XPost: alt.politics.republicans, sac.politics, talk.politics.guns
XPost: alt.tv.public-access, alt.politics.media

https://www.cnn.com/2025/07/16/media/pbs-npr-stations-rescission-senate- vote-explainer

PBS and NPR stations are on the verge of losing the federal funding that
has helped keep them on the air for decades.

The Senate and the House have passed a rare measure called a “rescission,” which would claw back money that was already budgeted by Congress,
including nearly $1.1 billion in funding for public media. President
Trump, who proposed the spending cut, is expected to sign the measure into
law.

Here’s what might happen once the funding for public broadcasting is
zeroed out.

What will viewers and listeners notice?
Over time, some local stations may be forced off the air, while other
stations may have fewer shows to broadcast. Stations may have fewer
resources for news reporting and educational programming. But the exact
impacts are hard to predict because the public radio and TV system is
complex.

The center of the system is the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, or
CPB, an independent entity established by Congress in the 1960s to support local radio and TV stations across the United States.

CPB receives $535 million in taxpayer support annually and disburses the
funds to about 1,500 local radio and TV stations, as well as programmers
and infrastructure providers. Those funds are what President Trump and congressional Republicans are revoking. Democrats wanted the funds to
remain in place.

When will the cuts take effect?
Trump’s rescission proposal targeted CPB’s federal funding for the period
from October 2025 through September 2027, so if the money is taken back, stations will face budget shortfalls starting this fall. Some public media executives are already planning layoffs and other cost-cutting moves.

PBS and NPR affiliates have numerous other sources of revenue, including donations from “viewers like you,” as the famous PBS phrase goes. But the federal funding has historically served as the foundation of the
proverbial house.

“For every public dollar provided, stations raise nearly seven dollars
from donors, including state and local governments, universities,
businesses, foundations and individual viewers and listeners,” according
to CPB.

Won’t the affected stations just raise more money from listeners?
Yes and no. Bigger stations in metro areas will have an easier time making
up the deficits than smaller stations.

Generally speaking, smaller stations, particularly those in hard-to-reach areas, are more reliant on federal funding. In some cases, the taxpayer
dollars are directly keeping the lights on and the broadcast antennas functioning.

“Without federal funding, many local public radio and television stations
will be forced to shut down,” the Corporation for Public Broadcasting
warned.

Will popular shows like “Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood” disappear?
No, but stations will generally have less money to spend on programming,
which will hurt the marketplace of noncommercial TV and radio.

“Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood” is one of a half dozen children‘s shows
produced by Fred Rogers Productions, the nonprofit behind “Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood.”

Fred Rogers Productions receives millions of dollars per year in grants, including those from CPB, as well as licensing revenue from local PBS
stations that carry its programs. If the stations have fewer dollars to
spend, then producers will eventually feel the pinch.

Acclaimed documentary filmmaker Ken Burns recently told CBS that “I
couldn’t do any of the films I’ve done without them being on PBS.“

What about the national NPR and PBS networks?
In the public media system, money flows out from CPB to localities, then returns to the national entities through dues and fees from member
stations. That is how NPR funds “Morning Edition” and “All Things
Considered,” for example.

“While federal funding makes up only 1% of NPR’s revenue, member station
fees make up a 30% share,” the organization recently explained to
listeners.

So the national operations are bracing for the domino effect that would
ensue if funding dries up in the fall.

NPR has made the case to listeners that “elimination of federal funding
would ultimately result in fewer programs, less journalism — especially
local journalism — and eventually the loss of public radio stations, particularly in rural and economically distressed communities.”

Why are Republicans trying to strip the funding?
The current tug-of-war over the public media budget is the culmination of several decades of political battles. Conservative activists have long
argued that taxpayer support for TV and radio is simply unnecessary and fiscally unwise.

“Nowhere in the Constitution does it say Congress should fund a national media,” the libertarian Cato Institute, which has been urging Congress to defund CPB since the 1970s, says on its website.

Opponents also argue that the public broadcasting model is obsolete in the streaming era. But for Trump and some of his strongest supporters, the
primary objection to NPR and PBS is perceived bias. The Trump White House
has portrayed public broadcasting as “radical, woke propaganda disguised
as ‘news’” and claimed that the news operations exist to help Democrats
and hurt Republicans, which the networks deny.

Some moderate Republicans have acknowledged that the public media system
has value. Sen. Susan Collins on Tuesday called the cuts to CPB
“excessive” and said “local TV and radio stations continue to provide
important coverage.” Collins said she would support defunding NPR at the national level, however, due to its “biased reporting.”

When the House approved the rescissions package with the Senate’s tweaks
early Friday morning, House Speaker Mike Johnson said “the American people
will no longer be forced to fund politically biased media.”

What are Democrats saying and doing?
Congressional Democrats lacked the votes to stop the rescission package,
but they vocally defended the public media system. Sen. Maria Cantwell
said last week that zeroing out the PBS and NPR funds is a “reckless endangerment of 13 million Americans who depend on these stations for lifesaving emergency information.”

Sen. Bernie Sanders asserted that Trump wants to defund the networks
because, “like all authoritarians,” he “doesn’t like criticism or
objective reporting.”

Anna M. Gomez, the lone Democrat on the Republican-controlled Federal Communications Commission, also linked the pending cut to Trump’s broader campaign against the media. “This isn’t about saving money,” Gomez wrote
on X. “It’s about silencing those who report the news accurately, without
fear or favor.”

They started filling timeslots with DEI crap programming from the UK
thinking nobody would notice because a lot of unwanted garbage is funded
by the Brit government. They got caught.


--
November 5, 2024 - Congratulations President Donald Trump. We look
forward to America being great again.

We live in a time where intelligent people are being silenced so that
stupid people won't be offended.

Every day is an IQ test. Some pass, some, not so much.

Thank you for cleaning up the disasters of the 2008-2017, 2020-2024 Obama
/ Biden / Harris fiascos, President Trump.

Under Barack Obama's leadership, the United States of America became the
The World According To Garp. Obama sold out heterosexuals for Hollywood
queer liberal democrat donors.

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