Washington DC - On Wednesday, MAGA Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene held a Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) subcommittee panel hearing calling for public broadcast outlets NPR and PBS to be defunded.

In her opening statement, MTG described both outlets as "radical left-wing echo chambers for a narrow audience of mostly wealthy, white, urban liberals, and progressives who generally look down on and judge rural America."

The hearing featured NPR President Katherine Maher and PBS President Paula Kerger testifying as Greene and other Republicans grilled them over what they've deemed "biased" reporting and inappropriate content for children.

Maher, who has only been head of NPR for a year, faced criticism over the outlet's failure to cover the Hunter Biden laptop story during the 2020 election. Maher said NPR acknowledged "we were mistaken," as the story should have been covered "more aggressively and sooner."

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She was also criticized for past comments she has made on social media, particularly those that prove she is a "leftist" and those critical of President Donald Trump, including one where she described him as a "deranged racist sociopath." Maher claimed she no longer held many of those views and stated, "I regret those tweets."

Kerger faced accusations that PBS aired a segment featuring a drag queen named Lil Miss Hot Mess reading to small children, which MTG described as "repulsive." But Kerger explained the clip never aired on PBS, as it was a digital segment that was inadvertently added to the PBS YouTube channel by the outlet's New York City station.

Nonetheless, Greene still held up images of Lil Miss Hot Mess at the end of the hearing, calling for the outlets to be defunded and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting to be dismantled entirely.

Greene's efforts come as Trump and billionaire Elon Musk, the head of DOGE, have been using the agency to fire countless federal employees and dismantle numerous federal agencies as they seek to eliminate anything they believe is "wasteful" government spending.

Though critics insist expenditures in public TV and radio are massive, only 1% of NPR's budget is funded by the government's Corporation for Public Broadcasting, and only 16% of PBS'. The vast majority of CPB's funding goes towards locally owned public radio and television.

Democrats in attendance admonished MTG's hearing as a waste of time. Representative Stephen Lynch of Massachusetts accused Republicans of having "stooped to the lowest levels of partisanship and political theater" by holding the hearing to "go after the likes of Elmo and Cookie Monster and Arthur the aardvark."

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Rep. Robert Garcia of California chose to make a mockery of the entire hearing. At one point, he jokingly asked Kerger, "Is Elmo now, or has he ever been, a member of the Communist Party?" When she said no, he said, "Are you sure? Because he is red."

Garcia concluded by discussing how the US needs outlets like PBS and NPR "now more than ever," while his staffer held up a sign behind him that read, "Fire Musk, save Elmo."