Comment by democracy_diy
18 hours ago
Here's a summary of the changes and the impact: https://democracy.diy/issues/save-pbs-and-npr/
The PBS budget has been cut by 15%, and the NPR budget by 1%. That's not enough to end either one at the national level. However, local stations depend on the CPB funding for 50% or more of their budgets. (Local stations provide local disaster alert systems and local programming.) There will definitely be local station closures and major cutbacks in the stations that survive. Large metropolitan areas will be the least affected. PBS and NPR will continue at the national level, as before.
The funding cuts are the result of an executive order that Trump issued on May 1, ordering the immediate cessation of all federal funding. Similar executive orders have been found to be illegal in federal court. (Congress had already guaranteed funding for CPB from 2025-2027, and only congress can take that money away.)
However, congress supported Trump a short while later (on July 24) by passing the Rescissions Act, which officially (and legally) ended all funding for CPB. And that's the reason for the current crisis: all federal funding for CPB is ending by the end of this year, which is only a few months away.
> PBS and NPR will continue at the national level, as before.
It is not a given that they will continue as they did before, CPB's funding mostly goes to PBS and NPR for content, some programs are funded more than other via the CPB.
It is likely PBS and NPR will continue, but not as before, the cuts will impact programming and their ability to buy content that's produced at smaller stations that rely on CPB funds more.
> Local stations provide local disaster alert systems
These days sending alerts via texting them to phones should be far more effective.
Not reliable, as cell sites can go down in disasters, while the giant secured antennae that broadcast PBS and NPR aren't going anywhere.
I have NEVER tuned into PBS for weather and disaster alerts. Growing up in rural America I've seen this headline multiple times, but I'm 99% sure in my community PBS doesn't actually do any weather coverage during tornadoes or similar. You MIGHT get a required alert tone and a banner, but no radar or anything of real value.
Our local news stations do an amazing job and they don't ask me to donate.
2 replies →
Wasn't service supplied during the Helene hurricane with Starlink?
When I was a kid in Kansas in the 1960s, the tornado warnings were done with a siren. And yes, we got hit by a tornado, but were safe because we heeded the siren.