PBS and NPR funding cuts are hitting home as government shutdown looms

By Brian Stelter, CNN

(CNN) — Cuts to NPR, PBS and other public media outlets have been in the news all year long, but now the federal funds have actually run out.

With Tuesday marking the end of the federal government’s fiscal year, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting is saying farewell to staffers and winding down its operations, implementing the rescission that President Trump promoted and congressional Republicans passed over the summer.

Republicans clawed back $1.1 billion in funds that had been budgeted for public media, leaving local broadcasters in the lurch.

And just as a shutdown sounds like a distant political argument until it affects people personally, the defunding of public media feels more tangible now that stations are cutting back on programming.

Local PBS and NPR affiliates have also been laying off staffers, limiting travel and lopping off parts of their operations to cope with budget shortfalls.

The impacts differ from market to market, partly because the budget picture varies quite a bit based on location.

Congressionally allocated funding “has been a cornerstone of the public media landscape for nearly 60 years, and the speed of its elimination puts stations at immediate risk,” New York Public Radio executive chair LaFontaine Oliver said last week.

In Seattle, Washington, KCTS is abandoning its ambitions in long-form journalism. In Charlotte, North Carolina, WFAE is closing its “community engagement hub” building. In State College, Pennsylvania, WPSU may shut down its radio station altogether.

Advocates have warned that the system will be harmed over time, in unpredictable ways, as a result of the loss of federal funding.

Corporation for Public Broadcasting CEO Patricia Harrison says many stations, particularly in rural areas, will ultimately go under without the federal support.

Local shows being canceled

Trump and his allies argued in favor of the rescission by railing against the perceived political bias of national NPR and PBS programs.

But those programs aren’t going away. However, some local public affairs shows and newsmagazines are: “South Dakota Focus” (on PBS affiliates across South Dakota), “Almanac North” (on WSDE in Duluth, Minnesota) and “Headline Humboldt” (on KEET in Eureka, California) have all been cancelled in recent weeks.

It is perhaps ironic that broadcasters will fill some of the local holes with additional hours of national programming.

James Faulk, the “Humboldt” host, said as he announced his cancellation, “I’m hoping that this community will rally around this station, keep it alive and thriving, and make its survival a way to strike back at the forces of tyranny and ignorance that would so cavalierly see it doomed.”

Corporation officials acknowledged at a Monday board meeting that stations have seen an influx of financial support from viewers, foundations and other sources.

But stations in more remote areas, far from major media markets, haven’t been able to make up the budgetary gaps.

“It’s not going to happen,” board member Diane Kaplan said. “The only solution for these stations is going to be government money. That’s what they were built with. That was always the intent, because they are not in a place where the market forces can support them.”

“Those who voted against the wishes of the majority of the American people have taken away something of great value,” Harrison said at the meeting, arguing that “this realization is just beginning to sink in” among the public at large.

The corporation recently decided to distribute its final $7.1 million by allocating a portion to each TV and radio station in the system.

Bigger stations stepping in

Larger stations with bigger endowments have been volunteering to help smaller broadcasters. New York Public Radio is offering its programs, such as “Radiolab” and “Science Friday,” to cash-strapped stations for free for the next twelve months, waiving the usual distribution fees.

“We want to help our fellow public radio stations devote as much of their budgets as possible to the excellent local reporting and original programming that keep communities healthy and bring them together,” Oliver said in a statement.

NPR at the national level has also offered what’s known as “fee relief” to hard-hit stations. But the loss of federal support has also exposed some longstanding tensions between local stations and the national organizations.

One of the corporation’s final acts was awarding up to $57.9 million to a new nonprofit that will handle connections between stations, thereby cutting NPR out of a loop it has controlled for decades.

NPR went to court to block this change, but a federal judge declined to issue a restraining order on Tuesday.

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