{"id":85506,"date":"2025-08-15T19:42:07","date_gmt":"2025-08-15T19:42:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/85506\/"},"modified":"2025-08-15T19:42:07","modified_gmt":"2025-08-15T19:42:07","slug":"pbs-is-slashing-its-budget-in-response-to-trumps-war-on-public-media","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/85506\/","title":{"rendered":"PBS is slashing its budget in response to Trump\u2019s war on public media"},"content":{"rendered":"

In an email sent out to PBS station managers on Wednesday, PBS president and CEO Paula Kerger announced that the organization plans to cut its budget by 21 percent in order to offset some of the financial damage being caused by the Trump administration\u2019s campaign to stop public media from receiving federal funding<\/a> that was originally distributed by the CPB. Because of the recently passed bill, PBS, NPR, and all of both organizations\u2019 affiliates will no longer receive the $1.1 billion that was previously set aside for them to use over the next two years.<\/p>\n

In addition to the budget cuts, PBS\u2019 board of directors also voted in favor of lowering the overall amount of dues it collects from member stations across the country by $35 million dollars \u2014 a reduction of about 15 percent from the $227 million it originally budgeted for back in June<\/a>. Additionally, PBS is giving its member stations more time to plan out how they will raise the funds necessary to pay their dues, which are determined by a formula<\/a> that accounts for how much nonfederal funding they receive.<\/p>\n

The move to lower dues is meant to make it easier for PBS member stations \u2014 which air programming like Sesame Street, PBS News Hour, and Finding Your Roots \u2014 to deal with some of their own financial burdens. But Kerger was also clear in her memo that PBS as a whole is fighting an uphill battle to stay afloat.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe recognize that even with the dues reduction, adjusted payment schedule and efforts to raise funds for initial financial stabilization, we all face hard choices about the future,\u201d Kerger said. \u201cWe are stronger together, and together, we will continue to stay focused on our mission.\u201d<\/p>\n

Though the CPB is set to begin winding its operations down at the end of September<\/a>, PBS and NPR \u2014 which have both historically relied on federal funding to help fund programming and pay employees \u2014 are not going away, at least, not yet. Earlier this month, NPR said that it is cutting its own budget by $8 million and using that money to set up a \u201cfee relief\u201d fund<\/a> to help smaller member stations meet their needs. But the CPB\u2019s dismantling is going to put a significant strain on the US\u2019 largest public media broadcasters, particularly for smaller member stations in more rural areas across the country.<\/a> In PBS\u2019 case, this new budget cut is also likely to lead to layoffs.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In an email sent out to PBS station managers on Wednesday, PBS president and CEO Paula Kerger announced…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":85507,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[54],"tags":[88,2695,3,1343,111,92,6703],"class_list":{"0":"post-85506","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tv","8":"tag-entertainment","9":"tag-film","10":"tag-news","11":"tag-policy","12":"tag-politics","13":"tag-tv","14":"tag-tv-shows"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85506","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=85506"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85506\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/85507"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=85506"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=85506"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=85506"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}