some smaller broadcasters will be forced off the air<\/a> in the months and years to come. That\u2019s because stations in rural areas and smaller communities tend to rely more heavily on the federal subsidy. Stations in larger markets typically have a wider variety of other funding sources, like viewer donations and foundation support.\n <\/p>\n Get Reliable Sources newsletter<\/p>\n
\n Kerger said in a statement that \u201cthese cuts will significantly impact all of our stations, but will be especially devastating to smaller stations and those serving large rural areas.\u201d\n <\/p>\n
\n She pointed out that the stations \u201cprovide access to free unique local programming and emergency alerts.\u201d\n <\/p>\n
\n The two Republican senators who voted against the rescission, Lisa Murkowski and Susan Collins, both said they valued those aspects of public media, even while criticizing perceived bias of some NPR programming.\n <\/p>\n
\n Most other Republicans, however, concentrated on the bias complaints above all else, and argued that the entire system is obsolete in the streaming age.\n <\/p>\n
\n David Bozell, president of the Media Research Center, which has campaigned against the federal support for decades, celebrated the \u201chistoric rollback\u201d in an X post overnight.\n <\/p>\n
\n \u201cPBS and NPR were chartered to provide objective journalism,\u201d Bozell wrote. \u201cInstead, we got drag shows for kids, gushing coverage of Democrats, and silence or smears for conservatives.\u201d\n <\/p>\n
\n Public media officials say critics completely distort what actually airs on stations.\n <\/p>\n
\n Thursday morning\u2019s report about the clawback on NPR\u2019s \u201cMorning Edition,\u201d for example, was studiously neutral, and the hosts pointed out that NPR management was not involved in the news coverage of its own funding dilemma.\n <\/p>\n
\n \u201cNearly 3-in-4 Americans say they rely on their public radio stations for alerts and news for their public safety,\u201d NPR CEO Katherine Maher said in a statement, arguing that NPR is a \u201clifeline.\u201d\n <\/p>\n
\n Early Thursday morning, America\u2019s Public Television Stations, an advocacy group for the stations, argued that the rescission \u201cdefies the will of the American people,\u201d citing both the polls and the fact that Congress actually allocated the next round of funding earlier this year.\n <\/p>\n
\n In 1967, when Congress created the corporation, it declared that noncommercial TV and radio \u201cfor instructional, educational, and cultural purposes\u201d was in the public interest. Shows like \u201cSesame Street\u201d and \u201cAntiques Roadshow\u201d sprang forth.\n <\/p>\n
\n The public media system continued to enjoy bipartisan support from lawmakers for many years, even as conservative activists sought to strip away the taxpayer funding. Congress ignored proposals from past Republican presidents to cut the PBS and NPR budgets.\n <\/p>\n
\n But Trump has proven to be much more assertive. Earlier this year Trump made it a priority to claw back the funding before the Corporation for Public Broadcasting was set to receive it in October.\n <\/p>\n
\n \u201cFor decades, Republicans have promised to cut NPR, but have never done it, until now,\u201d Trump boasted in a Truth Social post last month.\n <\/p>\n
\n The exact impacts are uncertain, given the complex structure of public media and the various other revenue streams that exist.\n <\/p>\n
\n But some local stations are already making changes. In New York, the operator of the powerhouse NPR station WNYC said Wednesday that its CEO LaFontaine Oliver is moving into a new position, executive chair, that\u2019s been created in response to the threats to federal funding. Oliver will focus on \u201cnew funding models\u201d and try to find financial support from other non-federal sources, the station said.\n <\/p>\n
\n In San Francisco, the KQED radio and TV network said it is laying off about 15 percent of its staff, citing financial uncertainties.\n <\/p>\n
\n \u201cDespite today\u2019s setback, we are determined to keep fighting to preserve the essential services we provide to the American public,\u201d Kerger said.\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CNN \u00a0\u2014\u00a0 Public television stations will be \u201cforced to make hard decisions in the weeks and months ahead,\u201d…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2961,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[43,44,41,39,42,40],"class_list":["post-2960","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2960","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2960"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2960\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2961"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2960"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2960"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2960"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}