New Book Claims NPR Newsroom Once Lair of Debauchery

Decades before National Public Radio became embroiled in allegations of political bias, its newsroom was a den of iniquity, according to a new book by veteran journalist Steve Oney.

NPR had a staffer in the late 1970s and early 1980s who doubled as a cocaine dealer, routinely making deliveries to employees in the radio station's office, Oney said, The Daily Caller reported Wednesday.

"You could page him over the NPR intercom system, and he would come to your studio or your cubicle with cocaine that he would sell," said Oney, whose book "On Air: The Triumph and Tumult of NPR" was released March 11.

Oney talked about how the staff was full of young and ambitious reporters at the time, resulting in many of them "frequently sleeping with each other" and taking part in the illicit drug scene.

"It was the counterculture," he said, according to the Independent. "People were using [cocaine] for recreational purposes. Other times, they'd have an all-night edit session and snort a couple lines and then just work."

President Donald Trump signed an executive order on May 1 calling for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting to cease funding NPR and the Public Broadcasting Service "to ensure that federal funding does not support biased and partisan news coverage."

NPR and three Colorado public radio stations filed a lawsuit May 27 over the executive order, claiming it violates First Amendment protections for free speech and freedom of the press and usurps Congress' power to direct how federal money will be spent. But Congress is considering a $9.4 billion package that would rescind $1.1 billion in funding to the CPB, which oversees NPR, PBS, and other public broadcasting outlets.

Oney said he doesn't believe NPR is "consciously left wing," according to the Independent. He said it is essentially a "collective of college stations at its roots" and not intended to be a bastion for liberals.

"In the end, this is going to be settled not so much by government, but by reinforcing the idea that NPR provides a quality product," he said. "NPR needs some good PR from people who are planning to win."

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