Editorial of July 24, 2025

Media Squabbles

Earlier this month, almost immediately following President Donald J. Trump’s signature on the “One Big Beautiful Law,” both the Senate and the House passed the Rescissions Act of 2025, which will cancel $9 billion in previously-allocated funding toward both domestic and international programs, including public broadcasting and foreign aid. The bill now goes to President Trump for his signature.

Arguably one of the more controversial components of the Rescissions Act is the federal defunding of National Public Radio and the Public Broadcasting System. Approximately $1.1 billion in federal funding previously allocated for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, for the fiscal years 2026 and 2027, are now to be rescinded.

According to its website, CPB is the steward of the federal government’s investment in public broadcasting and the largest single source of funding for public radio, television, and related online and mobile services. It is a private, nonprofit corporation authorized by Congress in the Public Broadcasting Act of 1967.

President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Public Broadcasting Act into law in 1967 to support the “instructional, educational, and cultural purposes” of public television and radio broadcasting for the American people, especially “children and minorities,” and to give a “stronger voice to educational radio and television.” Congress then created the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which established NPR in 1970 to provide programming to the country’s noncommercial and educational radio stations. At the time, there were primarily three national television networks in the U.S.—ABC, CBS and NBC. Some local and UHF stations were available to viewers depending on location and reception. PBS was founded in 1969.

CPB’s mission is to ensure universal access to non-commercial, high-quality content and telecommunications services, distributing more than 70 percent of its funding to some 1,500 locally owned public radio and television stations. CPB does not produce programming and does not own, operate or control any public broadcasting stations, according to its website. Additionally, CPB, PBS, and NPR are independent of each other and of local public television and radio stations.
As with much of today’s U.S. politics, the country is fairly divided regarding these cuts to public broadcasting.

Many believe that NPR and PBS exhibit a liberal bias, catering to one side of the political spectrum, and therefore are not worthy of taxpayer funding. They also argue that government-funded media is unnecessary in what is now an era of “content abundance” and diverse media options versus what was available to citizens more than 50 years ago.

Those in favor of continued funding contend that public broadcasting provides essential news, education, and cultural programming, especially in underserved and rural areas where local news options are dwindling, and, in times of crisis, provides emergency alerts and natural disaster warnings. Both NPR and PBS argue that their reporting is objective and without bias.

Typically, CPB has received roughly $535 million annually in federal appropriations, which is distributed to public radio and television stations across the nation. The Rescissions Act of 2025 eliminates all federal funding for CPB.

Federal funding to NPR and PBS is a relatively small part of their annual budgets—around 1 percent and 15 percent, respectively. However, as local member stations are heavily reliant on CPB funding for their operations, the cuts are expected to have a significant impact on local rural stations, potentially leading to layoffs, reduced programming, and even closures, according to Axios.
Proposed defunding of public media is nothing new. The Cato Institute—a libertarian think tank, the mission of which is to advocate for individual liberty, limited government, free markets, and peace—has been objecting to federal funding for public media since the 1970s. And Congress has been considering this move for several decades, as conservative lawmakers and activists continue to argue that taxpayer money should not be used to fund what they perceive as left-leaning media outlets.

NPR and PBS have each filed lawsuits against the Trump administration. They argue that these defunding efforts are a violation of their First Amendment rights and the Public Broadcasting Act. But according to President Trump’s Executive Order of May 1, 2025, he is “ending taxpayer subsidization of biased media.” His stance is that the CPB’s governing statute “reflects principles of impartiality” and that the CPB may not “contribute to or otherwise support any political party” and contends they are not in compliance.

Maybe both are right.