Katherine Maher of NPR, at left, and Paula Kerger of PBS are scheduled to testify on Capitol Hill about the federal funding their organizations receive. StephenVoss/NPR and Alberto E. Rodriguez/Getty Images
StephenVoss/NPR and Alberto E. Rodriguez/Getty Images
A U.S. House subcommittee has called the chief executives of the nation’s two largest public broadcasters to Capitol Hill to testify on Wednesday, with an eye to wiping out the federal funding their institutions receive.
The two CEOs — PBS’s Paula Kerger and NPR’s Katherine Maher — appear in some ways to be a study in contrasts: Kerger, 68, worked her way up the ranks at New York City’s WNET public television before becoming the longest serving chief in PBS history.
Maher, 41, was a tech executive who took over NPR one year ago this week in what was her first job in journalism, though she has no direct role in the network’s newsroom. She almost immediately became engulfed in the uproar around an essay critical of the network by a veteran NPR editor and a