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Here are the latest details about the Trump Administration’s plans to defund public media


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ATHENS, OH – You may have heard the news that the White House plans to ask Congress to rescind funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB), a move that would undercut NPR and PBS stations across the country. As NPR’s David Folkenflik reported, the Trump administration has drafted a memo to Congress outlining the plans. According to a White House official who spoke to NPR on the condition of anonymity, the proposal, if passed, would clawback $1.1 billion from the CPB — or two years of funding. (Overall, the CPB’s annual funding is less than 0.01% of the federal budget.)

  • What does CPB funding mean for WOUB?

Funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting makes up more than 24% of WOUB’s overall budget. In our current fiscal year, those funds are used to cover television and radio programming fees from a number of sources, technical support for our local television newscast, NewsWatch, and a number of salary lines. The potential loss of federal support would dramatically change the services that viewers and listeners have come to expect from WOUB.

  • What’s Next?

The White House plans to send the request to Congress. That will open a 45-day window in which Congress can vote to rescind the funds or allow the money to be restored. The proposal needs approval from a simple majority in both the House and Senate, in which Republicans hold 53-47 and 220-213 majorities, respectively. While the CPB has enjoyed some bipartisan support in the past, NPR’s Scott Neuman reports more Republicans now seem to be standing behind Trump and public media critics.

  • What does the public think?

A Pew Research poll last month found that 20% of Americans say they regularly get their news from NPR, and 21% say the same of PBS. The poll also found that a plurality of Americans support federal funding for public media.

  • Where is there more information?

Read Folkenflik’s full story here for more on how public broadcasting funding works and the motivations behind Trump’s proposed cuts.