Lisa Desjardins:
Right.
The public broadcasting portion is $1.1 billion. It’s the smaller portion, but it is the only portion where funding is completely eliminated. All of the funding for public broadcasting for the next two years is eliminated here, very significant.
Now, NPR has — their CEO has put out a statement saying this is a risk to public safety because of potential cuts to emergency broadcasts, for example. And also, PBS’ CEO, Paula Kerger, put out a statement today as well. She wrote: “These cuts will significantly impact all of our stations, but will be especially devastating to smaller stations and those serving large rural areas.”
We put together a map using Corporation of Public Broadcasting data of the rural stations most at risk. These are stations around the country where they depend on 40 percent or more of their funding from the federal government. These are the ones most at risk. You see a large number of them in Alaska, but they are all over the country, notably not on the Eastern Seaboard, really not in major cities.
These are the rural areas that are in trouble or could have trouble. What will happen with these stations? Well, it is going to be a monthslong progress. I know a lot of our viewers are watching on those stations right now. And each station will have to sort out how they move forward, what their needs are. Do they depend more on their viewers? Do they work together with other stations? Can they survive this?
It is a critical historical moment for stations that have been around for generations. Now, there is one other piece of reporting I want to raise. There was a side deal that I have reporting on made by Don Bacon of Nebraska who voted yes, ultimately — there he is — for this deal that had to do with PBS funding.
Now, here is what he told me earlier this month about the side deal. He wrote, he said — quote — “I got a commitment to make sure PBS is funded this year from Speaker Johnson and I trust the speaker.”
That commitment supposedly is to take place in September. But there are real questions about how that works. He again told me today they do trust the speaker. We will have to see.
