The Case for the Lending of the U.S. Institute of Peace to the Labor Department: The “Nazi” Left Revisited
The story was written by Scott Neuman and David Folkenflik. It was edited by some people, including the deputy business editor. Under NPR’s protocol for reporting on itself, no NPR corporate official or news executive reviewed this story before it was posted publicly.
The Republican Party must remove the National Public Radio and PBS stations because of their association with the “Nazi” left, Donald Trump wrote in all caps earlier this month.
Fired USIP employees are now suing the Trump administration. U.S. Justice Department attorney Brian Hudak has said in court that plans already are underway to lease USIP headquarters to the U.S. Labor Department. The judge overseeing the case has, to date, declined to issue a temporary restraining order to stop the transfer of assets to the government, although she said the administration has adopted a “bull in a china shop” approach.
Even so, the White House has succeeded in previously unimaginable ways; representatives of Trump’s budget-slashing DOGE initiative, aided by Washington, D.C. police officers, forced their way into the U.S. Institute of Peace (USIP) so that the administration could take it over. The Institute, while funded by Congress, is an independent nonprofit like CPB.
The U.S. Public Media Networks are Doomed to Suppress Government Corporate Responsibility in the Era of the Trump-President Correspondence
The lawsuits argue that the president has far exceeded his powers and has trampled on due process, free speech, and Congressional prerogatives.
In New York, a judge has placed a temporary restraining order on presidential adviser Kari Lake’s attempt to shut down the federally owned Voice of America. In Washington, D.C., another judge ruled the government had to keep sending funds that Congress already had committed to Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty.
The networks say the agency and Congress have encouraged them repeatedly to develop a greater share of private financial support. They have worked assiduously for years with the FCC to ensure that their spots fall within FCC guidelines. In the early months of the Trump administration, news organizations supported by the U.S. government have moved into the crosshairs.
The Trump administration has drafted a memo to Congress outlining its intent to end nearly all federal funding for public media, which includes NPR and PBS, according to a White House official who spoke to NPR.
A recent Pew Research Center poll found that 43% of U.S. adults surveyed favored continued federal support for NPR and PBS, with 24% saying it should be cut. The results were clear when it came to political affiliations, with 42% of Republicans in favor of ending federal funding of the public broadcasters, compared to 69% of Democrats.
Both PBS and NPR are free to view and listen to because they focus on locally grounded content. In many states the stations are part of emergency and disaster response systems.
The chiefs of public broadcasting stated that stripping away such financial support would be devastating for small stations in rural and other areas that don’t get much corporate media. It would weaken the public media system. The funding was crucial for the Alaska Public Media network to function, according to the chief executive.
NEUMAN: Hundreds of NPR member stations across the country get a larger percentage of funding from the government than NPR, so they would be hit harder. And since those stations use some of the federal money they get from CPB to pay a fee to NPR to carry programs such as ALL THINGS CONSIDERED, the indirect impact on NPR could be greater. Since television costs more, PBS gets a larger chunk of the funding from the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.
Congress allocated $535 million for the CPB for the current fiscal year — an amount affirmed in a recent stop-gap bill passed by the Republican-controlled U.S. House and Senate. Congress has appropriated funding for the next two years, which is why the budget was approved by Congress on a two-year cycle.
The story of a performer in drag never aired on television, or Why we hate you all on your own dime. Rep. James Comer, R-Ky, and the proposed elimination of federal funding for NPR
They queried PBS CEO and President Paula Kerger about a video involving a performer in drag singing a variation on a children’s song for a young audience. The video was posted on the website of a New York City member station, but never aired on television.
Republicans criticized NPR’s chief for uploading political messages to social media long before she became the network’s CEO. The stories that were published before her arrived at NPR were the focus of their questioning.
Some Republican lawmakers, however, vented about what they saw as biased reporting. “You can hate us all on your own dime,” said Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, the chair of the subcommittee that held the hearing. House Oversight Committee Chair James Comer, R-Ky., complained about NPR’s coverage of how he structured his investments with a shell company.
We serve the interest of the public. Our mission is not just in our name. Across the country, locally owned public media stations represent a proud American tradition of public-private partnership for our shared common good,” it said.
NPR produces the award-winning news programs Morning Edition and All Things Considered, while PBS is best known for its nightly PBS News Hour and high-quality children’s programming, such as Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood.
The proposed elimination of federal funding for NPR and PBS is the first part of a process that will reach Congress later in April.
The NPR Revocation: Do We Hate You on Your Own Dime? An Address to the Georgia House Subcommittee
The Senate and House will have 45 days to approve the waivers or allow the funds to be restored if the memo is given to them by the administration.
Accuracy and availability of NPR transcripts may vary. Transcript text may be revised to correct errors or match updates to audio. After the broadcast, audio may be edited. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.
The White House has not officially notified NPR that the fiscal years of 2020 and 2021 will be included in the revocation. According to Maher, that includes public media as a whole, including public television; public radio would receive $250 million.
Maher: We don’t hate anyone in public media. We want to connect with people from all walks of life, both belief and political persuasions. And we want to be able to hear the voices of the American public reflected on public media in the same way.
To quote the words of the Georgia congresswoman who was running the subcommittee hearing where I know you were just summoned to testify last month, look, you can hate us on your own dime. What? To which you say, what.
Public Radio: How Important is It to Public Radio? Katherine Maher: The Impact on Public Radio Stations in Rural America and in the U.S
Maher: Oh, absolutely. And I think that it’s important for public media to be able to continue to be relevant in a time where there is a lot of coverage of different issues and areas of interest. And at the same time, I think it’s very easy to say that there’s universal coverage because there’s so much content being produced. It’s true that many places in the US do not have access to both cell phone and high speed broadband, so radio may be the only way to get the news you need. Public media also supports local news coverage in places we’ve already mentioned. About 20 percent of Americans live in an area without any other local news coverage other than their local public radio station. I like to use it when I need it but not every person uses it every day and that’s why it’s important. The same is true of public media.
Make the case. Tax money should not be spent on public broadcasting when there are many other news organizations around and people can do programming on their phone.
Maher: That’s correct. So we receive about one percent of our budget. Body armor for journalists, extra support for the presidential election, and all sorts of other things are things that we want to invest in to ensure that we’re able to report on issues that matter to the public. Most of our operating budget is derived from our membership fees, and that allows our members to receive programming. It comes from underwriting support. It comes from private donations, individual audience member donations. Only federal funding makes a larger percentage of the total budget for member stations.
Katherine Maher: The biggest effect would be on the NPR network, which are the 246 stations around the country that [our audience is] probably listening to us on, right now. Each year, our member stations receive about 100 million of the 121 million that goes to public radio. So the big impact would be on rural stations, stations in geographies that are quite large or complex in order to be able to receive broadcast or infrastructure, costs are very high. Some of the stations could either have to cut back or go away.