At least anecdotally, I seem to be seeing more articles online with a pro-MAGA tint from NPRHere's reaction from America's Public Television Stations to House defunding CPB:
House Subcommittee’s Proposed Budget Allocation For CPB: Zero.
The House Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education and Related Agencies has recommended shutting out the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) in its full-year 2025 appropriations bill.www.insideradio.com
I wonder if the ideologues in congress ever speak to the governors of their states. They're the ones who depend on federal funding.
The fact is that all of public broadcasting is being blamed because of one article written by one former employee of NPR.
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House Seeks to Defund CPB
- Thread starter TheBigA
- Start date
Wait until September-November timeframe when this issue about funding CPB which in turn funds the local affiliates of PBS and NPR will be brought again and again. Certain members of congress and state legislatures will play the same topic again and again when the final debates are out and the final rallies are there. It will take a segment from PBS Newshour and PBS Frontline covering the issues of congress that certain members don't want aired.Here's reaction from America's Public Television Stations to House defunding CPB:
House Subcommittee’s Proposed Budget Allocation For CPB: Zero.
The House Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education and Related Agencies has recommended shutting out the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) in its full-year 2025 appropriations bill.
I wonder if the ideologues in congress ever speak to the governors of their states. They're the ones who depend on federal funding.
The fact is that all of public broadcasting is being blamed because of one article written by one former employee of NPR.
They call that throwing the baby out with the bathwater. The states depend on federal funding. Republicans talk about states' rights, and what to air is the purview of the states, not congress.
On Wednesday, the House appropriations committee voted to zero out funding to CPB:
current.org
A reminder that this is money that principally goes to the stations, who decide how to spend it locally.
The bill goes to the full house for a vote.
House Appropriations Committee takes next step in zeroing out pubmedia funding for FY27
President Biden has proposed upping CPB’s FY27 appropriation to $595 million.
current.org
A reminder that this is money that principally goes to the stations, who decide how to spend it locally.
The bill goes to the full house for a vote.
Could CPB go commercial? Tax wise a for profit company can be owned by a non profit organization. As long as it's designated "educational" they should get a waiver from the FCC for 88.1 thur 91.9 since the rules have changed.
CPB was formed by an act of congress. Its primary purpose is to act as a shield against political interference in public broadcasting. If the funding is gone, there's no real need for CPB. The stations are quite capable of seeking their own funding directly. CPB doesn't own any stations, and isn't licensed by the FCC. So there's no need for a waiver. To the best of my knowledge, there is no waiver available for the NCE rules.
Having said that, the situation for commercial funding isn't very good either, as companies like Audacy, Cumulus, and iHeart prove.
Looking beyond this, at some point, these red state reps will speak with their red state governors, who will tell them to grow up, and get their states the federal money they're entitled to.
if we lost cpn fujnding, we'd be done, cooked, gone, shut down... no local radio for a wide swath of the interior
That's a fight for your governor, who has to teach these dumb congresspeople what their job is. They're not in congress to be guests on TV. This isn't some reality TV show. This is about getting federal funds to the people. That's their main job. If they're not going to do it, we should defund congress. We could save a lot of money that way.
Keep in mind the same people who want to defund CPB also want to defund education. What happens to the state college system without federal funding? It all shuts down. So we all need to be prepared, because there are some politicians who don't believe in any federal funding for anything except defense.
our governor is likely one of the ones who also wants to get rid of it too.. hes veto'd the 1 mil a year in state funding we used to get and thinks even if stations lose money there will still be EAS to serve the community and pass through important info and we can rebroadcast another station
My EAS source is 250 miles away ,fed by satellite! lol
These politicians think nothing will change if the money goes away. They're about to get an education.
I imagine you're in touch with other people in Alaska who do what you do. It always helps to be organized and work together as a team.
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Here's another report on this story:
www.insideradio.com
House Appropriations Committee Votes To Zero-Fund CPB Starting In 2027.
House Republicans have made good on their promise to zero-out funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. The House Appropriations Committee on Wednesday voted 31-25 to remove CPB funding from
Defunding of public broadcasting is also part of the Heritage Foundation's Project 2025. They propose not only defunding public broadcasting, but also removing it's designation as non-commercial educational:
www.insideradio.com
The problem is that if the FCC removed the NCE status, the stations in that part of the FM dial would have to move to the commercial area. Not an easy thing to accomplish. There are a lot of errors in this proposal. I don't have time to address them all here.
RadioInk took a broader view of Project 2025, and what it wants to do to radio in general:
radioink.com
Some of it was written by FCC commissioner Brendan Carr. He's under fire for using his position in government to be involved in partisan politics.
GOP’s ‘Project 2025’ Eyes End Of Public Media Funding, Non-commercial Status.
Funding for public media is already teetering in Congress, and it could be even more at risk if Republicans win on Election Day. That’s because the policy agenda laid out
The problem is that if the FCC removed the NCE status, the stations in that part of the FM dial would have to move to the commercial area. Not an easy thing to accomplish. There are a lot of errors in this proposal. I don't have time to address them all here.
RadioInk took a broader view of Project 2025, and what it wants to do to radio in general:
Here's What Project 2025 Says About Radio - Radio Ink
Here are some of the ways the Heritage Foundation's headline-grabbing Project 2025 policy document could affect the radio industry.
radioink.com
Some of it was written by FCC commissioner Brendan Carr. He's under fire for using his position in government to be involved in partisan politics.
Since every rule has to pass Congress with the recent Supreme Court ruling, Congress will have to reallocate that band.Defunding of public broadcasting is also part of the Heritage Foundation's Project 2025. They propose not only defunding public broadcasting, but also removing it's designation as non-commercial educational:
GOP’s ‘Project 2025’ Eyes End Of Public Media Funding, Non-commercial Status.
Funding for public media is already teetering in Congress, and it could be even more at risk if Republicans win on Election Day. That’s because the policy agenda laid out
The problem is that if the FCC removed the NCE status, the stations in that part of the FM dial would have to move to the commercial area. Not an easy thing to accomplish. There are a lot of errors in this proposal. I don't have time to address them all here.
They're not proposing to eliminate NCE status for everyone. Just NPR. The thing is that NPR owns no stations. So they can't target NPR without also hitting NPR-affiliated radio stations owned by state colleges and universities, which are in fact educational institutions. Project 2025 is basically a conservative manifesto that includes all of the things they've wanted to do to government for years. A lot of it will be difficult to carry out. It requires that they control all parts of government. So it's a tall order.
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One of the issues that Project 2025 discusses is the underwriting announcements that come on NPR network programming and by local affiliates where they sound like full blown commercials. This is the only part of their deep manifesto I somewhat agree with. The FCC does need to crack down on the "NPR/PBS way" of doing underwriting acknowledgements or provide clearer guidance. I use a much more conservative approach to content in underwriting messages and tell stations to not push the envelope or to "sound like NPR".
The intent of Project 2025 isn't to adjust underwriting, but rather turn these into commercial stations. That was completely against the original intent of the Public Broadcasting Act of 1967. At that time, commercial stations were doing basically what they're doing now, which is ignoring public service in favor of ratings and money. The goal of the PBA was to eliminate the profit motive from these stations, so they could focus on public service and education. This is a big reason why the NAB didn't oppose the Act. They're not looking for more competition for advertising from these stations. So this will be a very controversial part of this proposal. One of many.
The Project 2025 agenda calls for increased emphasis on the various USAGM international services, but does not give any indication on the platforms it would use for this expanded effort. Shortwave radio is essentially dead as any sort of media influencer, as evidence by the USAGM cuts that have taken place just this month. Note the current propaganda influence of Russia, which shut down what was left of its shortwave services in 2014.
So where will this new “soft power” campaign be fought? Increased social media presence? Programming provided to local stations? Streaming services?
So where will this new “soft power” campaign be fought? Increased social media presence? Programming provided to local stations? Streaming services?
True also we need to wait until September-November for how much of the "Defund CPB" rants will ramp up. In past cases we heard of kids shows that air on PBS affiliates get targeted for defamation. This is while the politicians beef was directed at PBS Newshour, PBS Frontline and the local documentaries and news from the PBS affiliates.
NPR won't use Twitter after being labeled 'government-funded media'
National Public Radio is quitting Twitter over the social media company's recent actions under owner Elon Musk to stamp it with labels the news organization says are meant to undermine its credibility.
www.pbs.org
In 2023 Elon Musk ranted about "Government Funded" about NPR on X. This got some of the NPR and PBS affiliates to boycott X as a result of his rants. Also it turned out Reuters had an extensive investigative story on Musk and allies. I tried to look for a specific story NPR and their local affiliates had on Musk directly but was left empty handed on that one. It turned out Reuters had a treasure trove of stories on Musk.
In this case we need to watch on more stories surrounding VP candidate JD Vance in the next 3 months and look for PBS Newshour stories do an investigative story on him. When more details come out on JD Vances background and released on AP News, Reuters, PBS Newshour and NPR News expect the CPB funding rants to escalate some more and we will see how much donations the major PBS and NPR affiliates will get from there.
Hopefully the public radio and TV stations will publicize this website:
protectmypublicmedia.org
Protect My Public Media
Take a stand for the local stations and programs you love.
protectmypublicmedia.org