A MART脥NEZ, HOST:
The Trump administration plans to ask Congress to cut nearly all federal money for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. That's the nonprofit that in turn provides funding for NPR and PBS. Under newsroom protocol for covering our own network, no NPR News or corporate executive reviewed this story before air. Here's NPR's Scott Neuman.
SCOTT NEUMAN, BYLINE: A White House official speaking to NPR on condition of anonymity has confirmed that a memo is being drafted that calls for scrapping most federal funds to NPR and PBS. Some conservatives in Congress have accused the networks of left-wing bias and woke programming. In recent months, Republicans have stepped up their attacks. In a social media post earlier this month, President Trump himself called NPR and PBS, quote, "radical left monsters" that hurt the country. At a subcommittee hearing chaired by Georgia Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, where NPR and PBS executives testified, she accused the networks of being anti-Republican.
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MARJORIE TAYLOR GREENE: We believe that you all can hate us on your own dime.
NEUMAN: At the hearing, PBS CEO Paula Kerger said many smaller and medium-sized public television stations could not exist without federal funding.
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PAULA KERGER: When you look at a station like Cookville, Tennessee, 50% of their budget comes from the federal government. Those are stations that I've seen that have small staffs that do extraordinary work. And those are the stations that I worry would not survive. This would be an existential moment for them.
NEUMAN: The administration is planning to call for a rescission, a move that would block $1.1 billion already appropriated by Congress to fund the Corporation for Public Broadcasting through the end of fiscal year 2027. The memo gives Congress 45 days either to approve the cut or restore the funding.
NPR gets about 1% of its funding directly from the federal government, but hundreds of member stations across the country get a larger percentage, which they use in part to pay fees to air the network's programs. Television is more expensive to produce, and PBS gets a larger share of its operating expenses from the government. NPR released a statement on Tuesday saying that eliminating funds for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting would have a devastating impact on American communities across the country that rely on public radio for trusted, local and national news, culture and emergency information. The White House memo is expected to be submitted to Congress on April 28.
Scott Neuman, NPR News, Washington.
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