PBS and NPR prepare for a showdown with Congress.

PBS is practicing answers with lawyers.NPR executives are preparing to monitor the fallout.

Members of Congress are promoting the star witnesses — the leaders of the two public media networks — as if they were combatants in a prizefight.They’re all getting ready for a hearing on Wednesday — ominously titled “Anti-American Airwaves” — organized by Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, the Georgia Republican who leads a House subcommittee tied to Elon Musk’s efforts to cut federal spending.Ms.Greene said in an interview that she planned to call on the two top witnesses, Paula Kerger, the chief executive of PBS, and Katherine Maher, the chief executive of NPR, to address what she sees as liberal bias at their organizations.

She also reiterated her support for defunding PBS and NPR, a move being pushed by many backers of President Trump.The executives say they are prepared to defend the work produced by their organizations and the government funding that helps support it.“Everything is at stake,” Ms.Kerger said in an interview.

“The future of a number of our stations across the country will be in jeopardy if this funding is not continued.”Employees of NPR and PBS, as well as supporters of the organizations, are anxiously awaiting the hearing.For more than a half-century, Republicans in Congress have sought to cut back funding for PBS and NPR, to no avail.

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