Production – October 24, 2022, Hamburg: Ernie and Bert characters from Sesame Street, taken in a photo studio on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of Sesame Street. (Photo by Daniel Reinhardt/Picture Alliance via Getty Images)
DPA/Picture Alliance through Getty Images
On May 1, President Donald Trump signed a executive order Cutting federal funding for NPR and PBS. The mandate specifically directs the Public Broadcasting Company (CPB) to “stop direct funding in NPR and PBS”, which the president says he is in line with his administration policy “to ensure that federal funding does not support biased and party coverage”. In addition, the president has guided the CPB Council to reduce to provide future funding and “stop indirect funding in NPR and PBS, including ensuring that licensors and public public radio and television stations,
The mandate was no surprise – it was in agreement with the March’s president’s demand for the truth social that funding for public broadcasting will stop. He then published: “The NPR and PBS, two horrible and completely biased platforms (networks!), Should be removed immediately from the Congress.
This is the place where I, as a tax lawyer who works as a senior writer for Tower And living in a large metropolitan area must be neutral and analytical.
But here’s the thing: I was a kid PBS (public broadcasting system). Our family, a conservative living in rural North Carolina, was an NPR family (National Public Radio). I am not absolutely neutral when it comes to this issue. And that’s why I’m writing about it.
For PBS and NPR
PBS is a non-profit public television network created in 1969. It is not a single entity, but it consists of more than 330 of them in the US today. These Member Stations may produce their own content or air programs produced by others. Some programs are standard across the network, so we tend to associate PBS with specific appearances. For example, you probably know PBS from broadcasts such as “Newshour” and “Masterpiece” (the series that taught the US to know and love “Downton Abbey”).
PBS’s initial mission was to provide access to planning, especially those in rural areas and those who could not afford to pay for private television channels. I lived in one of these households based on PBS. I grew up in the rural North Carolina and the resources were limited – we didn’t even have a library in my city when I was younger. The TV service was spotty and, if you added channels, accurate, but we got free pbs. We could usually watch ABC and NBC and if the weather was right and if my brother was holding the antenna in some way, we could occasionally get CBS. But PBS was the way the peoples in my city watched television, especially educational television and the news.
Today, according to PBS, 58% of all US television households (over 130 million people) coordinate at PBS members. A heavy 60% of the audience still lives in rural communities. In agricultural, native American and island communities, public broadcasting stations are often the only local and operating mass media and how many Americans get their news (you can remember that when I traveled to Alaska to prepare taxes, taxes).
The NPR was incorporated a year later, in 1970, with 88 members of members representing non -commercial, educational and community radio stations across the country. Today, about 99% of the US population is within the listening area of one or more public radio stations.
Growing up with PBS and NPR
When I say I was a kid pbs, I mean it. In kindergarten, I will slip from my pillow to watch “Sesame Street” with the other class (they were alternating because we didn’t have enough mats for both classes). Eventually I graduated to return to performances such as the “Mister Rogers neighborhood”, the “electric company” and the “contact 3-2”. In the weak days, I could dream of being a famous artist while watching “the joy of painting” or imagine what it would be like to travel in time like Doctor Who (of course Tom Baker’s version, of course) – while PBS did not officially bring “Doctor Who”, many of his affiliates.
Our husband. Mrs Ronald W. Reagan (R) speaking and standing next to John T. Williams (L) on the 100th anniversary of the Boston concert pops up in South Lawn. (Photo by Dirck Halstee/Getty Images)
Getty pictures
My parents and I spent the evenings together watching “Anne of Green Gables”, “All Creatures Wonderful and Small”, Rick Steve Travel Shows and Agatha Christie Mysteries. We also caught musical performances – how my dad introduced us to Boston Pops and British Proms. (Many BBC programs did it at our local subsidiary – my mom would continue to become a big fan of “Downton Abbey” and I was a big fan of “Sherlock”).
The radio was also important. We heard the NPR in the car. I grew up listening to “all things considered”, “talk car” and “wait, wait, don’t tell me”. And for years, I would fall to sleep by listening to “a partner at Prairie’s house”.
The thing is that he was never considered liberal or “awake” planning. On the contrary, my conservative parents preferred planning to a “regular” network and radio planning because they believed it was more appropriate for age and family. This perception has not changed: today, PBS says that almost two -thirds of its audience recognize as Republican or Independent (63%).
Contrast to funding
This does not mean that there was no opposition – the projections for funding for PBS and NPR are not new. There was a pushback in Congress for funding for PBS almost already by its principles. On May 1, 1969, Fred Rogers, the former host of the Mister Rogers neighborhood, said before the Senate Subcommittee on the Subcommittee on Communications for the Defense of $ 20 Million in Federal Funding proposed for the recently formed non -profit CPB.
Senator John O. Pastore (D-Ri) chairman was initially skeptical, but during about ten minutes, Rogers won him over. In his now famous testimony, Rogers said: “I give an expression of care every day to every child, to help him realize that he is unique, I finish the program by saying:” You have made this day a special day, you are just you. And believe
By the end of the testimony, Pastore told Rogers: “I think it’s great, I think it’s great, it looks like you won $ 20 million.”
Years later, funding again became a speech point, this time in the 2012 democratic presidential debate. When asked what cuts he would make to reduce the deficit, then Presidential GOP Mitt Romney candidate said he would reduce unnecessary programs such as PBS, explaining it.
(Romney’s and Paul Ryan’s team continued to secure the Republican appointment, but lost to Barack Obama and Joe Biden in the presidential election.)
And while the Romney subsidy that refers to the discussions made it sound like taxpayers who fully supported Big Bird and the Sesame Street gang, this is not the case.
Financing
PBS is not mainly funded through federal tax dollars – only 15% of its budget comes from the federal government. It is largely supported by viewers like you. Almost 60% of public television funding comes from private donors or grants. The fees paid by the members’ stations provide additional funding.
(NPR gets about 1 % of its budget from Congress.)
Federal funding referred to by Romney is not a direct subsidy to PBS. Funding flows to CPB.
The CPB was founded by Congress before the PBS in 1967, following the promotion of public media that occurred as “appropriate and significant concern” in the federal government. In the Statute, the CPB Board of Directors must be bilateral: three Democrats and three Republicans. To maintain apolitical, the CPB is funded two years earlier. As part of its mission, it supports both PBS and NPR.
There is not much funding room. The money going to CPB is separated according to a mainly legal type. This means that about 95% of CPB federal funds go directly to content development, Community services and other local stations and system needs and less than 5% is available at CPB administrative expenses.
In recent years, PBS has received about $ 535 million a year from Congress or just under $ 1.60 per American per year. In the financial year 2024, the US federal government spent $ 6.9 trillion on the budget. Funding for PBS is less than 1% of the federal budget – less. It is about 1/100th of 1%.
I am not disappointing cutting waste: Waste cutting is good. However, with the numbers, the reduction in funding for PBS and NPR will not store the budget. Not by a long shot.
What’s coming next
CPB, PBS and NPR examine all their options – a treatment could be in the projects to stop defunding. Managing Director of PBS Paula Kerger has been reported For executive mandate as “blatant illegal”, saying “, we are currently exploring all options that allow PBS to continue to serve our members and all Americans”. NPR President and CEO Katherine Maher reiterated these statements: “We will question this executive order using all available means.”
With cuts, public television and radio stations should find alternative sources of funding. Larger markets, like the one I live in now, will probably survive based on donors. But the chances are that these smaller markets, such as the one left for living, may need to close the lights. That is, of course, irony, since these smaller markets are the same that PBS was intended to serve when it was created.
