President Donald Trump’s request to claw back $1.1 billion in funding for public broadcasting has public media bracing for one of the most serious threats it has ever faced.
Trump on Tuesday formally asked Congress to cut money that had been set aside for public broadcasting for the next two years. The “rescission request” jumpstarted a 45-day clock for lawmakers to approve such a request — and with a simple majority needed to approve the slash, there is little room for Republicans to dissent. Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, last month came out in support of public broadcasting funding.
House Speaker Mike Johnson has said he’d put White House spending cut requests on the floor next week. The cuts are part of a larger $9.4 billion package which also includes foreign aid funding.
The threat has left local public media quickly sounding the alarm and mobilizing its supporters.
At Illinois Public Media’s WILL, which serves central Illinois, the cuts would mean a sharp reduction in local programming for one of the last locally owned and controlled media operations in the area.
“We have a downstate call-in show. We do agricultural reports. We have a classical music service, and they would all be in jeopardy,” said WILL Executive Director Moss Bresnahan. “We’re not quite sure what the post-CPB [Corporation for Public Broadcasting] world would be like, but it would be some pretty severe reductions.”
Those reductions would happen in a media market that’s full of news deserts, with local newspapers folding, and Illinoisans looking for coverage of life-and-death news, like storm coverage.
“We often provide the only tornado warnings or severe weather updates, and so that’s the kind of coverage that saves lives,” Bresnahan said. “And there are many counties down here who just don’t have that kind of live coverage, and so that’s a very vital service Illinois Public Media gives.”
Bresnahan is among a group of Illinois Public Media leaders who have met with members of Congress to urge them to retain federal funding. He said he is urging Rep. Darin LaHood, R-Ill., to block the cuts.
“He’s the only one [Illinois Republican member of Congress] I’ve spoken to who understands the value of public broadcasting,” Bresnahan said. “And he’s been a supporter in the past, and I hope we can count on him going forward.”
A LaHood spokesperson told the Sun-Times the congressman is “continuing to review the rescission package.”
Chicago Public Media, the nonprofit company that owns both the Chicago Sun-Times and WBEZ, displayed a banner on its sites Wednesday, declaring “Public media is under threat,” and soliciting contributions.
CPM CEO Melissa Bell emailed employees Tuesday about the Trump request, calling it a “very troubling action — and one we deeply disagree with.” She also sent an email to supporters on Wednesday, warning that the latest White House directive is “the latest in a series of escalating federal actions aimed squarely at dismantling public media.”
Federal funding makes up 6% of Chicago Public Media’s budget, which equates to about $3 million a year. At WILL, federal funding accounts for 20%.
Bell warned on WBEZ Wednesday afternoon that public broadcasting cuts could put some stations across the country “out of existence.”
“We’re going to see a pretty significant extinction of quality local reporting across the country if we lose this federal funding,” Bell said.
Sen. Tammy Duckworth, D-Ill., on Wednesday joined 29 Democratic senators in signing a letter to Senate Majority Leader John Thune to express their strong opposition to any public broadcasting cuts.
“These cuts will have an immediate and significant impact for stations in rural communities that heavily rely on CPB funding to provide critical services and could likely result in the elimination of programming or outright closure of stations in areas already faced with limited connectivity,” the senators wrote.
Public broadcasting stations have generally had bipartisan support, but Republicans are increasingly accusing them of bias. At a contentious House hearing in March with the leaders of NPR and PBS, Republicans complained about alleged disinformation at NPR and about PBS featuring transgender people in documentaries.
NPR President Katherine Maher said the network was wrong to ignore stories stemming from Hunter Biden’s laptop, but detailed the ways NPR is working to show multiple political viewpoints.
“I do not believe we are politically biased,” Maher said. “We are a nonbiased organization.”
This story was reported, written and edited by members of the Chicago Public Media editorial staff. Under CPM’s protocol, no CPM corporate official or executive leader external to the newsroom reviewed this story before it was posted publicly.
