President Donald Trump’s attempt to de-fund NPR and PBS may remove about 5% from the budgets of television and radio stations contributed by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
All things considered, it also would represent a minuscule cut in the federal budget, said Terry O’Reilly, president and CEO of Pittsburgh Community Broadcasting Corporation.
”In the short run this has no impact, aside from a distraction from the real work we do every day,” O’Reilly said “Every minute we have to spend on this stuff is a minute we’re not spending on the work that we’re pretty good at and people have supported for decades.”
But Trump the executive order signed Thursday prohibits federal agencies from making grants to PBS and NPR and directs the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) to follow suit.
The administration is also attempting to claw back already-approved public broadcasting funding. A budget proposal sent Friday to Congress also zeros-out the federal appropriation for public broadcasting.
The message O’Reilly, and his television counterpart Jason Jedlinski, president & CEO of WQED Multimedia have for those who support them: They have no plans to stop what they’re doing.
They still need public support and are calling on people to contact their legislators about the issue.
“We’re adding journalism to Pittsburgh and the region at a time journalism is at risk,” O’Reilly said.
WQED pre-dates the law that created public broadcasting television and radio were both pioneered in Pittsburgh, Jedlinski said.
“We are a Pittsburgh institution, founded 16 years before the Public Broadcasting Service. Josie Carey and Fred Rogers created ‘The Children’s Corner’ at Fifth and Bellefield Avenues, long before any public media network existed.
That is our heritage,” Jedlinski said. “That is our legacy.”
Rogers’ went on to create “Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood,” which along with “Sesame Street” are iconic television programs that have entertained, enlightened and otherwise occupied children for a half-century.
“No matter what happens in Washington, D.C., WQED is not going anywhere,” Jedlinski said.
Ruby Calvery is chair of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting board. She’s also a conservative Wyoming Republican, she said at Friday’s board meeting, which was held online with several news organizations, including TribLive, participating.
“There are many conservative friends who support public media,” Calvery said during the meeting.
Her role on the CPB board is shaped by Western, Republican values, and she is proud of the board’s bipartisan markup and independence.
“Public media is not perfect. We do not always get thing right; few people do,” Calvery said.
But the CPB is committed to excellence, and “will continue to assert its independence,” she said.
CPB President and CEO Patricia Harrison reiterated the organization’s stance that it is not beholden to Trump.
Public media plays a vital role in keeping Americans informed through fair, accurate, non-biased coverage, Harrison said.
“CPB is not a federal executive agency subject to the president’s authority. Congress directly authorized and funded CPB to be a private nonprofit corporation wholly independent of the federal government,” Harrison said.
“In creating CPB, Congress expressly forbade ‘any department, agency, officer, or employee of the United States to exercise any direction, supervision, or control over educational television or radio broadcasting, or over (CPB) or any of its grantees or contractors…,’” she said, citing the federal law.
In Pittsburgh, O’Reilly said: “It seems to run contrary to both the letter and spirit of the 1967 Public Broadcasting Act.
“It will be litigated and we’ll go from there,” he said. “Meantime, we’re just looking at this saying, ‘Guys, we’ve got 60 years of experience that people on both sides of the aisle have supported.’ We’re adding journalism to Pittsburgh and the region at a time when journalism is at risk.”
It was the latest move by Trump and his administration to use federal powers to control or hamstring institutions whose actions or viewpoints he disagrees with.
Since taking office, Trump has ousted leaders, placed staff on administrative leave and cut off hundreds of millions of dollars in funding to artists, libraries, museums, theaters and others, through takeovers of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and the National Endowment for the Humanities.
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Trump has also pushed to withhold federal research and education funds from universities and punish law firms unless they agreed to eliminate diversity programs and other measures Trump has found objectionable.
The broadcasters get roughly half a billion dollars in public money through the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, and have been preparing for the possibility of stiff cuts since Trump’s election, as Republicans have long complained about them.
The Corporation for Public Broadcasting sued Trump earlier this week over his move to fire three members of its five-person board, contending that the president was exceeding his authority and that the move would deprive the board of a quorum needed to conduct business.
Just two weeks ago, the White House said it would be asking Congress to rescind funding for the CPB as part of a $9.1 billion package of cuts. That package, however, which budget director Russell Vought said would likely be the first of several, has not yet been sent to Capitol Hill.
The move against PBS and NPR comes as Trump’s administration has been working to dismantle the U.S. Agency for Global Media, including Voice of America and Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, which were designed to model independent news gathering globally in societies that restrict the press.
Those efforts have faced pushback from federal courts, which have ruled in some cases that the Trump administration may have overstepped its authority in holding back funds appropriated to the outlets by Congress.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.