Defunding or Defending the Corporation for Public Broadcasting
We used to be a lot more supportive of the news media than we are today.
Jul 17, 2025
“The basis of our governments being the opinion of the people, the very first object should be to keep that right; and were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers, or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter.” Thomas Jefferson, 1787[1]
I woke up this morning to the disappointing but not surprising news that the US Senate had voted to end the federal government’s subsidy of PBS and NPR. There is little doubt that the House will shortly pass the bill, and it will be signed into law by President Trump. The law will eliminate $1.1 billion for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting over the next two years. Even more devastating, although not the focus of this article, they cut 8 billion dollars in foreign aid. While President Bush’s program for AIDS treatment and prevention was spared, the devastating cuts made by DOGE will now be codified into law.[2] A scholar at Boston University has calculated that those cuts will lead to 350,000 additional deaths this year, which is 88 more people dying each hour, or 1.4 deaths every minute.[3]
Even more curious is that the supporters of these cuts hearken back to a supposed golden age before the 1960s and the Great Society. Congress established the Corporation for Public Broadcasting in 1967. Today, NPR and PBS broadcast to 99 percent of the American people.[4] Conservatives bewail what they interpret as the liberal slant of NPR and see its funding as a waste of public resources. The case is more complicated. Uri Berliner has a compelling article in the Free Press where he argues that NPR effectively lost the trust of the American people.
Back in 2011, although NPR’s audience tilted a bit to the left, it still bore a resemblance to America at large. Twenty-six percent of listeners described themselves as conservative, 23 percent as middle of the road, and 37 percent as liberal.
By 2023, the picture was completely different: only 11 percent described themselves as very or somewhat conservative, 21 percent as middle of the road, and 67 percent of listeners said they were very or somewhat liberal. We weren’t just losing conservatives; we were also losing moderates and traditional liberals.[5]
But changes in listenership or audience perception do not necessarily mean that the coverage has changed. After Donald Trump was inaugurated president in 2017, NPR, especially Morning Edition, frequently invited Trump administration officials to explain their policies and the reasoning behind them. The hosts would vigorously question those officials and push back against the factual nature of the claims, and include different perspectives. That does not represent a liberal bias; it is simply good journalism, just so long as all perspectives are tested similarly. As more individuals on the right watched FOX News or America One News, they were imbibing not so much accurate news with a conservative bias but propaganda that would cherry-pick evidence to support their ideas. Often, inconvenient facts were ignored, and when necessary, conservatives developed “alternative facts” or invented arguments. When we are locked in ideological bubbles where outsiders are considered biased or just wrong, it is impossible to engage in civil debates that can reach common ground. Instead, we need to transcend the limitations of our own experiences and views and include the lessons and ideas we learn from others.
Even more confusing is that the very people pushing the defunding of public media are also trying to return to the ideas of the Founding Fathers, yet they are doing the exact opposite. As James Madison wrote in 1822, “A popular Government, without popular information, or the means of acquiring it, is but a Prologue to a Farce or a tragedy; or perhaps both.”[6] When the post office was established in 1792, it charged only 1 cent to mail a newspaper less than 100 miles and 1.5 cents to for longer distances. By contrast, the post office charged between 6 and 25 cents to send letters.
In the 1840s, newspapers were widespread, with most small towns having a newspaper. The United States had the most newspapers of any country in the world. In addition, the white male population had the highest literacy rate in the world at 91 percent. Since colonial times, there has been a significant emphasis on education. The original goal was to ensure people could read the Bible for themselves. Soon, people sought education to participate in wider political debates and access the knowledge in newspapers.[7]
According to a study by Robert McChesney, “if the U.S. government subsidized journalism today at the same level of GDP that it did in the 1840s, the government would have to spend in the neighborhood of $30-$35 billion annually.” Today, government support for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting is only $555 million, which means that before the Civil War, the government provided over 600 times the support for the news media, adjusted for inflation as it does today.[8]
As citizens and residents, we must decide what will remain in the private sphere and what will become a pubic responsibility. Defending the country, building the roads, and educating the children are all examples of public goods provided by various levels of government. We can safely leave cell phones, soft drinks, and auto manufacturing to the private sector. But what about the news? Private companies have provided news for Americans since the colonial era.
Before the Civil War, the government provided subsidized newspapers through discounts for shipping newspapers and magazines. If the private sector can make a profit, then shouldn’t that be good enough? The problem is that newspapers, radio, and television are all run by corporations, often in the best interests of their investors and managers, not the general public. As Rutherford B. Hayes famously warned,
“This is a government of the people, by the people, and for the people no longer. It is a government of corporations, by corporations, and for corporations.”[9]
[1] Thomas Jefferson, “Founders Online: From Thomas Jefferson to Edward Carrington, 16 January 1787,” National Archives and Records Administration, accessed July 17, 2025, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Jefferson/01-11-02-0047.
[2]Catie Edmundson, “Senate Approves Trump’s Bid to Cancel Foreign Aid and Funds for NPR and PBS Stations — The New York Times,” New York Times, July 17, 2025, https://www.nytimes.com/2025/07/17/us/politics/senate-vote-trump-bill-pbs-npr-foreign-aid.html.
[3] “Tracking Anticipated Deaths from USAID Funding Cuts,” Tracking Anticipated Deaths from USAID Funding Cuts | SPH, March 21, 2025, https://www.bu.edu/sph/news/articles/2025/tracking-anticipated-deaths-from-usaid-funding-cuts/.
[4]“About Public Media,” CPB, July 11, 2025, https://cpb.org/aboutpb/what-public-media.
[5] Uri Berliner, “I’ve Been at NPR for 25 Years. Here’s How We Lost America’s Trust.” The Free Press, April 9, 2024, https://www.thefp.com/p/npr-editor-how-npr-lost-americas-trust.
[6] Letter from James Madison to W. T. Barry, August 4, 1822, in Gaillard Hunt, ed.. The Writings of James Madison, Volume IX (New York, NY: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1910), 103
[7] “Postage Rates for Periodicals: A Narrative History,” Postage Rates for Periodicals: A Narrative History — Who we are — About.usps.com, accessed July 17, 2025, https://about.usps.com/who/profile/history/periodicals-postage-history.htm.
[8] “CPB Operating Budget,” CPB, December 3, 2024, https://cpb.org/aboutcpb/”financials/budget.
[9] 1. Rutherford Hayes, “A Quote from Diary and Letters of Rutherford Birchard Hayes,” Goodreads, accessed July 17, 2025, https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/720212-the-real-difficulty-is-with-the-vast-wealth-and-power.
