Illinois public broadcasters in Chicago, and especially downstate, fear impact as Senate vote to cut funding looms
Chicago's public media outlets — WBEZ and WTTW — will undoubtedly get hit by the President Donald Trump-endorsed plan to take away $1.1 billion from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting over the next two years. But the cuts would have a far greater impact on smaller stations that rely more on federal funding and predominantly serve rural areas.
The coming Capitol Hill debate follows years of complaining by Republicans who claim that National Public Radio and the Public Broadcasting Service are biased against conservatives. Until now, those criticisms weren't enough to convince lawmakers to make significant cuts to public broadcasting funding. But those efforts found new life with the second-term presidency of Trump, who has made media criticism a cornerstone of his political career and is now championing the budget cuts to 1,500 public media outlets across the country.
Heather Norman, president of the Illinois Public Broadcasting Council, said large outlets such as those in Chicago 'may not be able to do as much as they would have been doing' if the cuts pass because 'when you pare back money, there's no room for growth or enhanced services.'
But stations that are often the only daily news outlets in predominantly rural regions stand to lose even more, Norman said, as they have smaller budgets that rely even more on federal support, sometimes accounting for as much as 50% of their funding.
Norman knows firsthand. She's the general manager of Tri States Public Radio in the western Illinois city of Macomb, home to Western Illinois University. The newspaper serving the city of 15,000 people closed its Macomb office more than two years ago. The TV stations that serve Macomb are in Peoria or the Quad Cities, more than an hour's drive away.
That means that public radio is often the best way to get real-time information about dangerous situations in town.
In September, for instance, a man barricaded himself in a home near Western Illinois' campus after shooting two Macomb city police officers. Four commercial radio stations are based in a building two blocks from where the standoff occurred, Norman said. But the commercial stations were unable to inform residents about the active shooter situation.
'They do not have a soul in their studio; they're all run remotely. So they couldn't tell anyone to stay away from that incident that was two blocks from their building,' Norman said. 'We were the only people on air that were able to tell people where not to go, what the police were doing. We did that regularly.'
'You have to have a way to disperse that information,' she continued. 'We were the people in the studio, that live in the (community), that were able to do that.'
In the event of severe weather, public radio stations are equipped to provide regular updates. If the power goes out, and people can't charge their mobile phones or cell towers don't work, public radio stations almost all have back-up generators to stay on the air.
'We are a public service, and that's what our job is to do,' Norman said.
Last week, as the Senate prepared to take up the funding vote, Illinois Democratic U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin asked his colleagues in a floor speech, 'Do you think we're better off with less information as Americans or more?' He also noted the cuts' far-reaching consequences, echoing much of what Norman said.
'What (does it) mean for small towns in downstate Illinois all the way up to Chicago?' he said. 'Public media stations provide essential, nonpartisan news coverage, life-saving emergency and weather alerts, and educational programming for our kids.'
While downstate might be more affected, radio station WBEZ and TV station WTTW wouldn't go unscathed.
Of the $1.1 billion that GOP lawmakers want to claw back, $700 million is set aside for direct aid to local stations. If the Senate approves Trump's proposed cuts without any changes, WBEZ would lose $2 million in direct funding and could lose another $1 million in indirect support, which includes staff training and lower negotiated rates for music licenses. The $3 million is approximately 6% of WBEZ's budget.
'WBEZ is in a stronger position than many peers, but as we collaborate with stations across Illinois and beyond, we know these cuts could weaken the overall public media system, diminishing the reach, depth, and impact of the information our audiences depend on,' said Victor Lim, vice president of marketing and communications at Chicago Public Media.
Lim said that, even though WBEZ and the Chicago Sun-Times are both owned by the same organization, the potential funding cuts to the radio station would not affect the newspaper.
'Although the Sun-Times is part of Chicago Public Media, its operations are supported by separate revenue sources,' Lim said. 'CPB funding is limited to noncommercial broadcast services like WBEZ, so the Sun-Times would not be affected by the proposed rescission. However, our organization is still unified with a joint newsroom, so there are still potential negative effects on our overall ability to provide local, independent news.'
The cuts to public media come as part of a larger 'rescissions' package the Trump administration is pushing in order to roll back funding lawmakers approved in March.
The House's $9.4 billion package of cuts would also scale back spending on foreign aid, including the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, an initiative of George W. Bush's administration to prevent the spread of HIV across the globe. The U.S. has spent more than $100 billion on the program since its inception, and it is credited with saving approximately 25 million lives.
Senators and Trump administration officials announced a deal Tuesday to maintain funding for the AIDS relief program, which could remove a major obstacle for a larger agreement.
Foreign aid and public media spending account for a minuscule portion of the federal budget, but they loom large in the popular imagination.
Trump and administration officials have accused public media outlets, including NPR and PBS, of political bias. Last year, Trump called for defunding NPR after an NPR business editor said in an online essay that 'an open-minded spirit no longer exists' at the news organization. The editor, Uri Berliner, later resigned.
'Republicans have campaigned on cutting funding for NPR and PBS for decades, and for good reason,' Russell Vought, director of Trump's Office of Management and Budget, said in congressional testimony last month.
'There is no longer any excuse for tax dollars to subsidize these radical, far-left networks,' he said. 'If you would like to donate to them on your own, you are more than welcome to do so, but taxpayers should no longer be forced to foot the bill.'
Paula Kerger, president and CEO of PBS, responded last month to the accusations about political bias, saying, 'I think when people talk about 'bias,' they are speaking mostly about our news. Our news represents about 10% of the work we do.'
'But we work really hard to bring together a diversity of viewpoints,' she said. 'That's part of our mission.'
Some Senate Republicans have hesitated to support a bill with such significant cuts to public media. Two senators from Alaska and one from South Dakota publicly worried about the impact the cuts would have on sparsely populated areas of their states.
Trump, though, is pushing party members to get in line.
'It is very important that all Republicans adhere to my Recissions Bill and, in particular, DEFUND THE CORPORATION FOR PUBLIC BROADCASTING (PBS and NPR), which is worse than CNN & MSDNC put together,' the president wrote on his social media site last week, using a disparaging nickname for MSNBC. 'Any Republican that votes to allow this monstrosity to continue broadcasting will not have my support or Endorsement.'
Trump and his followers have repeatedly seized on controversies to accuse mainstream news outlets of bias, sometimes with serious financial consequences.
The president sued Paramount, which owns CBS News, and alleged editing bias in a '60 Minutes' interview of former Vice President Kamala Harris, Trump's opponent in November's election. Paramount, which needs federal regulatory approval for a merger, recently settled the case, agreeing to pay $16 million toward Trump's legal fees and his future presidential library.
That followed a $15 million settlement by ABC News, which is owned by Disney, in December over an interview conducted by George Stephanopoulos, an ABC News anchor and former adviser to President Bill Clinton. Stephanopoulos mischaracterized the sexual misconduct for which Trump had been found civilly liable.
The Trump administration also engaged in a monthslong fight with The Associated Press because the wire service declined to use the term 'Gulf of America' that Trump invented to describe the Gulf of Mexico.
Trump has also attempted to dismantle the Voice of America, a federally funded network of overseas reporters covering countries with limited press freedom. The White House accused the organization of being the 'voice of radical America.'
Senate Republicans are using a little-used budget maneuver to try to effectuate the cuts.
The arcane procedure gives Republicans the chance to make substantial changes to the spending deal Congress approved in March with just a simple majority vote in the Senate, rather than the three-fifths majority usually required to avoid a filibuster.
The move would also strengthen the Trump administration's legal position by giving legislative approval to changes that Trump attempted to implement through executive actions, which NPR challenged in court.
But to take effect, Congress must approve the rescissions package by Friday. If the Senate makes changes to the proposal, the House must approve them as well by the Friday deadline. If Congress does not OK the cuts, the Trump administration is required by law to spend the money as planned.
Trump attempted to use the rescissions procedure once during his first administration, but the Republican-controlled Senate refused to cooperate.
Some Republican senators say they are also skittish about the current Trump proposal. U.S. Sen. Susan Collins, a Maine Republican who chairs the Senate Appropriations Committee, voiced several concerns with the package, though she has voted with Trump more often than not despite public protestations. Collins demanded more details from administration officials about foreign aid programs that would be scaled back, such as support for vaccines and economic aid to Jordan and Egypt. She also voiced support for local public media.
'I understand … the concern about subsidizing the national radio news programming that for years has had a discernibly partisan bent,' she said. 'There are, however, more targeted approaches to addressing that bias at NPR than rescinding all of the funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.'
Democrats have also warned that after-the-fact cuts to bipartisan funding agreements could jeopardize future budget negotiations.
'If Republicans cave to Donald Trump and gut these investments agreed to by both parties, that would be an affront — a huge affront — to the bipartisan appropriations process,' said U.S. Sen. Chuck Schumer of New York, the Senate's top Democrat. Schumer and a handful of Democrats, including Durbin, voted for the funding bill that Republicans now want to alter.
'It is absurd to expect Democrats to play along with funding the government if Republicans are just going to renege on a bipartisan agreement by concocting rescissions packages behind closed doors that can pass with only their votes, not the customary 60 votes required in the appropriation process,' Schumer said.
As the fight plays out in Washington, local public media outlets are urging listeners to contact their elected officials and to support the stations financially.
'The outpouring of support has been encouraging, and many people have stepped up their giving or have set up recurring giving,' said Lim from Chicago Public Media. 'Community support is more important than ever and, if the funding goes away, we hope the community continues to stand with us as we work to protect Chicagoans' access to independent journalism and close the gap.'
'Our journalism is built to serve the Chicago region by reflecting its people, informing its communities and holding power to account,' he added. 'Federal funding helps make that possible, but regardless of the outcome in Washington, our commitment to the people of this city remains unwavering.'
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