NPR’s New DC Building Gets Pushback

New NPR Building (Previous Posting)

NPR’s new headquarters building has soaring ceilings, a “wellness” center, an employee gym and a gourmet cafe staffed by a resident chef.

NPR showed off the 400,000-square-foot complex, which has been open since April, to members of the media earlier this week. And according to The Washington Post, It immediately began drawing some grumbles from those who see the edifice as far too luxe for a nonprofit radio and digital-news organization that depends, in part, on taxpayer support. In effect, the building briefly became a new club with which to beat NPR over an old issue: whether public radio and television should be subsidized with federal and state funds.

“They build a ‘News Palace’ and they still need taxpayer dollars?!?” tweeted Jim Farley, vice president of news for WTOP-FM (103.5), the all-news radio station in Washington.

And Michael Savage, the fire-breathing conservative radio host, took to his microphone to rail against the “incomprehensible” nature of NPR’s new digs. “They just opened a new building, NPR,” sneered Savage on his syndicated show. “A new building they’re showing off how wonderful it is in Washington, D.C. You will not believe the edifice they built for themselves. It’s astounding. You cannot believe what they gave themselves at NPR. . . . How much money did that cost to build?”

Answer: $201 million, or a bit more than NPR’s annual operating budget of $174.7 million in fiscal 2013.

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