RADIOApril 30, 2024

Is NPR’s Woke CEO Katherine Maher WORSE Than We Thought?

NPR’s president and CEO Katherine Maher made headlines after NPR punished journalist Uri Berliner for exposing the network’s leftist bias … and then for her past outrageous statements about free speech. But is she even more nefarious than we thought? Blaze News staff writer Joseph MacKinnon joins Glenn to explain the theory that she is also a government asset: “From 30,000 feet, she looks like not just a tech-savvy media queen, but someone who spent a lot of time around color revolutions.” Glenn and Joseph run through Maher’s odd history of visiting nations that the CIA has helped overthrow and speculate whether she’s part of a plan to stage a color revolution in America as well. But whether she’s a CIA asset or not, MacKinnon argues, one thing is clear: “She might as well have been.”

Transcript

Below is a rush transcript that may contain errors

GLENN: I want to go over this NPR boss. Which was, you know, kind of funny, at the beginning.

And then the more you learn about it. The more you're like, well, hang on just a second. Because she would be a -- a very important tool in the hands of the government. And she's being paid, by National Public Radio. So she's being -- she is a tool of the government, in many ways.

Can she separate herself, from her own personal beliefs?

Or is that even wanted at nonprofit? We wanted to bring in Joe MacKinnon. Joe is a Blaze News Staff Writer. And she's been following up on this. Joe, take us from the beginning. From the -- the -- the whistle-blower, if you will.

All the way to Christopher Rufo. And then let's pick it up from there. So can you tell us the beginning of it, Joe?

BIDEN: Absolutely. Thanks for having me on. So Uri Berliner earlier this month. Had this damning exposé, in the free press, April 9th.

He goes after NPR, after having worked there for a quarter of a century, as a senior business editor. There's zero diversity, particularly after the former CEO had made it an activist organization.

And that allied it effectively with the Democratic Party.

This is a publication according to Berliner, that didn't want to cover the Hunter Biden laptop story.

That worked with Adam Schiff to push the Russian collusion hoax.

So he goes to town, on NPR. And draws the ire of someone who has not been on a lot of people's radar. That's Katherine Maher. Or Maher, I should say. So Maher comes up with this long response, and effectively cusses him out. In more charitable terms. And he subsequently, he is offended. And then he resigns. So people start looking into Maher after -- after this. Because she was with Wikipedia before.

But I guess, flew under the radar. For a lot. Particularly on the right. Or those -- among those who are critical of the government.

And at first blush, she looks just like another shrill left partisanship she has the obligatory photo. Wearing the Biden campaign hat.

She has an unhealthy obsession with race. That photo exists. The tweet speaks for itself. And you keep digging as Rufo has. And you realize, really quickly, that there's something going on here.

From 30,000 feet, she looks like not just a tech savvy media queen. But someone who spent a lot of time around Colour Revolutions and the orient, enough to know how they might be replicated.

GLENN: Okay. So hang on just a second.

The campuses and boardrooms are full of leftists. But you're saying, and Christopher Rufo is saying, she is not your ordinary leftist.

She has been around Colour Revolutions. What does that mean, she's been around Colour Revolutions.

JOE: Okay. One of the many interesting posts she's had. I should note at the outset here, she's a World Economic Forum, World Global leader.

She's worked with the World Bank. She's worked with various NGOs that are in the tech, coms, and, well, foreign policy space.

So around 2010, 2011. And Rufo chronicled her travel itinerary. She's with the National Democratic Institute. And that's a spin-off of the National Endowment for Democracy, committed to -- yeah. Exactly.

You know where I'm going with this. This is an organization that tries to transition, unwilling regimes to become liberal democracies.

GLENN: Can I redefine that a little bit?

It's a CIA front.

JOE: Well, Mike Benz -- he was in the Trump administration at the State Department. He said, exactly that. He said, to carve out for the CIA. And other people have said just as much.

In fact, I think it was Ron Dixon, at the New York Times, back when, he said the NBI was actively fomenting protests during the so-called Arab spring.

GLENN: Uh-huh. We -- we know this. I exposed that, when we were at Fox.

We've known that from the beginning. It didn't take a brain surgeon to figure this out.

Then, when you go into Ukraine, and see what they were doing and the phrases that they were using. Saying, you know, we can -- we can spread this now. We kind of perfected it. In the Middle East. And we can spread it. And that's exactly what we were doing, in Ukraine.

JOE: Well, precisely, Ukraine. Libya. Egypt. Yemen. Tunisia. And so she's kind of been on a pilgrimage to these toppled regimes. And in some cases, as they're falling.

So Rufo notes, that she goes to Tunisia a couple times. She goes to Gedden (phonetic) in Southern Turkey. Just as rebels are making inroads, along the highway between Damascus and I believe it's Aleppo. And she actually said, not a long time ago. She framed the timing differently. She said in the aftermath of the revolution, she was doing research on the ground. With, quote, unquote, human rights activists.

And independent journalists.

And so she -- she is with the NBI. She's going to Tunisia. And she raises a couple of alarm bells. There's this Tunisian cabinet official. And, well, he basically -- he straight-up said, it's a likely case, that she works for a certainty letter agency. And a lot of people have been speculating about that in recent weeks.

GLENN: So what is her -- what is her background in broadcast? And news?

JOE: Well, she deals a lot with -- in terms of news, she's been critical of the ways that governments have weaponized their state broadcasters. Which I think --

GLENN: Right. Yeah. Yes. But what is she -- does she have a background in -- in news?

Is she a journalist.

Is she -- I mean, why is she -- I see she's traveled the world. That she's with the World Bank. And the WEF. And she's been with NGOs. And she's been around revolutions. But that doesn't necessarily scream CEO of NPR.

JOE: Well, I think Wikipedia, where she ran the show for, for several years.

GLENN: Oh.

JOE: Yeah.

And it was under her reign, that it quickly became clear that this was -- well, supposed to be a repository for human knowledge. Right?

GLENN: Right. It's not.

JOE: Recently you talked about how memory is the key to where we are. Well, Wikipedia is instrumental to capturing and curating that memory for a lot of people. So she may not be a journalist. But she was very much, I don't want to suggest there's a causation, she pretends that the Wikipedia editors who are working on their own.

But while she's in control, there's very much a narrative curation going on. A kind that you might want, at taxpayer funded broadcasts --

GLENN: Gosh. Jeez.

Okay. So the rumor that she's with CIA. Where did that originate?

JOE: So I mentioned, she went to Tunisia a couple times, right?

GLENN: Right.

JOE: So this cabinet official. I think I'm pronouncing that right.

But Slim Amamou. I think I'm pronouncing that right. But Slim said in 2016, it's a bit of a retrospective.

He's looking back. And I believe it's around the time. She's getting a promotion over at Wikipedia. He straight-up says, she's probably CIA.

He's not mincing words. He says, she's come over under different affiliations. With World Bank.

With USAID. And he suggests. And this is going on Twitter.

Still called that.

He suggests that she may as well have had CIA written on her front.

So Slim was in the transitional government.

He dropped out to protest, so-called. And he -- you know, not entirely, the top of the food chain. But someone you might at least want to hear out.

And so she is prickled by the suggestion.

She responds saying, I am no sort of agent. You can dislike me, but please don't tie me.

But then, that brought even more scrutiny.
Because people took notice of the way she framed that response.

So Christina Pushaw. She's on the DeSantis team. She said, for instance, okay. You may not have been an agent, but you could have just as well have been an asset.

GLENN: Yeah.

JOE: But the CIA element, I think, you know, I haven't seen any incontrovertible proof.

It's also largely immature.

She's also directly worked with the Biden administration.

She's worked with and brushed shoulders with all these regime change groups. So whether or not she has CIA on the card, somewhere, tucked into her desk.

She may as well have been.

GLENN: And this is -- this is part of the group, that -- I mean, Hillary Clinton, that infamous clip, where she said, we came, we saw, and died.

And laughed about it.

I think who she was talking about, at the time.

Might have been Samantha Power. Who is Cass Sunstein's wife. Author of nudge.

And somebody, who knows how to nudge people into new positions.

But Sam now works at USAID. She's the head of USAID.

So if you have the head of NPR, also working with Samantha Power, at USAID. That is also a CIA front.

JOE: Oh, absolutely. And I think it was Michael Waller and Rufo. She's a national security analyst. And he said, he drew that same connection with power.

And intimated said that Maher is part of his revolutionary vanguard movement.

So, you know, they're all in bed together. By the looks of it, I should say.

I don't want a mean tweet. And then, you couple this, with her public comments. And then, it lends even more gravity to this -- well, her becoming the head of NPR. Which was --

GLENN: Give me some of her -- give me some of her public comments, that I may not know.

JOE: Okay. Well, and I did a little bit of a -- a lot of these already are circulating.

GLENN: Uh-huh.

JOE: But Donald Trump -- so, you know, for instance, in 2021 interview, and this one caught a lot of people's attention in recent days.

She described the First Amendment as the top challenge in the fight against disinformation.

So the challenge -- yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

It's a challenge, because, quote, it's a little bit tricky to really address some of the real challenges of where, does that information come from? Sort of the influence peddlers who made a real market economy around it.

And, by the way, when she's talking about disinformation. She means skepticism of COVID-19 vaccines.

GLENN: Right.

JOE: Which will lead it to the show. Which was mentioned, that --

GLENN: Correct.

JOE: Devastating impact. Well, so is disinformation, according to the former head of Wikipedia. She also learned that it won't fly for her.

So an Atlantic Council 2021 event, she says Wikipedia isn't a free expression platform.

And so that -- a lot of people are wondering why. And she suggests, and I created content that people can add confidence to.

That they can make determinations in their right. So in that right, they have access to high integrity content, often sort of trumps the right to free speech.

Now, pair that with the fact that she suggests, straight out, in a TED talk, that, quote, a reverence for the truth, might be a distraction.

And it's getting in the way of finding common ground for getting things country. So I don't know who that common ground belongs to, by the way.

But it's certainly not the people.

GLENN: Yeah. That's a fantastic. Okay.

I'm going to come back. Let me take one minute to break for a sponsor.

And then I want to come back. And then I want to ask you.

So if she was a tool, even a little bit in Colour Revolution.

What is the fear that she could do? Or what is the impact she could have here in America? By being the CEO of nonprofit?

Back in just a second. Stand by.

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(music)
So we're talking to Joe MacKinnon, who has written extensively for TheBlaze news.

You can go to Blaze.com. And find his work on NPR's CEO, who is looking to be far worse than what anybody thought she was. We just thought she was a crazy liberal. Or progressive.

But she seems to be. Possibly much more than that. Including, possibly working with the CIA.

But she -- she spent a lot of time around Colour Revolutions. We'll talk about that. Coming up in the next break.

But I just wanted to ask you, Joe, before you go. What is the impact, if this is true, that she could have with NPR at her disposal?

JOE: NPR has long been a joke. It's ineffective. Its viewership has dwindled immensely. She's shrewd. She's effective. This is an individual who had people believing that cultural Marxism is a far right conspiracy theory, when she was running with them.

And all the insights she's gleaned, when she was doing her, again, pilgrimage of farm state. And her understanding that capture of a state broadcaster could ultimately mean capture of the state.

Means that nonprofit is a weapon in her hands.

Potentially a weapon in her hands. There's over a thousand stations broadcasting at NPR programming. There's thousands of employees.

A bunch of bureaus across the country.

Now, I don't think they're going to do business as usual.

In fact, she's telegraphed that there's going to be a transformation behind the scenes. Nonprofit was already a leftist propaganda element.

Now I think it's going to be used, to foment. Or at the very least control.

The protests. And to at least have the power to weaponize various groups across the nation.
Send your marching orders, essentially out via NPR.

So Wikipedia -- and I'm surprised you left Wikipedia honestly. I think that's a more consequential place.

Wikipedia controls the past. And therefore, controls the future.

GLENN: Yes. Right.

JOE: I think NPR under her helm, I think the game, anyway, is controlling the present.

GLENN: Joseph MacKinnon, from theBlaze.com.

Shocking train video: Passengers wait while woman bleeds out

Surveillance footage of the murder of Ukrainian refugee Iryna Zarutska in Charlotte, NC, reveals that the other passengers on the train took a long time to help her. Glenn, Stu, and Jason debate whether they were right or wrong to do so.

Transcript

Below is a rush transcript that may contain errors

GLENN: You know, I'm -- I'm torn on how I feel about the people on the train.

Because my first instinct is, they did nothing! They did nothing! Then my -- well, sit down and, you know -- you know, you're going to be judged. So be careful on judging others.

What would I have done? What would I want my wife to do in that situation?

STU: Yeah. Are those two different questions, by the way.

GLENN: Yeah, they are.

STU: I think they go far apart from each other. What would I want myself to do. I mean, it's tough to put yourself in a situation. It's very easy to watch a video on the internet and talk about your heroism. Everybody can do that very easily on Twitter. And everybody is.

You know, when you're in a vehicle that doesn't have an exit with a guy who just murdered somebody in front of you, and has a dripping blood off of a knife that's standing 10 feet away from you, 15 feet away from you.

There's probably a different standard there, that we should all kind of consider. And maybe give a little grace to what I saw at least was a woman, sitting across the -- the -- the aisle.

I think there is a difference there. But when you talk about that question. Those two questions are definitive.

You know, I know what I would want myself to do. I would hope I would act in a way that didn't completely embarrass myself afterward.

But I also think, when I'm thinking of my wife. My advice to my wife would not be to jump into the middle of that situation at all costs. She might do that anyway. She actually is a heck of a lot stronger than I am.

But she might do it anyway.

GLENN: How pathetic, but how true.

STU: Yes. But that would not be my advice to her.

GLENN: Uh-huh.

STU: Now, maybe once the guy has certainly -- is out of the area. And you don't think the moment you step into that situation. He will turn around and kill you too. Then, of course, obviously. Anything you can do to step in.

Not that there was much anyone on the train could do.

I mean, I don't think there was an outcome change, no matter what anyone on that train did.

Unfortunately.

But would I want her to step in?

Of course. If she felt she was safe, yes.

Think about, you said, your wife. Think about your daughter. Your daughter is on that train, just watching someone else getting murdered like that. Would you advise your daughter to jump into a situation like that?

That girl sitting across the aisle was somebody's daughter. I don't know, man.

JASON: I would. You know, as a dad, would I advise.

Hmm. No.

As a human being, would I hope that my daughter or my wife or that I would get up and at least comfort that woman while she's dying on the floor of a train?

Yeah.

I would hope that my daughter, my son, that I would -- and, you know, I have more confidence in my son or daughter or my wife doing something courageous more than I would.

But, you know, I think I have a more realistic picture of myself than anybody else.

And I'm not sure that -- I'm not sure what I would do in that situation. I know what I would hope I would do. But I also know what I fear I would do. But I would have hoped that I would have gotten up and at least tried to help her. You know, help her up off the floor. At least be there with her, as she's seeing her life, you know, spill out in under a minute.

And that's it other thing we have to keep in mind. This all happened so rapidly.

A minute is -- will seem like a very long period of time in that situation. But it's a very short period of time in real life.

STU: Yeah. You watch the video, Glenn. You know, I don't need the video to -- to change my -- my position on this.

But at his seem like there was a -- someone who did get there, eventually, to help, right? I saw someone seemingly trying to put pressure on her neck.

GLENN: Yeah. And tried to give her CPR.

STU: You know, no hope at that point. How long of a time period would you say that was?

Do you know off the top of your head?

GLENN: I don't know. I don't know. I know that we watched the video that I saw. I haven't seen past 30 seconds after she --

STU: Yeah.

GLENN: -- is down. And, you know, for 30 seconds nothing is happening. You know, that is -- that is not a very long period of time.

STU: Right.

GLENN: In reality.

STU: And especially, I saw the pace he was walking. He certainly can't be -- you know, he may have left the actual train car by 30 seconds to a minute. But he wasn't that far away. Like he was still in visual.

He could still turn around and look and see what's going on at that point. So certainly still a threat is my point. He has not, like, left the area. This is not that type of situation.

You know, I -- look, as you point out, I think if I could be super duper sexist for a moment here, sort of my dividing line might just be men and women.

You know, I don't know if it's that a -- you're not supposed to say that, I suppose these days. But, like, there is a difference there. If I'm a man, you know, I would be -- I would want my son to jump in on that, I suppose. I don't know if he could do anything about it. But you would expect at least a grown man to be able to go in there and do something about it. A woman, you know, I don't know.

Maybe I'm -- I hope --

GLENN: Here's the thing I -- here's the thing that I -- that causes me to say, no. You should have jumped in.

And that is, you know, you've already killed one person on the train. So you've proven that you're a killer. And anybody who would have screamed and got up and was with her, she's dying. She's dying. Get him. Get him.

Then the whole train is responsible for stopping that guy. You know. And if you don't stop him, after he's killed one person, if you're not all as members of that train, if you're not stopping him, you know, the person at the side of that girl would be the least likely to be killed. It would be the ones that are standing you up and trying to stop him from getting back to your daughter or your wife or you.

JASON: There was a -- speaking of men and women and their roles in this. There was a video circling social media yesterday. In Sweden. There was a group of officials up on a stage. And one of the main. I think it was health official woman collapses on stage. Completely passes out.

All the men kind of look away. Or I don't know if they're looking away. Or pretending that they didn't know what was going on. There was another woman standing directly behind the woman passed out.

Immediately springs into action. Jumps on top. Grabs her pant leg. Grabs her shoulder. Spins her over and starts providing care.

What did she have that the other guys did not? Or women?

She was a sheepdog. There is a -- this is my issue. And I completely agree with Stu. I completely agree with you. There's some people that do not respond this way. My issue is the proportion of sheepdogs versus people that don't really know how to act. That is diminishing in western society. And American society.

We see it all the time in these critical actions. I mean, circumstances.

There are men and women, and it's actually a meme. That fantasize about hoards of people coming to attack their home and family. And they sit there and say, I've got it. You guys go. I'm staying behind, while I smoke my cigarette and wait for the hoards to come, because I will sacrifice myself. There are men and women that fantasize of block my highway. Go ahead. Block my highway. I'm going to do something about it. They fantasize about someone holding up -- not a liquor store. A convenience store or something. Because they will step in and do something. My issue now is that proportion of sheepdogs in society is disappearing. Just on statistical fact, there should be one within that train car, and there were none.

STU: Yeah. I mean --

JASON: They did not respond.

STU: We see what happens when they do, with Daniel Penny. Our society tries to vilify them and crush their existence. Now, there weren't that many people on that train. Right?

At least on that car. At least it's limited. I only saw three or four people there, there may have been more. I agree with you, though. Like, you see what happens when we actually do have a really recent example of someone doing exactly what Jason wants and what I would want a guy to do. Especially a marine to step up and stop this from happening. And the man was dragged by our legal system to a position where he nearly had to spend the rest of his life in prison.

I mean, I -- it's insanity. Thankfully, they came to their senses on that one.

GLENN: Well, the difference between that one and this one though is that the guy was threatening. This one, he killed somebody.

STU: Yeah. Right. Well, but -- I think -- but it's the opposite way. The debate with Penny, was should he have recognize that had this person might have just been crazy and not done anything?

Maybe. He hadn't actually acted yet. He was just saying things.

GLENN: Yeah. Well --

STU: He didn't wind up stabbing someone. This is a situation where these people have already seen what this man will do to you, even when you don't do anything to try to stop him. So if this woman, who is, again, looks to be an average American woman.

Across the aisle. Steps in and tries to do something. This guy could easily turn around and just make another pile of dead bodies next to the one that already exists.

And, you know, whether that is an optimal solution for our society, I don't know that that's helpful.

In that situation.

THE GLENN BECK PODCAST

Max Lucado on Overcoming Grief in Dark Times | The Glenn Beck Podcast | Ep 266

Disclaimer: This episode was filmed prior to the assassination of Charlie Kirk. But Glenn believes Max's message is needed now more than ever.
The political world is divided, constantly at war with itself. In many ways, our own lives are not much different. Why do we constantly focus on the negative? Why are we in pain? Where is God amid our anxiety and fear? Why can’t we ever seem to change? Pastor Max Lucado has found the solution: Stop thinking like that! It may seem easier said than done, but Max joins Glenn Beck to unpack the three tools he describes in his new book, “Tame Your Thoughts,” that make it easy for us to reset the way we think back to God’s factory settings. In this much-needed conversation, Max and Glenn tackle everything from feeling doubt as a parent to facing unfair hardships to ... UFOs?! Plus, Max shares what he recently got tattooed on his arm.

THE GLENN BECK PODCAST

Are Demonic Forces to Blame for Charlie Kirk, Minnesota & Charlotte Killings?

This week has seen some of the most heinous actions in recent memory. Glenn has been discussing the growth of evil in our society, and with the assassination of civil rights leader Charlie Kirk, the recent transgender shooter who took the lives of two children at a Catholic school, and the murder of Ukrainian refugee Iryna Zarutska, how can we make sense of all this evil? On today's Friday Exclusive, Glenn speaks with BlazeTV host of "Strange Encounters" Rick Burgess to discuss the demon-possessed transgender shooter and the horrific assassination of Charlie Kirk. Rick breaks down the reality of demon possession and how individuals wind up possessed. Rick and Glenn also discuss the dangers of the grotesque things we see online and in movies, TV shows, and video games on a daily basis. Rick warns that when we allow our minds to be altered by substances like drugs or alcohol, it opens a door for the enemy to take control. A supernatural war is waging in our society, and it’s a Christian’s job to fight this war. Glenn and Rick remind Christians of what their first citizenship is.