#publicbroadcasting — Public Fediverse posts
Live and recent posts from across the Fediverse tagged #publicbroadcasting, aggregated by home.social.
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‘We will not give up’: protesters pack Vilnius square in defence of the public broadcaster.
Around 30000 people gathered in Cathedral Square in Vilnius on Saturday in defence of free speech.
Demonstrators turned their anger on both the ruling Social Democrats and President Nausėda over proposed changes to the law governing Lithuania’s public broadcaster LRT.
#Vilnius #Protest #FreeSpeech #Media #Broadcasting #Journalism #Politics #Lithuania #LRT #PublicBroadcasting
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CW: NZPol BSA
"If the BSA disappeared tomorrow, Aotearoa would lose more than a complaints office. We’d lose one of the few free and accessible ways for ordinary people to challenge harmful or unfair media content, and one of the few institutions charged with balancing freedom of expression with the rights and dignity of others."
#NZPol #BSA #PublicBroadcasting #Regulation #Colonialism
https://e-tangata.co.nz/comment-and-analysis/who-benefits-if-the-bsa-is-scrapped/
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The Station Across Town: A Lincoln Boyhood, the Federation I Did Not Watch, and the Second Half of a Television Diptych
When I was sixteen, I had a television show called Kidding Around on KOLN/KGIN-TV in Lincoln, Nebraska. It was 1981. I was a teenager hosting a teenager-aimed program on a commercial CBS affiliate, three blocks of which I have no doubt were paid for by advertising for Pepsi and Levi’s and the Lincoln car dealerships that kept American local television alive in the early Reagan years. The format was loose. The show featured kid interviews, viewer letters read on air, and unscripted segments of the kind that the FCC’s mandates for “ascertainment of community needs” were supposed to encourage and that the FCC’s 1981 decision to deregulate radio, followed by the parallel television deregulation of 1984, was designed to kill. Kidding Around did not survive into the late 1980s. It was a casualty of a specific federal policy decision documented in the book I published earlier this year, Selling Saturday Morning.
Selling Saturday Morning came out of the position of a sixteen-year-old who had a television show and then did not have one. That book is the institutional history of the commercial side of American television in the years when its regulatory floor was removed.
Today I am publishing the companion book.
Underwritten: The American Experiment in Public Broadcasting, 1967 to 2026 is the institutional history of the other American television. The non-commercial federation. The system that operated under a different statute, a different funding mechanism, a different mission, and a different relationship to its audience than the commercial system I worked inside as a teenager. Underwritten is the third volume in the Institutional Autopsy sequence after Carceral Nation and The Claimed Body. It is also, taken alongside Selling Saturday Morning, the second half of a diptych on the institutional history of American television in my lifetime.
I want to tell you something about Lincoln.
The Station Across Town
In 1981, while I was hosting Kidding Around at KOLN-TV in Lincoln, Nebraska, the University of Nebraska’s public broadcasting network, Nebraska Educational Television (NETV), was operating less than two miles from the commercial studio where I worked. NETV had been on the air since November 1, 1954, founded by Jack McBride. Under Ron Hull’s longtime production leadership, NETV produced programs that ran nationally on PBS across decades: the poetry anthology series Anyone for Tennyson?, directed by Marshall Jamison and aired in 1976, along with contributions to Great Performances and later to American Experience after that series premiered in 1988. The Nebraska press wrote about NETV regularly. State university officials cited it in legislative testimony. Few state-network production operations in the country were as ambitious.
I did not watch it. At sixteen, with my own commercial show in production, the public station’s programming felt to me, in 1981, like programming for adults who had patience I did not yet have.
I did not understand, at sixteen, what the public station across town actually was. The station was federated to a thousand other stations across the country through the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and the Public Broadcasting Service. That poetry anthology I would have rolled my eyes at if I had bothered to watch it was being shipped from Lincoln to a national distribution network and aired in Boston and Los Angeles and San Antonio. An entire architecture, from my Saturday morning show on the commercial channel to the Anyone for Tennyson? segments at NETV, was built by federal statute. And the architecture was about to be taken apart.
I have been writing my way back to that understanding for forty-five years. Selling Saturday Morning worked one half of the architecture. Underwritten works the other half. Both books are, in different registers, about how American television was a federally structured artifact of the period from the 1934 Communications Act through the deregulation cycles of the 1980s and the federal-funding rescissions of 2025. On the commercial side, the system was deregulated and reshaped around advertising sales to children. On the public side, the system was federated and protected and starved across five political campaigns before the sixth ended it on January 30 of this year, when the Corporation for Public Broadcasting filed its Articles of Dissolution with the District of Columbia.
What Underwritten Documents
The book runs fifteen chapters. It opens with the four-second PBS logo sequence and the sensory event that anchors institutional memory of public broadcasting for everyone who watched it. It traces the November 7, 1967 signing of the Public Broadcasting Act in the East Room of the Johnson White House and the political coalition Lyndon Johnson built to pass it. Middle chapters examine the federation’s architecture across the coastal flagships at WGBH and WNET, the regional and state networks (Nebraska ETV included as a dedicated case-study chapter titled “The Heartland Node”), the independent producers at Florentine Films and ITVS and Sesame Workshop, the canonical programs that defined American cultural memory, and the five political campaigns from Nixon through the second Trump term that tested the federation’s resilience. Later chapters work through the dissolution itself: the Rescissions Act of 2025, the dissolution vote, the post-dissolution landscape of archive preservation at WGBH and the Library of Congress, the rural and tribal communities whose emergency broadcasting went dark with the federation’s coordination, and what survives.
Underwritten is dedicated to my wife, Janna Sweenie, a Deaf ASL performer and educator and my collaborator across the publishing constellation. This book is one of many she has watched come together at our kitchen table in New York.
Where to Read It
Underwritten is available now in Kindle ebook on Amazon, in paperback on Amazon, and as a free PDF download from BolesBooks.com. Kindle edition pricing is $9.99 with the paperback at $19.99 (509 pages, 1.273-inch spine, cream paper). A free web-download PDF carries the same content with full color typography matching the cover.
Underwritten joins Carceral Nation and The Claimed Body in the Institutional Autopsy sequence, and it sits beside Selling Saturday Morning as the second half of the television diptych.
Coda
The federation that produced the four seconds I did not watch when I was sixteen is gone. Across town from KOLN sat a station I could have walked to in twenty minutes, the station that had originated Anyone for Tennyson? for national distribution five years before I arrived at the commercial channel and was still producing for PBS while I was hosting Kidding Around. It is now operating under post-dissolution funding arrangements that may or may not sustain it for another decade. The federation that made the broadcasting possible is not coming back.
The station across town is where the book always lived. I just did not know it.
#anyoneForTennyson #broadcast #davidBoles #geneBunge #kiddingArouind #kuon #lincoln #marshallJamison #nebraska #nebraskaEtv #netv #network #pbs #politics #publicBroadcasting #ronHull #tech #television #theTrialOfStandingBear #williamJenningsBryan -
"When government funding disappeared from public media last year, experts predicted dire consequences for scores of stations. According to one estimate, 78 public radio stations and 37 TV stations were at risk of going dark as a result of the cuts. President Trump recently said NPR and PBS had “closed up.”
But six months after the funding cuts, few public TV or radio stations have closed their doors. Many have scraped together a patchwork of funding from concerned donors, philanthropies or government grants. Others, facing insurmountable budget issues, have resorted to mergers with bigger stations to stay online. NPR and PBS have not gone anywhere.
In fact, the country’s public media system — more than 1,000 radio and TV stations, serving millions of people — remains largely intact, despite the disappearance of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
But there is not a lot of celebrating among public media executives and supporters. Much of the angst about the long-term future remains. They point out that much of the money making up for the loss in federal funding has come from one-off donations and grants — short-term fixes — that may have managed only to defer the true financial pain.
“We’re not out of the woods at all,” said Tim Isgitt, chief executive of Public Media Company, a nonprofit that has stepped in to provide $30 million in emergency funding to rescue public TV and radio stations."
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/01/26/business/media/npr-pbs-stations-funding.html
#USA #Trump #NPR #PBS #PublicMedia #Radio #TV #PublicBroadcasting
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Now, can you start arresting these #ICESucks a-holes? Puh-lease?!!!
Cumberland County Sheriff #KevinJoyce denounces actions by #ICE agents in #Maine
Maine Public | By Patty Wight
Published January 22, 2026"Cumberland County Sheriff Kevin Joyce says ICE officials are telling one story about their operation to arrest 'the worst of the worst' in Maine, but the reality on the ground is entirely different.
"During a press conference Thursday, Joyce confirmed that ICE agents arrested a corrections officer recruit who he described as 'squeaky clean.'
"Joyce declined to name the officer, but he said he underwent a rigorous vetting process, including a background check, before he was hired last year. He said he had no criminal record, was following the rules, and had permission to work in Maine through the spring of 2029.
" 'I guess if you're not a card carrying US citizen, then you must be illegal,' Joyce said. 'Because that's what they told me, is he's illegal. And he's definitely not a criminal. So what part of him is illegal? I don't know.'
"Joyce said roughly a half dozen ICE agents arrested the officer Wednesday night and left his running car unattended on a city street in Portland. He described the arrest as 'bush league' and said law enforcement officers would first need probable cause to make an arrest and would never abandon a vehicle in that way."
#USPol #MainePol #MPBN #PublicBroadcasting #KeystoneCops #ICEOut #ICEOutMaine #ICEOutForGood #ImmigrantsWelcome #NewAmericans #ICESucks
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How I ~enjoyed listening to 'The Year in Rebuke' wrought by Harry Shearer.
Check it out for --
'Truth Social Audio'
The Stephen Miller Band
and much more!Find it at
https://harryshearer.com/le-show/ -
Getting Real News in 2025: How to Stay Informed Without Getting Overwhelmed – A DWD Report
Getting Real News in 2025: How to Stay Informed Without Getting Overwhelmed
The modern news environment can feel very exhausting. Outrage cycles, partisan labeling, AI-generated misinformation, and collapsing trust in institutions have made it harder than ever to know what is real. But reliable, fact-based journalism does still exist — and with the right approach, anyone can build a healthy “news diet” that keeps them informed without being overwhelmed.
1. Why the News Feels So Chaotic Today
- Polarization distorts everything. Even high-quality outlets get pushed into “left” or “right” boxes, making trust harder to establish. Social media is terrible to monitor for “news,”, so much garbage. Treat social media information as suspect for any truth.
- AI slop is everywhere. Fake quotes, auto-written articles, and manipulated images now circulate faster than fact-checkers can respond. It will come, note the content, and delete.
- Cable news thrives on drama. Much of it is emotional commentary, not reporting. Reliable channels like MSNOW, CNN, and few others do mix sensational with real news. Some will be on point. Use discretion in their over-the-top calls, crisis time, etc.
- Opinion is often mistaken for journalism. Lines blur, and audiences are left to sort fact from spin on their own. Sadly, the truth today. You must be your own filter, as best you can.
2. A Better Way: Build a Balanced “News Diet”
No single outlet is perfect. A mix of professional, edited, fact-checked sources offers the best clarity. Here’s one recommended way to stay with solid sources. Choose free when you can to follow sources. Limit any “paid” sources to a few trustworthy sources.
Reliable Baseline Reporting (Calm, Fact-Based)
Depth, Context & Investigations
Public Broadcasting (High-Trust Journalism)
3. Smart Habits for Navigating Today’s News
- Choose 1–2 daily “anchor” sources. AP, Reuters, or NPR offer a stable foundation.
- Add a couple of depth or investigation sources. WaPo, WSJ, PBS provide analysis without sensationalism.
- Follow at least one local or regional outlet. Local journalism keeps you connected to lived reality. Your local news tv stations, newspapers, local journals or sites for your area.
- Treat social media as unverified. Screenshots and viral posts are the most common vectors of misinformation. Major point. Much of social media is clearly unreliable, and tons of it. Very little general posts have much “news,” or value. Treat as suspect, until verified elsewhere.
- Double-check anything shocking. If AP or Reuters has not reported it, pause before believing or sharing. Pause, reflect, does this sound wonky? 🙂
4. Avoiding AI-Generated Misinformation
AI tools have dramatically increased low-quality, misleading content. Protect yourself by:
- Favoring outlets with real editors and named journalists.
- Verifying quotes, sources, and documents independently.
- Avoiding screenshot-based “news” as primary evidence.
- Subscribing to human-curated newsletters, including:
Editor’s Note: This is one-way to set up your news and sources for less noise, more value. Keep your eye on problem posts, social media, even your vetted sources. Stuff slips through, watch and act to dismiss or ignore those with “warning signs.” Looks like made-up, garbage, reposted a ton, and so on. Use your smarts now, and stay in the know. –DrWeb. Leave me your questions or responses in the comments, and good news in your future.
5. Podcasts Worth Following
MLA-Style Bibliography
Associated Press. AP News, https://apnews.com.
Christian Science Monitor. The Christian Science Monitor, https://www.csmonitor.com.
National Public Radio. NPR, https://www.npr.org.
PBS NewsHour. PBS NewsHour, https://www.pbs.org/newshour.
Reuters. Reuters, https://www.reuters.com.
USA Today. USA Today, https://www.usatoday.com.
The Wall Street Journal. The Wall Street Journal, https://www.wsj.com.
The Washington Post. The Washington Post, https://www.washingtonpost.com.
“Up First.” NPR Podcasts, https://www.npr.org/podcasts/510318/up-first.
“The Journal.” The Wall Street Journal Podcasts, https://www.wsj.com/podcasts/the-journal.
Reuters World News Podcast. Reuters, https://www.reuters.com/world/world-news-podcast-2023-05-22/.
Tags: AI Slop, Baseline, Cable News, Don't Get Overwhelmed, DrWeb's Domain, Investigations, Journalism, Journalists, Left, Local Media, News Diet, NPR, Opinion Not Journalism, PBS News Hour, Public Broadcasting, Real News, Report, Right, Stay Informed, True Facts
#AISlop #Baseline #CableNews #DonTGetOverwhelmed #DrWebSDomain #Investigations #Journalism #Journalists #Left #LocalMedia #NewsDiet #NPR #OpinionNotJournalism #PBSNewsHour #PublicBroadcasting #RealNews #Report #Right #StayInformed #TrueFacts
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More of this, please!!!
#RockportME - #Midcoast nonprofits team up to preserve historic #farmland — and build new #housing
Maine Public | By Nicole Ogrysko
Published November 29, 2025 at 8:31 AM EST"Two midcoast nonprofits are teaming up to preserve a historic dairy farm in Rockport — and build new affordable housing on site.
#MaineCoastHeritageTrust has owned more than 160 acres south of Route 90 for the last 15 years. The #EricksonFieldsPreserve has #WalkingTrails and a #CommunityGarden, where students have learned to grow produce for nearby #FoodBanks.
Recently, the Heritage Trust secured the farm's remaining six acres across the street, where the old farmhouse and dairy barn are located.
When a family member living in the farmhouse passed away a few years ago, Aaron Englander with the Maine Coast Heritage Trust said the nonprofit began to think about how the property could be preserved for community benefit.
Housing, Englander said, emerged as a clear need. The Heritage Trust acquired the six-acre property and plans to preserve five of them. It has donated the remaining acre to the #MidCoastRegionalHousingTrust, which plans to develop one and two-bedroom apartments.
The housing shortage is being felt throughout the region, said Jonathan Goss, president of the housing trust. Knox County needs nearly 1,300 new homes by the end of the decade.
'Services are being cut back or being lost because of a lack of employees,' he said. 'Everybody knows someone who either grew up here or had been living here who is not able to live here any longer.'
The housing trust plans to renovate the old farmhouse on site for rental housing first, and then construct eight new apartments for working families there later on. Goss said these are families with teachers, public safety officers, nurses and others who earn too much to qualify for subsidized housing, but not enough to afford a median-priced home in the region, which now surpasses $450,000.
Housing development is sometimes pitted against land and environmental conservation efforts. But Englander with the Maine Coast Heritage Trust said this project could serve as a statewide model for balancing those interests.
'[This can] show people that yes, you can conserve wildlife habitat, you can conserve farmland, soils and agricultural know-how, and you can create access to public lands and outdoor educational spaces all in one property,' he said."
#SolarPunkSunday #LandPreservation #AffordableHousing #PreservingWildlifeHabitats #Farmland #Conservation #Maine #MainePublic #PublicBroadcasting
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#Bought the #book, thanks Science Friday for making the #shutdown a lot more bearable...
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#MapMatics #reading #GIS #spatial #mapping #cartography #spatialanalysis #podcast #book #math #mathmatics #navigation #routing #inclusion #usecase #focus #science #education #publicbroadcasting #NPR #ScienceFriday
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https://www.linkedin.com/posts/gregcocks_gis-spatial-mapping-activity-7389714526922817536-d2dH -
This one goes out to all our lefties for #InternationalLeftHandersDay. Did you know there's a superstition that left-handed people are more likely to commit crimes? Have no fear, Douglas M. Kelley, police consultant, psychiatrist, and professor of criminology, debunks this myth in "The Criminal Man," a 1958 program from KQED.
Watch the full program in the American Archive of Public Broadcasting: https://americanarchive.org/catalog/cpb-aacip-512-n872v2db4t
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This one goes out to all our lefties for #InternationalLeftHandersDay. Did you know there's a superstition that left-handed people are more likely to commit crimes? Have no fear, Douglas M. Kelley, police consultant, psychiatrist, and professor of criminology, debunks this myth in "The Criminal Man," a 1958 program from KQED.
Watch the full program in the American Archive of Public Broadcasting: https://americanarchive.org/catalog/cpb-aacip-512-n872v2db4t
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This one goes out to all our lefties for #InternationalLeftHandersDay. Did you know there's a superstition that left-handed people are more likely to commit crimes? Have no fear, Douglas M. Kelley, police consultant, psychiatrist, and professor of criminology, debunks this myth in "The Criminal Man," a 1958 program from KQED.
Watch the full program in the American Archive of Public Broadcasting: https://americanarchive.org/catalog/cpb-aacip-512-n872v2db4t
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This one goes out to all our lefties for #InternationalLeftHandersDay. Did you know there's a superstition that left-handed people are more likely to commit crimes? Have no fear, Douglas M. Kelley, police consultant, psychiatrist, and professor of criminology, debunks this myth in "The Criminal Man," a 1958 program from KQED.
Watch the full program in the American Archive of Public Broadcasting: https://americanarchive.org/catalog/cpb-aacip-512-n872v2db4t
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This one goes out to all our lefties for #InternationalLeftHandersDay. Did you know there's a superstition that left-handed people are more likely to commit crimes? Have no fear, Douglas M. Kelley, police consultant, psychiatrist, and professor of criminology, debunks this myth in "The Criminal Man," a 1958 program from KQED.
Watch the full program in the American Archive of Public Broadcasting: https://americanarchive.org/catalog/cpb-aacip-512-n872v2db4t
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#ElizabethWarren on Why #Billionaires Are Doing All They Can to Stop #ZohranMamdani
The Massachusetts Democrat explains why Wall Street is spending big to boost #EricAdams and #AndrewCuomo
August 4, 2025
"Zohran Mamdani pulled off an inspiring 12-point victory to become the Democratic nominee for mayor of New York. How did he do it? He campaigned relentlessly on lowering costs for families, helping him build a grassroots movement so strong that millions of dollars in attack ads couldn’t touch him. On primary election night, Andrew Cuomo conceded.
"The people picked Mamdani, but it turns out there are some billionaires and #WallStreetCEOs who can’t stand the idea of a mayor who wants them to pay their fair share to create a city that everyone can afford. So the billionaires are dumping millions and millions of dollars into the race, backing either of two deeply flawed candidates: Cuomo and incumbent Mayor Eric Adams. Maybe we should be asking ourselves why these Wall Street executives are pouring in millions of dollars to stop Mamdani, the affordability candidate. [Money that could be used to fund #PublicBroadcasting! smh]
"#Cuomo and Adams are tripping over themselves to haul in millions of campaign dollars from billionaire donors. Adams raised $1 million in a single night from donors with ties to big law firms, commercial brokerages, and big real estate developers who could lose their iron-fisted grip on New York in a Mamdani administration. #HedgeFund manager #BillAckman held private auditions for his support, inviting Adams and Cuomo to back-to-back meetings to tap dance for the 'hundreds of millions of dollars' he has said he will spend to keep Mamdani out of office.
"In a democracy, #billionaires should not be able to buy our elections and control our politicians. Elected officials should work for their constituents, not use their government offices to hand out favors to a well-connected few. Adams escaped prosecution on charges of bribery and fraud only after he sold out New York City in a sweetheart deal with the Trump administration. As governor, Cuomo handed control of the state Senate to Republicans in a sham backroom deal. He also vowed to clean up Albany with an anticorruption commission, but when that commission began investigating one of Cuomo’s buddies, Cuomo shut down the entire panel.
"You don’t have to look very hard to see just how out of touch with working people and the mainstream values of the Democratic Party Adams and Cuomo have become. Adams withdrew from the primary early on, and Cuomo felt so entitled to the nomination that he barely bothered to campaign. But they’ve both gotten the memo from their wealthy backers to step it up: Adams is attacking Mamdani nonstop, and Cuomo is trying — and failing — to carbon copy Mamdani’s man-on-the-street videos.
"Mamdani has specific ideas for making New York more #affordable, and he’s willing to stand up to ultra-powerful special interests to turn these plans into reality.
"Take the cost of housing. Mamdani has plans to build 200,000 new affordable units over the next 10 years, he intends to freeze the rent for units controlled by the city, and he is committed to cutting the red tape that drives up costs for home owners. Mamdani also has the courage to write plans — including #RentControl — that crack down on the city’s worst #landlords and push back against billionaire real estate #moguls. It’s no surprise then that this month, the CEO of a New York-based #RealEstate investment trust held a $2,000-a-ticket fundraiser for Adams to stop Mamdani.
"After housing, the biggest squeeze on New York families is the cost of child care. In the wealthiest city on Earth, access to affordable, high-quality child care and early #education should be automatic. Mamdani’s plan for no-cost child care would make #ChildCare a right, not a privilege reserved for the rich.
"Let’s do one more. Mamdani has a bold, detailed plan for protecting consumers and cracking down on the companies that try to cheat them. As mayor he would work to ban hidden fees, crack down on #scammers, and end secret corporate handouts. When working people are getting gouged by giant companies, Mamdani is on their side.
"Mamdani has charged ahead with plans to make New York more affordable, and he’s showing how to pay for it by taxing the ultra-rich and giant corporations. That may not make him popular with the richest New Yorkers, but he’s willing to let Adams and Cuomo suck up to those guys. Mamdani is fighting to make New York work for working people."
Archived version:
https://archive.ph/gKwYu#USPol #DemocraticSocialists #Mamdani #NewYorkCity #NYCPol
#TaxTheRich not #TaxBreaksForTheRich
#AffordableHousing #Education -
#California’s #NPR and #PBS stations will cut staff and programs after funding slashed
By Maya C. Miller and Cayla Mihalovich
July 29, 2025 10:05 AM PT"Small NPR and PBS stations in California are teetering after Congress pulled funding from #PublicBroadcasting. Even big stations are bracing for cuts.
"Dozens of California public broadcasting stations will lose millions of dollars after Republicans in Congress voted to strip them of federal funding, cutting off a vital lifeline in rural communities and limiting access to local news programming in an era of hyperpartisan national media.
"While California broadcasters are assuring audiences that they plan to keep their signals running, they also warn that cost-saving changes are inevitable.
"Radio and television stations of all sizes across the Golden State say that to survive, they’ll likely be forced to lay off staff and cut programming unless they’re able to make up the losses through fundraising. Their leaders warn that the cuts will disproportionately harm locally produced programs, the most expensive to create but among their most popular content, that inform millions of listeners and viewers.
"Republicans have long wanted to cut funding for public broadcasting, arguing such services should be funded by private donors, not taxpayers. Their efforts prevailed when Congress last week finalized President Trump’s request to rescind $1.1 billion from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which provides grants to National Public Radio, the Public Broadcasting Service, their affiliates and other independent public media creators. All nine of California’s #Republican members of #Congress voted in favor of the funding cuts.
"Now, roughly 35 stations from #SanDiego to #Hoopa in #HumboldtCounty have lost critical funding.
"While many public broadcasters remain hopeful that they’ll find ways to endure, all agree the rescission undermines the #egalitarian mission of public media — to create a nationwide network that provides access to quality information, stories and music for local #communities.
" 'That has been our superpower,' said Joe Moore, president and general manager of #KVPR #ValleyPublicRadio in #Fresno. His station lost about 7% of its budget, or $175,000, from the #CPB.
" 'The New York Times doesn’t have the type of investment in #Alaska or in #NorthDakota — or on #TribalReservations, bringing local news from these communities — that public radio does.'
"Smaller stations whose budgets relied heavily on federal dollars to make ends meet are the most at risk of closure. In Eureka, the community-owned PBS affiliate #KEET-TV stands to lose $847,000 — nearly half of its operating budget — due to the defunding of CPB. To survive, all of its funding will need to come from #CommunitySupport, since the station has no institutional backer such as a local college or school district.
"David Gordon, KEET’s general manager and executive director, says that as much as he hopes the station will stay afloat even at reduced capacity, he won’t make the same bold proclamation that, 'We’re not going anywhere,' like some stations have.
" 'I can’t guarantee that KEET will be here once the dust settles from this defunding move,' Gordon said. He emphasized that he was speaking for himself and not on behalf of his station.
" 'I hope it is, and I think there’s a good chance that it’ll survive in some form. But absolutely will it? I don’t know if I can say that.'
"Nearby, Mendocino-based NPR member station #KZYX was forced to lay off its news director after losing 25% of its operating budget, or $174,000, from the CPB. That means news will include fewer in-depth stories, such as interviews with city council members or county supervisors, said Andre de Channes, KZYX’s general manager and director of operations.
" 'There isn’t the time to source out those kinds of things,' he said. 'So the news gets more like a headline news.'
"The station serves roughly 130,000 listeners, including in Mendocino County and part of Lake County. When De Channes first learned about the CPB cuts, he immediately worried about fire safety, since listeners who live in #OffTheGrid #RuralAreas without access to internet or cell service rely on KZYX for #EmergencyInformation.
"Those potentially lifesaving #EmergencyAlerts became a rallying cry for public media providers and their allies as they begged Congress to preserve funding for their stations, especially those in remote, rural areas that also tend to be Republican. Frank Lanzone, the longtime general manager of the NPR-affiliated KCBX in San Luis Obispo, said his station has sometimes been the only on-air source providing emergency information during #SevereWeather events." 'There’s been several times in very bad storms when we’re the only station on the air in our area because of either power outages or people’s generators ran out of propane,' said Lanzone, who has worked in public radio for more than 50 years.
KCBX, which serves about 45,000 listeners from Santa Barbara to Monterey, will lose $240,000 in funding from CPB, about 13% of its operating budget." 'It’s going to hurt the stations and the people that listen to them who need it the most,' Lanzone said. 'The most vulnerable, the ones out in the middle of nowhere.'
"Local programs are most at risk
Both radio and television station leaders emphasized that local programming — shows that are created and produced in-house rather than purchased from another producer — will be first on the chopping block. To produce locally focused public television programming, stations must invest additional time, money and work on top of the membership dues they pay to be affiliated with PBS, which unlocks a large catalogue of programming that they can air at no additional cost."For PBS viewers in the Inland Empire, that likely means the loss of popular local programs such as '#InlandEdition,' an Emmy-winning weekly half-hour public affairs show, and '#LearnWithMe,' an award-winning #bilingual English-Spanish children’s show, both of which are produced in house by affiliate KVCR.
" 'The local stuff that’s so important to people is probably the stuff that’ll go away,' said Connie Leyva, executive director of KVCR and a former Democratic state senator. The station stands to lose about $550,000 in annual CPB funding, about 6% of its budget.
She emphasized that the station also wanted to preserve its journalism staff — two full-time reporters and one part-time — who have recently focused on federal #ImmigrationRaids taking place across the region." 'If we’re not here, the #InlandEmpire is just hearing about what’s happening in Los Angeles,' Leyva said. 'We want to know what’s happening in our backyard, what’s happening at the schools around us, what’s happening at the Home Depots around us.' "
Archived version:
https://archive.ph/Lur03#ImmigrationRaids #ICERaids #ClimateChange #SevereWeather #KeepingUsInTheDark #CPBFunding #CPBFundingCuts #TrumpSucks
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‘#GoodTrouble’ #protesters rally in #BangorME against the #Trump administration
by Annie Rupertus July 17, 2025
"About 200 people gathered on Stillwater Avenue near the Bangor Mall Thursday evening to rally against the Trump administration in honor of the late congressman and civil rights activist #JohnLewis.
"The event was the latest in a series of nationwide protests broadly opposing President Donald Trump’s policies, with '#GoodTroubleLivesOn' events planned in more than 1,500 locations across all 50 states, according to The Guardian.
"More than 20 Maine communities participated in Thursday’s protests. The Bangor event was organized by #IndivisibleBangor, a progressive advocacy group that formed after the 2016 election to oppose Trump’s agenda. Indivisible has thousands of chapters across the country.
"The protest aimed to embody Lewis’s appeal for Americans to get into 'good trouble, #NecessaryTrouble,' in pursuit of #SocialJustice, according to organizer Mary Ann Larson.
" 'People are waking up,' Larson said, noting she was especially concerned about the recently passed budget reconciliation bill and what it will mean for #RuralMaine hospitals and people who rely on #FoodStamps funded by the federal government.
"Thursday’s protest attendees were mostly older adults. Many brought American flags and pro-democracy signs with messages like '#NoKings in America' and 'imagine being afraid of #diversity more than #dictatorship' — similar messaging to the larger 'No Kings' rally last month, which saw more than 1,000 participants in Bangor.
"The group seemed to get mostly positive responses from drivers passing by on the busy Bangor road, who often honked or waved out of their windows at the crowd lined up on the curb between Chick-fil-A and Washville.
"One attendee, artist Bernice Cross, wore a handmade jacket with painted American flag imagery. She drove to the protest from Greenbush in a car she painted with abstract art and #BlackLivesMatter messaging in 2020 in response to the murder of #GeorgeFloyd by a Minneapolis police officer.
"Cross came out because 'I love America,' she said, and in her view, Trump is destroying America and the values it was founded on.
"For Cynthia Purmort and Mary Ann Labue of Cape Cod, who drove down to Bangor from their camp in Willimantic, a desire to defend the Constitution and individual freedoms were key in bringing them out to the protest.
" 'These are desperate times,' Purmort said.
"Many rallygoers also mentioned defending #immigrants as a key issue, with some chanting, 'Hey hey! Ho ho! #StephenMiller’s got to go' in reference to Trump’s #HomelandSecurity advisor.
"Multiple protesters also expressed concerns about the measure approved by the Senate Thursday that would slash funding for #PublicBroadcasting and international aid [#USAID].
"Thursday’s rally was planned to coincide with the five-year anniversary of Lewis’s death.
"He was a key figure in the #CivilRights Movement who spent decades advocating for #RacialJustice and nonviolent #resistance. He is especially known for leading over 600 voting rights protesters on an #Alabama march from #SelmaToMontgomery in 1965 that is widely credited with spurring the passage of the landmark #VotingRightsAct.
"Alabama state troopers attacked the nonviolent marchers on Selma’s #EdmundPettusBridge and fractured Lewis’s skull, but he survived and later was elected to represent an Atlanta district in the U.S. Congress in 1986, serving until he died of pancreatic cancer in 2020."
#MaineResists #ResistICE #ACAB #MainePol #USPol #HumanRights #ImmigrantRights #TrumpSucks #Maine
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$179 billion for #Military projects, but $1 billion to keep Americans safe, informed and educated (via #PublicBroadcasting) is too much?!! They only want soldiers to fix the machines when they break down! They don't care about science, culture, building community, etc.
#Hypersonics, #AI, #droneSwarms: Pentagon pours $179 billion into R&D
by Kyle Gunn
Wed, July 16, 2025https://www.yahoo.com/news/hypersonics-ai-drone-swarms-pentagon-205135850.html
#CultureOfWar #TrumpSucks #CPBCuts #NativePublicMedia #PublicMedia #CommunityRadio #MilitaryBudget #MoreSesameStreetLessWar #EmergencyCommunications #CorporationForPublicBroadcasting
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But in the years that followed, the strength of local #PublicTelevision & #PublicRadio stations in conservative states was often what saved the #federal #funding.
In 1995, #NewtGingrich, then the #House speaker, made one of the most aggressive moves since #Nixon to “zero out” federal support for #PublicMedia before he found it politically untenable.
#Trump #Republicans #PublicBroadcasting #censorship #authoritarianism #autocracy
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Only Two Republicans Voted Against #Trump Defunding #SesameStreet
Senate #Republicans just took a wrecking ball to #PublicBroadcasting.
Malcolm Ferguson
July 17, 2025"Only two Republican senators broke the line to vote against their party’s plan to defund the #CorporationForPublicBroadcasting.
"#Alaska’s #LisaMurkowski and #Maine’s #SusanCollins joined Senate Democrats in opposition to Republican cuts to organizations like PBS and NPR, and the smaller stations that they fund. While PBS and NPR would still continue at the national level, the cuts would likely devastate those local stations that rely on them.
"The Senate approved $9 billion dollars of cuts early Thursday morning, with $1.1 billion in cuts to public broadcasting and $8.8 billion from foreign aid programs like #USAID, which #ElonMusk’s #DOGE slashed earlier this year.
" 'The vast majority of this funding, more than 70 percent, actually flows to local television and radio stations,' Collins said last month during an earlier stage of the deliberation. 'In #Maine, this funding supports everything from #EmergencyCommunications in rural areas to coverage of high school basketball championships and [a] locally produced high school quiz show. Nationally produced television programs such as #AntiquesRoadshow, #DanielTigersNeighborhood, are also enjoyed by many throughout our country.'
" 'I understand … the concern about subsidizing the national radio news programming that for years has had a discernibly partisan bent,' she added.
'There are, however, more targeted approaches to addressing that bias at NPR than rescinding all of the funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.' She backed up that thinking with her vote on Thursday morning, along with Murkowski."#CPB #CommunityRadio #PublicTelevision #GOPHatesSesameStreet #TrumpHatesSesameStreet #GOPAreHaters #Fascism #Corporatocracy #FuckTheGOP #CommunityRadio
#CollegeRadio #NativeAmericanRadio #SesameStreet #MisterRogers #ReadingRainbow #MollyOfDenali -
It's harvest season. #Cherry farms are short of workers amidst an #ImmigrationCrackdown
July 6, 20258:14 AM ET
By Monica Nickelsburg"The federal immigration crackdown has raised concerns among #agricultural workers. In Washington, growers say it's leading to a labor shortage during cherry season."
#PublicBroadcasting #News #ICEKidnapping #ICERaids #USPol #CherryHarvest #WashingtonState #FoodWaste #TrumpSucks!
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The #ExecutiveOrder is the latest attempt by #Trump to limit or #intimidate institutions he does not agree with, including #LawFirms, #universities & #media companies such as #CBS, which is being sued for $20B over a “#60Minutes” interview w/fmr VP #KamalaHarris during the 2024 presidential campaign.
#law #censorship #dictatorship #PublicBroadcasting #CPB #PBS #NPR #Congress
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#trump #FuckTrump #FuckElonMusk #nonprofit #capitulation #news #complicity #complicitywarning #complicit #tv #publicbroadcasting #lgbtq #lgbtqia #racism #PeopleofColor #BlackLivesMatter #ableism #gay #lesbian #TransRightsAreHumanRights #transgender #diversity #equity #inclusion #DiversityEquityInclusion #DefianceNotCompliance #GOPLies #gopcowards
Something that seems like it's gone under the radar is #PBS shutting down their #deia program and firing the program management. This is an infuriating and disappointing move by PBS to choose #compliance in advance rather than #defiance. Every inch we give to the #fascists is an inch we may never get back. Hold strong and #resist. The #resistance is having an effect, #muskrat and co are not invincible and your efforts matter.
Please call your local station and send a message to PBS headquarters. Tell them you are unhappy with their decision to support an illegal #coup of #hate, #violence, and #sciencedenial #sciencedenialism. Media needs to remain independent and unafraid of #fascism, something the big media #corporations have seemingly forgotten.
https://apnews.com/article/pbs-diversity-close-office-bb7dafa39af3345a134475f28848cbbf
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Talented, brilliant, incredible, amazing, show-stopping, spectacular, never been done before... Oh sorry we were just thinking about some of the crazy cars in this 20th anniversary special of #MotorWeek
#publicmedia #publicbroadcasting #aapb #archives #mediaarchives #publictv #wgbh #gbh #digitization #carpeople #carlovers #motorweek #carreviews #vintagecars #automobilehistory
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I am very happy and proud that my song "Like Water" was featured in the wonderful public broadcasting #bbc #bbc6music show "Focus Beats" which is lovingly hosted and compiled by Olivia Swift 💕 from #reformradio
Listen here or download the App 📻 https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m001ms2y
#lofi #lofihiphop #lofijazz #lofichillvibes #publicbroadcasting #bbc #bbc6 #reformradio #bbc6music #bbcsounds