NPR panned for AZ race slant: 'Election denying' Kari Lake versus Katie Hobbs 'defending election integrity'
Critics on social media are calling to 'Defund NPR'
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}NPR raised eyebrows for its slanted coverage of the Arizona gubernatorial race between GOP hopeful Kari Lake and Democratic rival Katie Hobbs.
"An election-denying Republican is on the ballot to become Arizona’s next governor. She’s challenged by a Democrat who has spent the past two years defending the state’s election integrity," NPR wrote in its election live updates page on Tuesday.
Lake has repeatedly cast doubt in the validity of the 2020 presidential election while Hobbs has overseen both that election and the 2022 midterms as Arizona's secretary of state.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}NPR similarly tweeted out, "In Arizona, an election denying Republican faces off against a Democrat defending election integrity in the state’s gubernatorial race."
Republican Arizona gubernatorial nominee Kari Lake, whose skepticism of the 2020 presidential election's outcome has led to advocacy for more rigorous election security measures. (AP Photo/LM Otero, File)
Critics panned the overtly partisan framing on social media, many calling for any taxpayer funds NPR receives to be revoked.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"Good to see NPR still doing the whole 'fair and balanced' thing. Way to go, folks," Salem Media editor Jazz Shaw quipped.
"The new Congress should stop giving these guys our tax dollars," Unleashed Prosperity president Phil Kerpen tweeted.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Arizona Secretary of State Katie Hobbs addresses the members of Arizona's Electoral College prior to them casting their votes in Phoenix, Arizona, U.S. December 14, 2020. (Ross D. Franklin/Pool via REUTERS)
"It’s a travesty that American tax dollars fund this leftist propaganda," combat veteran and author Sean Parnell similarly wrote.
"This is why people call NPR ‘National Propaganda Radio,’" The Federalist correspondent Tristan Justice tweeted.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Others simply tweeted "Defund NPR."
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The Arizona gubernatorial race is one of the most-watched contests in the 2022 election cycle. Lake, the Trump-backed former TV anchor, went into Election Day with a slight lead over Arizona Secretary of State Katie Hobbs, according to the RealClearPolitics average of polls.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Fox News Power Rankings had the gubernatorial race as a "toss up" going into Election Day.