{"id":5784,"date":"2025-07-18T15:31:10","date_gmt":"2025-07-18T15:31:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/5784\/"},"modified":"2025-07-18T15:31:10","modified_gmt":"2025-07-18T15:31:10","slug":"devastating-us-public-broadcasters-condemn-trump-cuts-to-key-programs-media","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/5784\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Devastating\u2019: US public broadcasters condemn Trump cuts to key programs | Media"},"content":{"rendered":"

Public broadcast station leaders are condemning Donald Trump<\/a>\u2019s latest victory after Congress approved a bill<\/a> to cancel all federal funding for public broadcasting programs including PBS and NPR.<\/p>\n

The House signed off on the bill early on Friday morning, after Wednesday\u2019s key decision in the Senate to pass $9bn in spending cuts, effectively slashing public broadcasting as well as foreign aid. The PBS president and CEO, Paula Kerger, said<\/a> that the Senate\u2019s approval of the package \u201cgoes against the will of the American people\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese cuts will significantly impact all of our stations, but will be especially devastating to smaller stations and those serving large rural areas. Many of our stations which provide access to free unique local programming and emergency alerts will now be forced to make hard decisions in the weeks and months ahead,\u201d Kerger said.<\/p>\n

\u201cDespite today\u2019s setback, we are determined to keep fighting to preserve the essential services we provide to the American public.\u201d<\/p>\n

Similarly, NPR\u2019s CEO, Katherine Maher, said<\/a>: \u201cNearly three in four Americans say they rely on their public radio stations for alerts and news for their public safety.<\/p>\n

Kate Riley, the president and CEO of the advocacy group America\u2019s Public Television Stations, said<\/a> the organization was \u201cdevastated that the Senate voted to eliminate federal funding to the local public television stations throughout this country that provide essential lifesaving public safety services, proven educational services and community connections to their communities every day for free\u201d.<\/p>\n

The head of Native Public Media, Loris Taylor, called the Senate\u2019s decision \u201cdeeply troubling\u201d.<\/p>\n

Taylor, who heads a network of 57 Native radio stations and four T stations, had privately implored<\/a> South Dakota Republican senator Mike Rounds to reject the package, the New York Times reported on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

Following the Senate\u2019s passage of the bill, which Rounds ultimately endorsed<\/a>, Taylor said: \u201cIt poses an immediate threat to the survival of small, rural, and Tribal stations across the country. These hyperlocal stations, many of which are the only source of local news, emergency alerts, educational programming, and cultural preservation, operate with limited resources and rely on [the Corporation for Public Broadcasting] funding to stay on the air.<\/p>\n

\u201cWithout this federal support, Native and rural communities stand to lose critical lifelines that connect them to the rest of the nation.\u201d<\/p>\n

Echoing similar sentiments, Tom Abbott, the general manager of the KFSK community radio in Petersburg, Alaska, said: \u201cThis destructive rescission of CPB funding \u2013 the substantial majority of which goes to local stations per statutory formula \u2013 will result in immediate and serious cuts to stations\u2019 local services and in some cases the total closure of stations, particularly in rural communities.\u201d<\/p>\n

Abbott said: \u201cKFSK is about to lose 30% of our budget for this fiscal year, which began on July 1. We have a staff of five with an additional two part-time high school students and a Columbia University School of Journalism graduate student employed as our summer news intern. We will be forced to reduce our staff and therefore reduce our local service.\u201d<\/p>\n

He added: \u201cOur broadcast day is nearly 60% locally produced content, ironically this revenue cut will likely result in more NPR-produced content in the event we can continue to raise enough donations locally to remain relevant and on the air.\u201d<\/p>\n

LaFontaine Oliver, the president and executive chair of New York Public radio, shared similar concerns over the cuts\u2019 impacts on smaller stations.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile CPB funding represents a relatively modest percentage of New York Public Radio\u2019s revenue, approximately 4%, the loss of CPB funding will still have a notable impact on our ability to serve audiences in our city and region with local news, community conversation, and cultural and classical music programming,\u201d Oliver said.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut we know that federal funding accounts for a much more significant amount of the budget for stations in smaller markets and rural areas, places that often lack commercial broadcast options, and those communities will feel the impact most swiftly and deeply,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

As part of NYPR\u2019s response to the threats from the Trump administration over public broadcasting, the station created a new role for LaFontaine \u2013 executive chair \u2013 this week. The station said this new role was created to allow LaFontaine \u201cto focus on the long-term sustainability of NYPR and the broader public radio system\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019ll be focusing on fundraising from foundations, members and other public sources, forging new collaborations and finding ways to support smaller stations,\u201d NYPR added.<\/p>\n

Other stations have also begun making internal changes. Earlier this week, the San Francisco-based TV and radio station KQED announced <\/a>that it was making a 15% reduction to its workforce, citing \u201ca number of concurrent attempts to eliminate or impair federal funding for public media.\u201d<\/p>\n

KQED\u2019s president, Michael Isip, said: \u201cWe are deeply troubled that the Senate voted to eliminate congressionally approved federal funding for public media \u2026 If enacted, this bill poses serious financial challenges to NPR, PBS, and all local stations like KQED.<\/p>\n

\u201cUltimately, the greatest impact will be on the communities we serve who rely on us for emergency communications, educational programming and services for our youngest learners, and trustworthy local news and information. This will be especially devastating in rural areas where their local public media station is their only local source for critical media services.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Public broadcast station leaders are condemning Donald Trump\u2019s latest victory after Congress approved a bill to cancel all…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":5785,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[43,44,41,39,42,40],"class_list":["post-5784","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\/5784","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=5784"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5784\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5785"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5784"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5784"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5784"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}