03-05-2025
- Business
- New Indian Express
As Trump moves to defund US public broadcasting, PBS and NPR fret over their future
The focus is on news, but there could be other casualties
Trump's order concentrates on news, and between PBS' "NewsHour" and a robust reporting corps at NPR, that's an important part of their operations. But public broadcasting also has entertainment programming, educational children's shows and Burns' historical documentaries.
PBS and NPR get about a half-billion dollars a year in public funding funneled through the private Corporation for Public Broadcasting. Roughly 70% of that goes directly to the 330 local PBS outlets and 246 NPR stations.
On average, PBS says 15% of its stations' budgets come from public funding. But there are wide variations; stations in larger markets usually get more money through philanthropy and fund drives, while smaller stations depend much more on the government.
Besides Trump's order, Congress has been considering future funding levels for the public broadcasters, and the Federal Communications Commission is questioning public broadcasting efforts at corporate underwriting, said Josh Shepperd, author of the 2023 book "Shadow of the New Deal: The Victory of Public Broadcasting."
"It's a three-pronged effort that is frankly very smart in its institutional understanding," Shepperd said. "They're not just going after programs that they don't like. They're going after the operations and the infrastructure that makes it possible to even air the programming."
A ripple effect is possible, and could be local
Trump's order instructs the CPB and other government agencies to "cease Federal funding" for PBS and National Public Radio and further requires that they work to root out indirect sources of public financing.
Separate from the CPB grant, for example, PBS gets a grant from the US Department of Education for programming that helps build the reading, math and science skills for children age 2 to 8, particularly in poor areas.
The administration's plan might not threaten your favorite program—Burns gets plenty of corporate and philanthropic support—but it may impact local programming and potential growth, Shepperd said.
Congressional Republicans aired some of their grievances about public broadcasting to Kerger and Maher at a public hearing in March. Such complaints have been common over the years, but the broadcasters have avoided funding cuts, in large part because members of Congress don't want to be seen as responsible if a station in their district shuts down.
Who wants to be the public official who killed "Sesame Street"?
