Editor's Note: Following E&P's July issue press deadline, the U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation published a report on public media and the impact of federal funding losses. Read the full study here: https://www.commerce.senate.gov/services/files/94559A4E-B293-4B21-87A7-0AC31DB13E45
It came as little surprise when the U.S. House of Representatives passed a recissions bill by a vote of 214-212 on June 12, 2025. The bill contained language rescinding already-appropriated funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) to the tune of $1.1 billion for fiscal years 2026 and 2027. It was the latest measure in a coordinated effort by the president of the United States and the Republican Party to hobble public media and effectively dismantle the CPB.
CPB was established by Congress in 1967 through the passage of the Public Broadcasting Act. Each year since, the federal government appropriated funds for the organization, which are then redistributed to hundreds of local public media stations nationwide. In recent years, Congress budgeted roughly $535 million for CPB, a mere drop in the annual U.S. budget bucket ($6.8 trillion for 2024).
Why has “defunding” public media become part of the right’s political platform? You’ll hear two primary reasons from members of Congress and the president. First, a principled conservative take: That the federal government should not be in the business of funding news media, period. More recently, the political talking points have shifted to accusations of political bias in NPR’s and PBS’ reporting.
On May 1, President Trump signed an executive order to cease all funding to NPR and PBS. In response, NPR, Aspen Public Radio, Colorado Public Radio and KSUT Public Radio collectively filed suit against the Trump administration on May 27.
NPR reaches an audience of 43 million Americans each week and provides infrastructure to support 379 locally operated radio stations around the country.
NPR’s CEO Katherine Maher said in a statement, “The Executive Order is a clear violation of the Constitution and the First Amendment’s protections for freedom of speech and association, and freedom of the press.”
“President Trump has repeatedly expressed his disapproval of editorial decisions reflected in programming offered by NPR and PBS,” Maher said in the statement. “He has disparaged NPR’s news and other content as ‘left-wing propaganda.’ His executive order states that our coverage is not ‘fair, accurate or unbiased,’ building on prior statements that clearly show the President’s disapproval of NPR’s news coverage and editorial choices. The intent could not be more clear — the executive order aims to punish NPR for the content of news and other programming the President dislikes.”
Several days later, PBS and one of its members, PBS Lakeland, filed a similar suit, alleging First Amendment violation.
However, public media also has allies in Congress.
On June 4, 29 Democrat and Independent Senators co-signed a letter to Senate Majority Leader John Thune, pleading the case: “This funding is essential to the functioning of the public media system and the communities they serve, and any cuts in funding would have detrimental effects on local stations, which rely on this funding to provide critical services to millions of Americans across the country,” the senators wrote.
How do Americans from across the country and political spectrum regard public media?
Pew Research Center’s Michael Lipka and Katerina Eva Matsa published survey findings about American adult sentiments. The authors wrote, “About a quarter of U.S. adults (24%) say Congress should remove federal funding from NPR and PBS,” according to the March 2025 survey. A larger group (43%) said NPR and PBS should continue to receive funding from the federal government, while 33% say they are not sure.
Mirroring the partisan divide in Congress, the study found that registered Republicans and Democrats see public media differently.
“Among Republicans and GOP-leaning independents, 44% say Congress should end funding for NPR and PBS, while 19% say funding should continue, and 37% say they are not sure,” the authors reported.
“By contrast, just 5% of Democrats and Democratic leaners say federal funding for NPR and PBS should be cut off, while 69% say funding should continue, and 26% are unsure,” they concluded.
“There is certainly increased politicization of public media in the past 10 to 15 years, just as there has been politicization of every element of the culture wars,” said Tom Davidson, professor of practice, media entrepreneurship at Penn State University’s Bellisario School of Communications, and an E&P columnist. “That said, it’s also not new. When the issue of modest federal funding came up in the 1960s, it was a controversial idea to give federal money to broadcast entities, even non-commercial ones,” Davidson recalled.
“CBP was set up as a buffer to prevent undue influence from Congress or the Executive Branch over these broadcasters. You have an independent body through which the money flows, theoretically without government interference,” he continued. “Richard Nixon tried eliminating federal funding in the 1970s. He failed. Ronald Reagan made noise about it in the '80s. That failed. Mitt Romney brought it up in his 2012 political campaign. He failed. We see this cyclical use of public media as a bit of a budgetary punching bag, and we've seen that for decades.”
On air in Connecticut
Mark Contreras is the president and CEO of Connecticut Public, a joint NPR and PBS licensee based in Hartford, Connecticut.
“We have a $20 million budget. $2.1 million comes from CPB in our revenue line, and then I turn around and write a check for $1.8 million to PBS and $900,000 to NPR. So, that CPB money leaves us still underwater, but it certainly helps,” Contreras said.
Connecticut Public has been appealing to Congress to keep that federal funding flowing, but Contreras said they won’t be surprised if those efforts prove unsuccessful. It will mean some tough decisions about expenses, including personnel costs.
“We will have plans to mitigate it, but if that $2.1 million goes away, it puts pressure on stations like ours. It’s hard to imagine a scenario in which the amount of affiliate fees would stay the same — meaning, it will also put serious pressure on both networks to drop their fees,” Contreras predicted.
In the meantime, Connecticut Public sharpened its fundraising messaging.
“We didn’t want to fundraise around this. I wish we didn’t have to, but when faced with this challenge, our members and area foundations have become aware of the existential threat and have been responsive to that. It’s heartening and surprising in a wonderful way,” Contreras said.
Connecticut Public raised $5 million about six years ago to reinvest in statewide investigative journalism. They branded it “The Accountability Project.” Since then, the journalists have produced more than 30 impactful investigations.
“The other thing that Connecticut Public has done is heavily invest in digital,” Contreras said. “Now, all of the content that we produce or air from the national network is available to people through 62 digital platforms,” Contreras said. That includes streaming platforms that PBS and NPR have struck distribution deals with.
“Our weekly audience is about 1.2 million, which includes broadcast and digital combined,” he said.
Contreras spoke about the public’s perceptions of public-media bias. He’s found that most anger is targeted at NPR and its member stations, fueled by the notorious Uri Berliner op-ed. Contreras said it inflicted “serious damage to NPR and its brand.”
But Contreras and many of his colleagues, he said, take seriously their duty to inform and listen to all members of their community, no matter their demographics, religious affiliation, political party or socioeconomic status.
“I wear something purple every day, and the reason I do that is to remind myself that part of the mission is to remain completely purple,” Contreras said. “We launched the Civility Initiative, which gets red and blue politicians together for discussions. Everything we do locally is done through that lens that our listeners and viewers are residents of Connecticut, regardless of a political party.”
The stakes
To understand what's at stake should federal funding for public media disappear, consider the journalism and other programming being produced nationwide.
Blue Ridge Public Radio earned four Edward R. Murrow Awards from the Radio Television Digital News Association this May. Jointly produced by BPR News, WFDD and CityView, the two-part investigative series, “Sold on a Promise,” won the Investigative Reporting category. The NPR member station also won Digital and Sports Reporting awards. They were awarded the top prize for Overall Excellence for their essential coverage of Hurricane Helene.
WEKU, the NPR member station in Kentucky, also earned four Edward R. Murrow Awards this year, taking top prizes in the Excellence in Writing, Feature Reporting, News Series and Podcast categories.
WHYY in Philadelphia is now taking public media mobile, hosting pop-up newsrooms around the metropolitan region.
“I love ‘Great Lakes Now’ from Detroit PBS. They’re doing regional reporting stretching well beyond Detroit, particularly on the health, environmental and economic — of the Great Lakes,” Tom Davidson said. He lauded the public media stations around the country that are working collaboratively with other emerging local newsrooms. He applauded WQED in Pittsburgh for developing a series of live events — expressly with the public in mind.
Public media thinks differently about its audience, according to Davidson: “Historically, much of our value has come from our ability to say with a straight face, we treat you — the audience — as a partner and as a consumer of our work, not as a product that can be packaged up to be sold off to an advertiser.”
Coming to you from the Motor City, on 60 platforms
“Think about it: We are literally the last locally owned major media outlet in many of our communities, and that’s true of most PBS stations across the country. We’re locally owned. We’re locally operated. We’re locally governed,” said Rich Homberg, president and CEO, Detroit PBS.
Detroit PBS is a prime example of how public media evolves and engages new audiences. It now operates five 24/7 channels and publishes content to roughly 60 platforms.
“In a city of 4 million people, we reach about 2 million every month,” he said.
Part of the organization’s mission is to produce programming — news or otherwise — that’s purposeful and unique. Homberg cited a recent focus on the subject of caregiving.
“That’s a huge issue that commercial media is never going to take on in the way we can,” he said.
Asked about bias criticism, Homberg said, “You have to embrace the entire community, and you need a staff that represents the community.”
Detroit PBS convenes advisory groups to ensure they hear from people across all demographics, socioeconomic categories, political persuasions and geographic perspectives.
In anticipation of the U.S.’s milestone birthday next year, they’ve launched a “Destination Detroit” series. “We’re reaching out to Detroiters to gather stories of how their families came to Detroit. What is your Detroit story? And we’re doing that across all demographics,” he explained.
Homberg said federal funding accounts for 10% of Detroit PBS’ budget.
“But it’s foundational,” he said. “These are dollars you can use to help build capital on long-term commitments. That foundation is critical to every station.”
When E&P spoke with Homberg in June, he said the leadership team was in the thick of budget meetings. Based on what happens with federal funding, they had three budgets under discussion.
“If we lost federal funding, the questions would be: Are there things that we need to pause? Are there places we need to reduce? We’re trying to be very thoughtful about that, as is every station in the country,” Homberg said, adding, “I’m very optimistic about the role we’re playing in our city.”
Homberg offered perspective about the cost of public media: “Literally, $1.60 per American [per year] ensures that public media is offered to virtually every American who has access to it.”
Gretchen A. Peck is a contributing editor to Editor & Publisher. She's been reporting for E&P since 2010 and welcomes comments at gretchenapeck@gmail.com.
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Jpeyton
I realize I'm in the minority here, but I have real issues with government funding of media in general, and government funding of pretty much anything when the nation is trillions of dollars in debt. With news orgs across the country struggling just to stay afloat in the marketplace as ad revenue dries up or diverts to digital and our bread-and-butter subscriber base literally ages out, it's difficult to find much sympathy for losing a taxpayer subsidy unavailable to most of the industry.
Friday, July 18, 2025 Report this