2w ago

Weakened US public broadcasters will fight for their lives in 2025

www.semafor.com Weakened US public broadcasters will fight for their lives in 2025 | Semafor

As Republicans take power in Washington, there’s greater concern among public radio figures about the future of NPR and public radio broadly.

Summary

The Republican-led push to defund public broadcasters like NPR and PBS has gained new momentum with Sen. John Kennedy's proposed "No Propaganda Act," echoing longstanding conservative critiques of media bias and fiscal waste.

The effort is bolstered by changing media consumption habits, a weakened public radio audience, and competition from digital platforms like Spotify and The New York Times.

NPR faces challenges in adapting to a digital future, while internal divisions and declining funding threaten its sustainability.

Advocates warn this campaign may succeed where past efforts have failed.

27 comments

https://www.npr.org/donations/support
https://www.pbs.org/about/about-pbs/support-pbs/
Grew up watching Carmen SanDiego, Mr. Rogers, Ghostwriter, etc on PBS and turned into an adult listening to NPR radio on my commute. Both have been huge parts of my life, and I cannot imagine I'm alone. Hitting the donate button seems like the least I (we) can do.
- Thx bruh. Been meaning to donate to my stations. Just did.

Fuck. I didn't even think about the end of public radio and TV because of everything else.
They go way to far doing the "both sides" thing, but they're one of the last U.S. news outlets that try to not be beholden to corporations. They certainly have no problem reporting negative news about their corporate sponsors. I've even heard them report negative news about public media.
- PBS gets about 15% of their funding from the feds. They’ll probably be fine.
  
  Do you think you'd make it if you lost 15% of your paycheck from now on?

Besides a one time donation y'all might also consider cancelling your Spotify and NYT and WashPo subs and putting those monthly payments to NPR/PBS/other great independant or local news sources.
- I did exactly that.

Donated my car to my local NPR station when it started dying. It was better for my peace-of-mind since I didn't have to haggle with people (and I'll get $500 when I file my 2025 taxes). I hope whatever they got for the sale of my car goes a decent ways because I listen to them all the time on my way to work.

"The only information and viewpoints that should be available to people in the US are those given by the rich and powerful."

Doesn’t NPR have a huge endowment from Ray Krok’s wife (McDonalds restaurants founder)?

I stopped listening to NPR when they couldn't bring themselves to call "enhanced interrogation" what it was. There are plenty of other examples, that's just one that seems most to the point.
- Lots of NPR affiliate stations air great shows, but their nationally syndicated programming rigorously fellates the wealthy, and staunchly defends the status quo.
- "Enhanced interrogation" is when I went over and out, too, and NPR has only gotten worse. I never listen any more, but occasionally read their news coverage online. It's adequate, by the current awful standards of mainstream journalism. No worse than my local paper, but also no better.
  Might be the best news coverage on the radio, though, and I'd oppose bludgeoning the NPR budget, same as I'll oppose everything Trump and his maniacs do.

Bad organizations get what they earn. NPR has been a voice for the owner class for too long.
- The problem is that the Republicans are going after them because they aren’t conservative enough. This isn’t a broken clock scenario, they’re just flat-out wrong. You bet your ass they aren’t going to be trying to find ways to shut down the Daily Wire or anything.
  
  Yeah keep advocating for the voice of our rulers. The Daily Wire is biased as fuck but they're not getting tax dollars.
- I'm sorry, are you taking the piss mate?
  
  I was born in the US and I've been to London and a bunch of other European places, lived there a couple of years . But I don't really share your language. What are you asking me? I don't give a fuck if people don't like what I say. We actually have free speech here, mostly. For now. Hopefully guns don't get involved in that because we have a lot of people who won't be told what to say. The 2nd supports the 1st as we say.

27 comments