Latest news with #publicmedia
Reuters
2 days ago
- Business
- Reuters
NPR's top editor Edith Chapin to step down
July 22 (Reuters) - National Public Radio's (NPR) Edith Chapin will step down from her role as editor in chief and acting chief content officer later this year, the news outlet said on Tuesday, at a time when the broadcaster faces funding pressure after the Trump administration slashed public media subsidies. The news comes a week after the Republican-controlled U.S. House of Representatives passed a $9 billion funding cut to public media and foreign aid. This includes $1.1 billion for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB), which distributes funding to news outlets NPR and PBS. The Trump administration has accused, opens new tab NPR and PBS of bias against conservative viewpoints. Chapin, who joined NPR in 2012 after 25 years at CNN, will remain head of newsroom operations while NPR searches for a new editorial leadership. Under her leadership, NPR's news division expanded its investigative reporting and deepened its international and national coverage, the company said. NPR is a nonprofit media organization that boasts a weekly audience of 43 million across its platforms and has 953,000 weekly app users, according to its website.
Fox News
2 days ago
- Business
- Fox News
Top NPR editor to leave organization amid Trump's federal funding cuts
NPR's top editor, Edith Chapin, is leaving the company later this year. Chapin, who is serving as acting Chief Content Officer along with being a senior vice president and NPR's editor-in-chief, is walking away from NPR on the heels of the Trump administration's rescissions package pulling federal funding from public media. Republicans in the Senate and House narrowly passed the rescissions package last week that yanked over $1 billion in federal broadcast funding for the fiscal year. "Edith Chapin is a leader in journalistic integrity, a champion for the newsroom, calm in the storm — and an indispensable partner during my first year at NPR," CEO of NPR Katherine Maher said in a statement. "Edith laid the foundation for a stronger public radio, and set us on a solid path with her expert navigation. She has led with conviction, clarity, and compassion — always putting the public's interest first," Maher continued. According to the New York Times, she notified leadership of her decision to leave before the funding cuts were official. NPR will begin a national search for new editorial leadership. Chapin will remain head of newsroom operations until she officially exits later this year. "It has been the honor of a lifetime to serve NPR's listeners and readers, and work alongside some of the most dedicated journalists in the world. I will leave deeply proud of what we've accomplished and confident in the strength and integrity of NPR's newsroom going forward," Chapin said. Chapin has "overseen some of the most consequential and ambitious coverage in the organization's history — from global conflicts and U.S. elections to the COVID-19 pandemic and a rapidly changing media landscape," NPR noted in a press release. Trump's multibillion-dollar clawback package teed up cuts to "woke" spending on foreign aid programs and NPR and PBS, as Republicans finally yanked federal money from public news outlets in a move advocates said was long overdue. Maher has vowed that NPR will continue to operate despite the loss of federal funding, while warning of local station layoffs. Chapin spent 25 years at CNN prior to joining NPR in 2012.
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
Frustration and fear ripple through NPR and PBS affiliates after Congress approves clawbacks
Staffers at local NPR and PBS stations around the country were devastated by the news that Congress approved $1.1 billion in federal funding cuts to public media last week, a move that could jeopardize the futures of dozens of stations. Small, as well as rural, public media stations that heavily rely on federal funding to operate are now bracing for possible staff cuts after Congress approved a package on Thursday that will claw back Corporation for Public Broadcasting funding. Some stations say they're being punished over a fight between President Donald Trump and the national public broadcasting organizations that have little relationship to the service smaller outlets offer their communities. 'I think [lawmakers'] decisions were not informed,' said Don Dunlap, president and general manager of KEDT-TV/FM, a public radio and TV station in Corpus Christi, Texas. 'We're there to help people. There are 10 public TV stations in Texas, and we're thinking probably six of them will close down within a year.' In April, Trump asked Congress to roll back funding for NPR and PBS, which he has long accused of bias against him and other Republicans — a claim both outlets have denied. The public media cuts are one aspect of the Trump administration's aggressive campaign against media outlets it deems as partisan. Trump has taken legal action against several news organizations, including CBS, ABC, The Wall Street Journal and other outlets over unfavorable coverage. Several station heads told POLITICO they've been preparing for potential cuts since the Trump administration first floated the idea earlier this year. But in the wake of the bill's passage, they've had to put those plans into action. 'We're disappointed, but not surprised, and we've been planning for this scenario for a while,' said Judy Diaz, head of Delmarva Public Media, a group of three NPR stations that serve Maryland's Delmarva Peninsula. 'But yeah, it's a hit.' For hundreds of stations, federal money makes up a significant portion of their total funding. According to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, about 45 percent of all public media stations that received their grants are in rural areas, and nearly half of those rely on CPB for 25 percent or more of their annual budget. Without federal funding, those stations may be forced into layoffs and programming cuts, if they're able to survive at all. According to data obtained by POLITICO, 34 public radio and TV stations receive at least 50 percent of their funding from federal grants. Twelve of those stations are in Alaska. 'We can't fundraise our way out of this. We have to make other decisions,' said Mollie Kabler, executive director of CoastAlaska, which oversees six public radio stations in southern Alaska. 'We have to consider 'what services are we going to give up? What people are we going to let go of? And how can we find a way to collaborate and retain service for Alaskans?'' KRZA-FM, a public radio station based in Alamosa, Colorado, that broadcasts across southern Colorado and northern New Mexico, relies on the Corporation for Public Broadcasting for 50 percent of its yearly budget. Besides general manager Gerald Rodriguez, the station has one other full-time employee, two part-time workers and a handful of volunteers. 'It's gonna be a huge cut for us,' Rodriguez said. 'It's gonna affect us quite a bit, to the point where it could be, like a one-man show at some point where I'm doing everything by myself.' Public media stations have received CPB grants through the end of the current fiscal year, which ends in September. Many stations are calculating how long they'll be able to survive once their federal grant funds dry up. For some, it may only be a matter of months. 'The station has built up a war chest that should get us through the next few months,' said Mark Johnson, general manager of KSRQ-FM in Thief River Falls, Minnesota. 'Right now, we are making a push on-air and through social media for listener contributions to help us cover the cost of powering our transmitter through December.' Public media staffers from local affiliates to the national networks have been lobbying Republicans in Congress for weeks in hopes of staving off the cuts. In the end, only four Republicans in both chambers voted against the final version of the package, which also included cuts to foreign aid: Sens. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) and Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Reps. Mike Turner (R-Ohio) and Brian Fitzpatrick (R-Pa.). Representatives for Senate Majority Leader John Thune did not immediately respond to requests for comment. A House leadership aide deflected blame for impacts to local public media stations, and said in a statement that the NPR and PBS national organizations should "manage funds wisely and root out waste so rural stations can succeed." An Office of Management and Budget spokesperson refuted claims that local NPR and PBS affiliates had remained nonpartisan, saying in a statement they had 'politicized their own coverage by relying on syndicated programming from their national org.' 'Democratic paper-pushers masquerading as reporters don't deserve taxpayer subsidies, and NPR and PBS will have to learn to survive on their own,' said White House principal deputy press secretary Harrison Fields. 'Unfortunately for them, their only lifeline was taxpayer dollars, and that ended when President Trump was sworn in.' Scott Smith, general manager of Alleghany Public Radio which broadcasts to three counties on either side of the border of Virginia and West Virginia, said he reached out to Republican lawmakers from both states to try to preserve the 60 percent of his funding that comes from federal grants. Now, he blames Congress for targeting local stations to spite the national NPR and PBS networks. 'They do know that what they were doing was going to hurt us more than it's going to hurt NPR and PBS as a whole. Yet it was still done,' Smith said. 'So what conclusion does that bring you to, without any other data to the contrary, that this is political and personal in nature.' Kabler, who oversees the stations in Alaska, said she meets with Murkowski 'a couple times per year.' The senator attempted to introduce an amendment to the Senate bill that would protect funding for local public broadcasting while stripping it from NPR's and PBS' national operations, citing employees at KUCB — one of Kabler's stations — who she said earlier that afternoon had coordinated with local public officials to warn the community of an impending tsunami. The amendment failed. The public broadcasting audience in Alaska is 'mostly Republicans,' Kabler said. 'But our services are not about partisan politics, and the discussion of what people believe about PBS and NPR on the national level, that's not what we do. We're about local news and information.' Some public media staffers are hoping to take advantage of the grassroots networks used to rally support against the federal cuts to organize political opposition to Republicans who backed the bill. Kurt Mische, president of the PBS station based in Reno, Nevada, said he hopes the impact of gutting local NPR and PBS stations will be a motivating issue for voters in the 2026 midterms. 'I hope that everyone who believes in and supports the mission and vision and values of public broadcasting will keep this in mind when the next congressional election comes up,' Mische said. 'And we will help them connect the dots.' Solve the daily Crossword
Yahoo
5 days ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
'The American people deserve transparency' about Epstein case: Rep. DelBene
Rep. Suzan DelBene joined "PoliticsNation" to discuss the rescissions package that pulled funding from foreign aid and public media, plus President Trump's demand that the DOJ release grand jury testimony related to Jeffrey Epstein. The request comes after The Wall Street Journal's report on Trump's alleged 2003 birthday letter to Jeffrey Epstein. MSNBC has not independently verified the document involved in the Journal's Epstein report. Trump also denied he wrote it in an interview with the
Fox News
6 days ago
- Entertainment
- Fox News
Prominent liberals and media figures declare cuts to PBS, NPR a ‘perilous moment'
Liberal commentators, lawmakers and journalists working for PBS and NPR blasted this week's congressional vote that stripped federal funding from their outlets. Following the Senate, the House of Representatives voted 216 to 213 to pass President Donald Trump's $9 billion rescissions package late Thursday night. When signed by Trump, it will block $8 billion in funding to the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and $1 billion to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting – which funds PBS and NPR – for the remainder of the fiscal year. PBS NewsHour co-anchor Geoff Bennett reacted to the vote on X, stating, "This is a perilous moment for public media — but the resolve is stronger than ever. If you value independent journalism, educational programming, and trusted local coverage, please support your local PBS or NPR station." Other liberals weighed in on the bill's passage. Former U.S. Secretary of Labor Robert Reich posted a reaction to the vote on X. "The Senate just passed Trump's request to cut $1.1 billion in federal funding for public broadcasting. Why is Trump so hell-bent on gutting funds for PBS and NPR? It's part of a larger plan — one where he can control not just what we do, but what we think," he wrote. Additionally, Reich's post featured a video of him explaining to Sesame Street character Elmo how Trump is cutting funds to PBS in order to control information throughout the country. "And Trump, like past authoritarians, wants to control not just what we do, but also how we think," he said in the video. Liberal commentator Molly Jong-Fast declared, "This is so bad." Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., called it the "meanest" vote in Senate history, while fellow Democratic lawmaker Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., reacted to the vote on X, stating, "The Trump administration and Republicans in Congress have weaponized the rescissions tool to defund their perceived political enemies – public radio, Sesame Street, and starving children overseas. This vote was a test case for the months ahead." NPR critic-at-large Eric Deggans posted, "Tough news. But we'll still keep on doing the work, fairly and accurately." Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., posted, "House Republicans just passed Trump's rescissions package — billions of dollars in cuts to public broadcasting that serves rural America and global aid that saves lives. I voted HELL NO." Jayapal also shared her full statement on the vote, which declared, "Simply put, Republicans are stealing from the American people. And yet once again, Republicans are pathetically lining up behind Trump to do whatever he says rather than acting in the best interests of the people they represent."
