Bill Maher Called Out NPR’s Steve Inskeep and Their Own Guest List Proved Him Right

NPR suspended Uri Berliner without pay the week he called out its liberal bias.

Two years later, NPR handed a microphone to Bill Maher and got the same verdict all over again.

What Maher said next left the NPR host searching for an answer he never found.

Maher Told Inskeep To His Face That NPR Is 'Far Extreme Of The Left'

Bill Maher sat down with NPR's Steve Inskeep this week for the network's Newsmakers podcast.

The conversation was supposed to be about comedy and Maher's new Mark Twain Prize.

It turned into something else entirely.

Maher told Inskeep that NPR is now "on the far extreme of the left."

Then he said it again, a different way, just to make sure it landed.

"Really? I'm surprised you even had me on!" Maher shot back after Inskeep tried to push back.

Inskeep laughed it off.

He didn't have a comeback.

The Guest List Backs Up Every Word Maher Said

Here's why Inskeep couldn't argue.

Newsmakers launched in March, and NPR has booked exactly zero Republicans since.

Maryland Governor Wes Moore came on.

So did socialist New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani.

Jill Biden showed up too.

The only conservative-adjacent names on the list are UFC boss Dana White and pastor Doug Wilson, a self-described Christian nationalist NPR itself framed as extreme.

That's the guest list Inskeep tried to defend by telling Maher "the audience is a little more diverse than you might think."

Maher wasn't buying it for a second.

He went on to blast the country's selective outrage machine, ripping into activists who cheer "globalize the intifada" while canceling comedians over decades-old jokes.

Garrison Keillor got run out of public radio for old allegations, Maher pointed out, while people cheering Hamas after October 7th face no consequences at all.

Inskeep's response was to nod along and say "I hear you."

He never once defended his own network with actual evidence.

Maher has sat across from Trump for a White House dinner and still doesn't hold back on either side when he sees hypocrisy.

That's exactly why NPR wanted him on the show in the first place.

They didn't expect him to turn the microphone around on them.

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This Isn't NPR's First Time Getting Caught

Uri Berliner used to be NPR's own senior business editor.

In April 2024, he published an essay accusing his own newsroom of losing America's trust.

Berliner counted 87 registered Democrats working in NPR's Washington editorial ranks.

He counted zero Republicans.

NPR's response wasn't to fix the imbalance Berliner exposed.

The network suspended him for five days without pay and warned he'd be fired if he did it again.

Berliner resigned days later rather than keep working under a boss he said disparaged him publicly.

CEO Katherine Maher insisted NPR was "independent, beholden to no party."

Berliner also flagged how NPR downplayed the Hunter Biden laptop story, a decision that broke against the narrative NPR's newsroom wanted true.

Two years after Berliner walked out the door, a lifelong liberal comedian sat across from an NPR host and said the exact same thing that got Berliner suspended.

This time NPR didn't suspend anyone.

They laughed, changed the subject, and let the guest list speak for itself.

NPR Keeps Proving The Point It's Trying To Deny

Newsmakers has had four months and dozens of segments to prove Maher wrong, and it booked Jill Biden and Zohran Mamdani instead.

NPR didn't book Maher because they wanted a challenge.

They booked him because he's famous, he's funny, and his history of Trump bashing made him look like a safe bet.

Instead he looked their own host in the eye and handed them the same verdict that got Berliner suspended two years earlier.

Taxpayers are still funding this operation through the Corporation for Public Broadcasting while it keeps failing its own diversity test.

Congress has debated pulling that funding before, and every episode like this one hands them a fresh reason to finish the job.

Maher didn't need talking points to win this argument.

He just read NPR's own guest list back to them, and their own host had nothing to say.

Sources:

• Alex Christy, "NPR's Inskeep Tries Spinning Maher's 'Far Extreme of The Left' Charge," NewsBusters, July 16, 2026.
• "Bill Maher calls NPR far-left extreme during Steve Inskeep interview," Fox News, July 15, 2026.
• "Watch: Bill Maher Says NPR Is 'On the Far Extreme of the Left'," Breitbart, July 15, 2026.
• Mike LaChance, "Bill Maher Slams National Public Radio as 'Extreme Far Left' During Interview With Their Own Journalist," The Gateway Pundit, July 16, 2026.
• "NPR suspends Uri Berliner, editor who accused the network of liberal bias," CBS News, April 17, 2024.
• Eric Lagatta, "NPR suspends senior editor Uri Berliner after essay accusing outlet of liberal bias," USA Today, April 2024.