This July, the House cut $9 billion dollars in funding to various government programs, including $1.1 billion dollars that would have gone to the Corporation of Public Broadcasting (CPB)—the organization responsible for helping fund public radio and television stations in the U.S., including NPR and PBS. Due to these funding losses, the entire Corporation for Public Broadcasting announced it would shut down next year as a result of the funding crisis.
As a result of this decision, some stations face losing over 50 percent of their funding, and although this percentage is less for many stations, the stations that are being hit the most are those that lack other forms of robust funding.
These funding cuts have not just impacted public news stations across the country, but also organizations local to our areas. In September, the Penn State Board of Trustees announced that, after 60 years, the university’s PBS station, WPSU, would be terminated. Additionally, in New Jersey, Governor, Philip D. Murphy, approved legislation that reduced New Jersey PBS funding from $1 million to $250,000 this summer. New Jersey’s public television network is now facing the possibility of a shut down next year after “its nonprofit operator and the state’s Public Broadcasting Authority failed to reach a contract agreement.” New Jersey PBS cited the funding cuts to public broadcasting at the state and federal levels as “significant” factors in the possible closure. This announcement comes after many independent news stations in New Jersey have announced their closure. New Jersey’s top newspaper, The Star-Ledger, stopped printing in February and shifted to be online only as did three key New Jersey newspapers. Additionally, The New Jersey Journal shut down entirely the same month, and other other news sources, such as The New York Times, are reducing their coverage in the state.
Public news stations serve not just as a source of news but as a form of connection. These organizations are especially vital in rural communities where they serve as an outlet to spread awareness about natural disasters or other breaking news. Public broadcasting in rural communities are being hit the hardest with many stations resorting to reducing employment and “switching to automated programming” to stay afloat with their meager new budgets.
Trump’s rationale behind this decision is that today’s “media landscape is filled with abundant, diverse, and innovative news options” and that “the CPB fails to abide by [impartiality] principles to the extent it subsidizes NPR and PBS.” Contrarily, many worry that a decrease in local news outlets could polarize the country even more. A previous public editor for The Times agreed with these effects, when people become less engaged in their communities, “they tend to flee into their tribal corners even more than we have seen,” and people “focus “more on national news, less on local news, and it tends to polarize.” In summary, by reducing what local public news stations people have access to, people are exposed to a less diverse range of view points and opinions, becoming more entrenched in their own world view. Reducing access to these local news outlets, contrary to the President’s belief, will only further polarization, and restrict people’s access to vital information.
As the majority of the American public wants public broadcasting to be funded, many in Washington are hoping that both parties are able to come together to protect local station, especially rural ones, that rely on government funding. But with the current partisan divide in Congress, and the on-going government shutdown it is unlikely that this funding will return any time soon. Many are deciding to take matters into their own hands and raising money for their local public news stations. In September, “seven philanthropic organizations pledged $37 million to fuel local public media” Similarly GHB, PBS’s largest producer of programming created “Fund the Future” — a 3 year long fundraising campaign with the goal of raising $225 million dollars to maintain funding for the company. Even the American public is doing their part to keep their local stations alive with public broadcasting stations receiving tens of millions of dollars in increased donations in the past few months. It is vital that we, as a country, band together to make up for the lost dollars, and help maintain a cornerstone of our government— free speech and access to this free speech and information for everyone across the country.