The Federal Communications Commission launched an investigation into the National Public Radio and Public Broadcasting Services on Jan. 30, claiming both public broadcasting networks violated federal regulations by acknowledging financial sponsors on air.
This investigation will determine whether these networks will continue receiving taxpayer-funded support, WHYY reported.
During President Donald Trump’s first term, he and his administration pushed to eliminate federal funding for public media to no avail. However, Trump’s new pick for FCC Chairman, Brendan Carr, is a co-author of Project 2025, a political initiative that called to eliminate federal funding for public broadcasting. The FCC is now threatening to take PBS and NPR off the air, claiming both violate federal law by airing commercials.
Public broadcasting stations provide accessible, high-quality and independent content that serves the public interests rather than any political or commercial agenda, according to PBS’s editorial standards. The recent attack on public broadcasting in the United States presents a very real threat — federal interference with public media.
Efforts to defund and dismantle public media aren’t just about budgets, they are about controlling the narrative. If NPR and PBS are silenced, it could lead to the oppression of other press freedoms. It’s vital to support such an impactful and necessary form of media and students, especially those involved in journalism and political spheres, must take action to defend it.
This isn’t the first threat public broadcasting has encountered, but current political circumstances have increased its complexity, said Joseph Slobodzian, a journalism professor.
“[PBS] programming has always been a more thoughtful, more in-depth approach to explaining issues than what you find in a half-hour national news broadcast,” Slobodzian said. “I suspect that’s one of the reasons PBS and NPR have always been under fire from the political right. We are so factionalized and political parties are so siloed off into themselves, that anybody who gives a more complex, nuanced view of reality is immediately a target for that.”
Individuals must defend press freedom through active advocacy and supporting local news stations like The Philadelphia Citizen or Billy Penn at WHYY, Philadelphia’s public media station. Both nonprofit outlets rely on member funding and audience support to produce regional news.
Students can also help public broadcasting by staying informed and pushing back against misinformation while advocating for policies that protect independent journalism. Protect My Public Media is an organization that informs audiences on how to defend public media by signing petitions and calling legislature to protect funding for public broadcasting.
Tyler Fowler believes cutting the funding for broadcasting would make it harder to access accurate information.
“I think that it’s not only that they don’t want us to have access to information and to what’s going on. They want to control who we are hearing it from,” said Fowler, a senior philosophy major. “We have to be incredibly vigilant about how we’re internalizing things that we’re hearing.”
Public broadcasting provides Americans unrestricted news and cultural programming through different member stations — a locally owned and operated station that is a member of a larger network. Rural stations, commonly member stations of PBS, are usually the most dependent on federal funding, regardless of political affiliation. If PBS and NPR are faced with decreased funding, then many rural communities may go without local news.
Restrictions and potential cancellation of public broadcasting will directly affect the freedom of other press. Journalists entering the workforce must be on the frontlines of this fight for press freedom, and student journalists must pursue their education and future careers with the intention of accuracy and honesty.
Similar patterns have played out in other authoritarian regimes, where limiting public access to reliable information is a strategic move to consolidate power. In Russia, during Putin’s rise to power, the Kremlin put forth legislative movements that made reporting the truth a crime. This soon snowballed into censorship and the shutdown of independent media. In 2001, the Russian government took over NTV, the free-to-air independent news channel, BBC reported.
Linn Washington Jr., a journalism professor, believes public media is typically the first target of silencing the public and a turn towards a less unrestricted society.
“There’s an effort to control the media, and if we take it a longer view, that like historical view, you see that in authoritarian states or authoritarian countries, in efforts to make or to inject authoritarianism into various societies, the media is always the first target,” Washington said. “I see something very nefarious in these efforts to quote, unquote, investigate PBS for imagined transgressions.”
With such attacks on public access to media, students must be vigilant of the information they receive. However fearful, preventing the loss of accurate journalism is always in the hands of the people.
The future of journalism and the integrity of Public Broadcasting relies on consumers. If America doesn’t defend public media now, it’s at risk of losing one of the last remaining sources of truly independent news in the country. The responsibility falls on all Americans to ensure journalism remains free and accessible to the people and serves them instead of political agendas.
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