Republican president Richard Nixon declared war against U.S. Public Broadcasting in 1971 — exactly four years after the PBS service was created by Democratic president Lyndon Johnson. It happened again in 1981 when Republican president Ronald Regan cut PBS’s government funding. It also happened in 2005 when Republican president George W. Bush also cut PBS funding. And it is happening now with newly elected Republican president Donald Trump — only this time, it’s not just a matter of cutting PBS funds, but seeking to get rid of them completely.
In Europe, something similar is happening with the E.U.’s Media Freedom Act, which — aiming to better protect news organizations and journalists — states that as of August 8, 2025, all public service radio and TV stations have to be independent from state or government control.
In the U.S., public broadcasting comprises the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB), Public Television, and National Public Radio (NPR).
Public Television is comprised of 350 local TV stations nationwide grouped under Public Broadcast Service (PBS), which was established in 1969, while NPR comprises 1,000 local radio stations. Created in 1970, NPR functions as a national syndicator and it is funded by radio stations’ membership fees. CPB is a publicly funded non-profit corporation created in 1967 to financially support public broadcasting. Private, tax-deductible donations also finance individual local stations. The federal government provides CPB’s $535 million a year budget, of which 95 percent goes to local stations.
Trump’s designated cabinet wants to defund CPB on the base of its liberal bias (its perceived slant towards Woke culture, sexual minorities rights, and reproductive freedom), which has been a recurring leitmotif among various Republican administrations.
Designated for the hatchet job is the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), co-headed by Elon Musk.
However, some conservative Republicans are having second thoughts, as indicated by Howard Husock, a conservative former CPB board member who noted in a Wall Street Journal opinion piece that defunding CPB will put public broadcasting out of Congressional (now controlled by Republicans) supervision. “It is possible that defunding NPR and PBS could make matters worse,” wrote Husock, since liberal financial groups, institutions, and individuals could easily compensate for the lack of government funding, and actually increase public broadcasting’s income.
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