By Emmie Meeks
Opinion Editor
Local National Public Radio and Public Broadcasting Service stations are beginning to feel the effects of President Donald Trump’s executive order effectively ending all federal funding for public media outlets.
In the executive order, Trump brashly cited biased partisan views and the expansive media landscape as reasoning for instructing the Corporation for Public Broadcasting to cease its subsidization of NPR and PBS.
According to “Ending Taxpayer Subsidization of Biased Media,” signed on May 1, 2025, “Unlike in 1967, when the CPB was established, today the media landscape is filled with abundant, diverse, and innovative news options. Government funding of news media in this environment is not only outdated and unnecessary but corrosive to the appearance of journalistic independence.”
While Trump’s concern for the neutrality of public media is valid, targeting two of the most non-partisan media outlets is not only counterproductive, it is harmful to small communities that rely on the free services of their local NPR and PBS outlets to stay informed about their local news, government, weather, and national news. This leaves one to wonder how this kind of reporting could be “corrosive to the appearance of journalistic independence.”
The decision to cut funding, which was approved by Congress this summer, passed $1.1 billion in funds allocated to public broadcasting, thus putting a large damper on roughly 330 PBS stations and 246 NPR stations still struggling to formulate a plan for what comes next and how to best support their communities, according to CBS.
However, in the wake of uncertainty, some communities have rallied around their NPR and PBS stations, contributing hundreds of thousands of dollars in donations. However, not every area has the wealth to keep their local stations afloat, and those are the populations that need access to free public broadcasting the most.
Ironically, or perhaps in a move of political brilliance, Trump is limiting access to media in the areas that voted for him, as rural communities have long voted red, and much of the MAGA base resides in rural areas.
According to CBS, “Long suspicious of a liberal bent to public media news coverage, Republicans in Congress responded to Mr. Trump’s wishes in July and eliminated funding for the systems. The Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which distributes the funding, has taken steps to shut down.”
Unsurprisingly, Trump is continuing to strip resources from anyone who dares disagree with him or even present an alternate opinion. If he really wanted to crack down on “tax dollars fund public broadcasting at all, they fund only fair, accurate, unbiased, and nonpartisan news coverage,” as he said in the executive order, he would consider outlets that blatantly support partisan divides.
“Which viewpoints NPR and PBS promote does not matter. What does matter is that neither entity presents a fair, accurate, or unbiased portrayal of current events to taxpaying citizens,” Trump wrote in the executive order.
That is the purpose of NPR and PBS: to provide free, accurate, unbiased reporting.
Small NPR and PBS affiliate stations, especially those serving rural or Native audiences, greatly worry about being forced to come off the air completely after aid from the federal government does not arrive at the beginning of the fiscal year in October, according to NPR.
However, in Trump’s America, nothing seems to be fair, nothing seems to be for the good of the American people, but rather only for the good of Trump.
“Even today, I suspect that, left to their own devices, many Republicans would still vote for funding,” former NPR Chief Executive Ken Stern said to NPR. “It’s just that now every vote is a political loyalty test, unfortunately.”
As access to free and reliable public media declines, it is of the utmost importance to support local journalism and broadcasting. Every American deserves to have the ability to obtain reliable news free from paywalls and location barriers.
Photo Caption: NPR and PBS stations face fears of closing following budget elimination.
Photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons