Posted on 08/02/2025 2:24:09 AM PDT by John Semmens
Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) President and CEO Patricia Harrison informed its 100 employees of the termination of their employment following Congress' termination of federal subsidies, saying "most of you will be off the payroll by the start of the new fiscal year (October 1, 2025) the rest will stay until the end of the calendar year to oversee an orderly shut down of operations." The termination of subsidies followed testimony to Congress from Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) CEO Paula Kerger and National Public Radio (NPR) President and CEO Katherine Maher.
Kerger attempted to refute allegations of political bias by pointing out that "virtually 100% of respectable media outlets expressed viewpoints that were indistinguishable from those aired by PBS. It is not PBS that has been out-of-step with the broad consensus of America. It's the Republicans who have been complaining that are."
"Public broadcasting has been overtaken by partisan activists," Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex) asserted. "Taxpayers shouldn't be compelled to fund ideas with which they may disagree. The consensus cited is a left-wing consensus among virtually every legacy media outlet, not the American people. Folks who want to watch left-wing propaganda have MSNBC, CNN, CBS, ABC and others to provide it without tax subsidies" Cruz said.
Maher warned that "defunding NPR poses a real risk to the public safety of the country. Rural areas would feel the largest impacts. Local stations provide vital alerts in emergencies like storms, floods, wildfires, and assaults on our democracy by right-wing fascists like Donald Trump."
Since the cancellation of public subsidies was enacted by Congress private donations to both PBS and NPR have surged, prompting Cruz to claim that "revenues from their audience is the appropriate way to support these stations. There is no need for the government to subsidize them."
Maher acknowledged that "it is not a question of need, but of efficiency. While we could survive without government funding, the efforts that would have to be directed toward encouraging donations or obtaining revenue via ads will subtract from the time we could be devoting to honing the message we transmit to those who rely on NPR's perspective on the news."
ping
Not all taxpayers would agree with throwing money at NPR/PBS...
My first SWAG is that it is unconstitutional for congress to do so or feel compelled to continue.
“While we could survive without government funding”
I found the satire part.
Do I get a prize?
But seriously this has been a long time coming...
It shows what can be done when a leader steps up.
So many things we were told just couldn’t be done ... done.
Tired of winning? ...nope
Just what I voted for.
I can’t wait to see what comes next.
The road is still uphill and rocky but the wagon is strong
Right. Like rural types listen to NPR.
Vital alerts can be found on the internet, Twitter, AM radio, etc.
“…will subtract from the time we could be devoting to honing the message we transmit to those who rely on NPR’s perspective on the news.”
Generally known as customers. So what’s the problem?
Should have been done decades ago.
People who listen to NPR love to mention it. I never missed it when someone would say that they heard a story on NPR or that they were listening to NPR, or asked if I heard that bit on NPR. To me, that was all I needed to hear from someone to make me immediately discount their opinion.
Only leftists who hate America listen to NPR.
“Right. Like rural types listen to NPR.”
Funny.
‘Maher warned that “defunding NPR poses a real risk to the public safety of the country. Rural areas would feel the largest impacts.”
That statement is just plain stupid. It might have applied 50 years ago when living in the boondocks was genuinely cut off from much of society. But that simply is not the case today with all this digital stuff like streamed TV, cell phones, internet and the fact that local TV and radio stations have farther reach. And then there is the print media still hanging on.
We live in the middle of nowhere and are doing fine without PBS & NPR.
Fine with me, let the leftists pay to hear the misleading presentation of the events of the world. I don’t want to pay for that. At least they don’t have the imprimatur of the u.s. government anymore. Bunch o’snotty little negative simpletons.
That statement underscores the official self important, self deluded leftists. You are totally correct. But they use that statement to motivate people to fund them. People who live in the media past.
Too many single, childless liberals die with no one to pass on their estates. Let them put their money where their mouth is. Let them fund their own crap.
Just goes to prove that the drival espoused by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and its affiliates could not withstand normal business pressures without US taxpayer free money.
What will I do without my marxist propaganda?
I checked all the stations I could get & PBS/NPR was on there so I tuned to it as I had never watched it. I still don’t. So I guess that would mean I wouldn’t send them any money either. Being retired on only S.S. means there’s not a great lot of that to go around anyway.
I’ve no problem with those who listen to it providing funding. It was my money funding those smarmy little ill-educated turds that ticked me off.
That’s great and how it should have been all along, funded by private donations
Actually, it is local AM radio stations that serve local communities with emergency alerts, not the snarky pedants of “public radio.”
They had a specific ‘formula’ in their style; let’s state wildly inaccurate propaganda but say it in a calm, slow, tone that resonates as though a very reasonable adult was informing people of important information.
I could scan the radio channels anywhere across the country and, within seconds, know ‘this channel is NPR’ - just by the way people were speaking.
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