Summary:
President Trump on Thursday renewed a call to defund NPR and PBS a day after top executives from the public broadcasters faced an intense grilling from GOP lawmakers on Capitol Hill.
“NPR and PBS, two horrible and completely biased platforms (Networks!), should be DEFUNDED by Congress, IMMEDIATELY,” Trump wrote late Wednesday on Truth Social. “Republicans, don’t miss this opportunity to rid our Country of this giant SCAM, both being arms of the Radical Left Democrat Party. JUST SAY NO AND, MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!!!”
Republicans on the House Oversight and Government Reform’s Delivering on Government Efficiency subcommittee peppered NPR CEO Katherine Maher and PBS President Paula Kerger on Wednesday with accusations of bias against conservatives and questions about their funding.
NPR took in just over $11 million in federal funding last year, money Maher said is crucial to bringing public broadcasting to local communities, particularly in rural swaths of the country.
Honestly… NPR and PBS have already been starved of public funding for so long (talking single digit % of total operating costs), that I’m starting to think we’d be better off with it being entirely listener/viewer-funded. Is the table scraps they throw them worth this kind of headache? Especially with a president who will 100% attempt to interfere with their reporting.
Then they would cease to be public media and would just be another non-profit news organization/content producer
Also, federal funding is a tiny chunk of NPR and PBS, but the individual member stations that actually broadcast the stuff NPR and PBS produce tend to get a lot bigger chunk of their budgets through the feds (this is what they’re talking about when they say the funding is “crucial to bringing public broadcasting to local communities”)
This right here. My local station, radio and television, rely heavily on federal funding, because nobody in the south cares about it. I donate every month, but not everybody does.
Not necessarily. They could continue to be nonprofit and operate almost exactly how they currently are, just without interference from the government. Could even set up independent ethics boards and shit to keep them honest if people think it’s needed.
I don’t know enough about how member stations are funded I guess… So maybe I’m wrong.