As long expected, President Donald Trump has signed an executive order aimed at cutting public funding that goes to PBS and NPR. Trump complains that the outlets are biased. WAMC/Northeast Public Radio is among the hundreds of public media outlets nationwide that have been preparing for such a move.
The order instructs federal agencies and the private non-profit Corporation for Public Broadcasting to stop federal funding for NPR and PBS. It also calls on the government to halt other indirect public funding streams to the outlets. The White House claimed they use federal funding to “spread radical, woke propaganda disguised as ‘news.’”
The administration is already being sued by the CPB over the president’s decision to fire three of its board members. NPR and PBS receive about $500 million a year through the CPB.
WAMC President and CEO Sarah Gilbert says her message for listeners is simple.
"We’re committed to delivering the same gold standard of coverage on which our communities have depended for decades," Gilbert said in an interview. "This is not a moment to row back on local, regional, national and international news and insight — this, in many ways, is a moment which public media was created to meet. We’re not going anywhere and service will continue, uninterrupted."
During March House hearings, NPR’s president testified that the news outlet, whose editorial operations are independent of member stations, is a “non-biased organization.” The president of PBS testified at the same hearings that public media provides important public service, especially educational programming.
The CPB was created by Congress in 1967. It distributes funding to more than 1,500 local TV and radio stations.
As it notes on its website, it “does not produce programming and does not own, operate or control any public broadcasting stations. Additionally, CPB, PBS, and NPR are independent of each other and of local public television and radio stations.”
WAMC receives about 5% of its annual revenue — roughly $500,000 — from the CPB. Gilbert said there are no plans for layoffs at the Albany-based radio network that includes dozens of stations in New York, Massachusetts, Connecticut, New Jersey and Pennsylvania.
"No single source of funding is stronger than the collective support of our listeners, members, and sponsors," Gilbert said. "That broad base of support allows us to stay focused on what matters most — delivering the programming our audience counts on."
