reading and helping children deal with challenges when they are scared. Ulman asserted that those who focus on their LGBTQ content are fixated on “one facet” and “lose the forest for the trees.”
He then outright defended public media’s decision to provide LGBTQ content for children.
“Children find themselves in all types of different family groups, and our job in public media is to make sure that they see themselves as what is normal, because a lot of this is normal,” Ulman claimed. “And I think it is a difficult conversation to have when you’re trying to look at the world through a child’s eyes who has two moms. You may disagree with that, but it is the child’s eyes that we’re focused on.”
6 Comments
I believe this is a call to challenge more conservative families to make room in their hearts and homes to foster and adopt another child in the system. Alaska doesn’t need more children with “two moms.”
NPR was something most conservatives religiously listened to 30 years ago, ask any Alaskan serviceman who commuted for work and service to their country. Unfortunately the liberal leftist rubbish started sneaking its way in, slithering like a snake in the grass, to PBS about 15 years ago. The intensity and clownish nature has only grown since then. Look at funding and content planning during that timeframe and you’ll catch your criminal.
I remember when Rhonda McBride was fired from her PBS candidate profiling show “Running” because she took it easy on her preferred Dems & was caustic to GOP candidates. I believe it was Dave Donelly that complained about her interview bias (paid for by public money)
She was immediately hired by Channel 2 after she left PBS.
https://alaskawatchman.com/2025/04/03/rep-mccabe-its-time-to-end-taxpayer-funding-of-partisan-npr-media/
CONSERVATIVES NEED TO ANSWER THE QUESTION, WHO CARES ABOUT THE CHILDREN? DIG DEEP AND ANSWER THE QUESTION!!!
Dave needs to dig deep and answer the question: How do 65 million dead babies from abortion, and Alaska’s permissive laws, make liberals the gold standard of caring about children? He also needs to answer the question as to why conservatives are always accused of not caring once children are born, yet there are 5,000 crisis pregnancy centers throughout the country, supporting post-natal children and their mothers — but which are harassed and vandalized, including in Alaska. And how NPR has promoted the lies of them being “fake clinics” with their so-called “investigative reporting”.
Certainly not the government, schools (which is government), NPR, nor PBS. I used to be a big consumer of PBS up until the late 90’s then I noticed the reporting was leaning liberal. At the turn of this century they had gone total hard anti-republican. That’s when I switched channels and never returned. To this day NPR give a completely left leaning bias in their political views and visions. I don’t need to dig deep any more, been there done that.