Columbus NPR stations brace for federal funding cuts
Why it matters: The cuts will undoubtedly impact station programming and services after this fiscal year ends Oct. 1, though Columbus' local affiliates haven't identified specifics yet.
The big picture: NPR and PBS nationally are mostly funded by nongovernment sources, such as corporate sponsorships and donations, while smaller member stations are more reliant on CPB funding.
Zoom in: Ohio's public broadcasting networks received grants totaling over $12.3 million in FY 2023, according to CPB documents.
The recent cuts will take away 13% (about $2 million) of WOSU's total budget and 10% of WCBE's (about $134,000), per the two stations.
WCBE is particularly unique as it's one of a handful of public radio licenses owned by a school district, Columbus City Schools, and is used for educational opportunities.
Threat level: Public stations are often the only local news sources in rural communities amid a steady decline of newspapers.
Once a broadcaster is shuttered, it's unlikely its spectrum license ever returns to a community news station, PBS CEO Paula Kerger explained in a recent interview with the Washington Post.
"I can imagine they would be auctioned off for whatever purpose and you won't have a local television station again in a community."
The intrigue: Research has shown that compared with other Western democracies, like Denmark, Finland and the United Kingdom, the U.S. has a less informed citizenry, because its public media is less robust.
What's next: WOSU is studying how to potentially realign its resources, which includes 62 full-time employees, and will "keep doing the work that matters to Central Ohio," general manager Anthony Padgett told his staff in a recent interview.
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Newsweek
2 hours ago
- Newsweek
Russia Has 'Strong Incentive' To Deploy More Destructive Nukes: Report
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The U.S. has an estimated 200 tactical nuclear weapons, with about half deployed at European bases. In 1987, U.S. President Ronald Reagan and Soviet Union leader Mikhail Gorbachev signed an agreement known as the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty, which banned nuclear and conventional missiles able to strike between 500 and 5,500 kilometers (310 and 3,400 miles). The treaty is no longer in effect and does not bind either state. The U.S. formally pulled out of the INF Treaty in mid-2019, during President Donald Trump's first term in office. Washington had accused Moscow of breaching the terms of the agreement by developing the SSC-8, also known as the 9M729 ground-launched cruise missile. NATO also accused Russia of violating the treaty, which Moscow denied. Both sides had suspended participation months earlier. Russia then said it would not deploy missiles banned under this treaty "until U.S.-manufactured missiles of similar classes" were rolled out, known as the INF moratorium. The U.S. has deployed its Mid-Range Capability missile system, which can fire Tomahawk cruise missiles with a range of about 1,000 miles, to the northern Philippines. Putin said on August 1 that Moscow would deliver Oreshnik intermediate-range ballistic missiles to Belarus by the end of 2025. Russia fired the experimental missile at central Ukraine in November 2024. That month, Moscow updated its nuclear doctrine to justify a nuclear strike in response to an attack on Russia by a nonnuclear country if it is backed by a nuclear-armed nation. U.S. nuclear strategy during Trump's previous term in office steered Washington toward "flexibility and range" with its nuclear weapons, including by modifying some Trident submarine-launched ballistic missile warheads to be lower-yield. 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Epoch Times
3 hours ago
- Epoch Times
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Besides paid ads and op-eds, the CCP collects personal data on journalists to look for 'pressure points' it can exploit—things like personal weaknesses or family ties, he said. Li expressed concern that Western media professionals are being asked to apply their skills to package information on a topic that is heavily controlled in China, and giving the regime power to also control the narrative overseas, especially when the views of Falun Gong practitioners are not treated equally in media reporting. In recent months, The New York Times has published more than 10 articles attacking Falun Gong and Falun Gong-founded dance company Shen Yun Performing Arts, which is based in New York. The articles omit information that would have undermined the articles' premises, a review by The Epoch Times found. Media companies in other countries, such as Australia and New Zealand, have also published negative rhetoric targeting Shen Yun. 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Then-CCP leader Jiang Zemin mobilized the whole state apparatus, including state-run media at home as well as foreign media, in an attempt to 'eradicate' Falun Gong within three months. In January 2001, the CCP staged a self-immolation incident in Tiananmen Square under the direction of then-CCP leader Jiang Zemin and blamed it on Falun Gong practitioners; a finding reported by the Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada in 2004. The hoax, aired nationally by CCTV on Jan. 31, 2001, became a key part of an intensified propaganda campaign to vilify Falun Gong and incite hatred in the Chinese populace against it. Jiang gave two high-profile interviews—one in writing to France's Le Figaro in October 1999, and another in person to CBS in August 2000—where he made negative remarks about Falun Gong. This marked the first time a top CCP leader had made public statements on Falun Gong to major international media, expanding Beijing's propaganda efforts to a global audience. The CCP continued to expand its global propaganda campaign, pulling together its intelligence apparatus and diplomatic resources to infiltrate Western media and academic institutions. The CCP's state-run English-language media, China Daily, paid more than $1 million in printing and advertisement expenses to nine U.S. media outlets from May 1 to Oct. 3, 2023. In return, the media companies printed its 'China Watch' supplement, helping spread CCP's narratives. Last year, then-Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), vice chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, and Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), ranking member of the Senate Budget Committee, sent letters to the heads of the nine U.S. media companies, urging them to stop accepting money from, and cut ties with China Daily. The letters were sent to The Seattle Times, the Houston Chronicle, The Boston Globe, the Los Angeles Times, Time, USA Today, the Financial Times, the Sun Sentinel, and the Chicago Tribune. 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In one of their statements, leaders vowed to cooperate to counter the CCP's transnational repression, which it said 'often impacts dissidents, journalists, human rights defenders, religious minorities, and those identified as part of diaspora communities.' Li stressed that once the media becomes a tool of political infiltration, the victims aren't just a specific faith group—the free speech and values of the democratic world are at stake. 'Today they're targeting Shen Yun,' he warned, 'Tomorrow it could be a political party or public figure they don't like.'
Yahoo
4 hours ago
- Yahoo
The Campbell's Company Stock: Analyst Estimates & Ratings
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