Does this mean the end of PBS?
It does for smaller stations that depended on federal funding to operate.
Corporation for Public Broadcasting ceasing operations
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Re: Corporation for Public Broadcasting ceasing operations
#12According to this page [1] PBS only receives about 15% of its funds from federal funding. The rest is from donations.
1: https://foundation.pbs.org/ways-to-give/gifts-to-the-pbs-end...
So this certainly won't be the death of PBS, as I had feared.
Update 2: For the record (easier to respond in this original post than to each response), I am not defending the decision at all. I grew up listening to NPR, and have been on recurring monthly donations to PBS for years.
I was genuinely curious about what percentage comes from federal funds. So I am just trying to level-set and get ahead of any hysteria about the actual impact.
Re: Corporation for Public Broadcasting ceasing operations
#13Woah! This stuff is unwinding faster than my priors. I'm going to have to re-evaluate everything I thought true about the US. I just always assumed "strong institutions" meant something here. That it was all a house built on sand is disconcerting.
Re: Corporation for Public Broadcasting ceasing operations
#14Does this mean the end of PBS?
Probably not. CPB gave funding to rural smaller stations which buy programming from PBS (or NPR).
It will drastically scale back the funding and coverage of public broadcasters, but they should (hopefully) survive.
That said, they effectively cease being public at this point. And ironically enough, they have no reason anymore to pander to wider audiences so if anything they will become more "left leaning" over time.
Re: Corporation for Public Broadcasting ceasing operations
#15[flagged]
Re: Corporation for Public Broadcasting ceasing operations
#16Whenever the question of federal funding for public broadcasting has come up in the past, a small army of commenters would always claim that less then 1% of the funding for public media comes from the government.
Turns out that was perhaps an incomplete argument.
Re: Corporation for Public Broadcasting ceasing operations
#17According to this page [1] PBS only receives about 15% of its funds from federal funding. The rest is from donations. 1: https://foundation.pbs.org/ways-to-give/gifts-to-the-pbs-end... So this certainly won't be the death of PBS, as I had feared. Update 2: For the record (easier to respond in this original post than to each response), I am not defending the decision at all. I grew up listening to NPR, and have been o…
PBS themselves[1] state that CPB funding is what kept local stations solvent, so without funding, they will likely close.
They also state that the bulk of CPB funding pays for national NPR and PBS programs, so those will see cuts, too.
[1] https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/house-gives-final-appr...
Re: Corporation for Public Broadcasting ceasing operations
#18Whenever the question of federal funding for public broadcasting has come up in the past, a small army of commenters would always claim that less then 1% of the funding for public media comes from the government. Turns out that was perhaps an incomplete argument.
It's 15% for PBS, and CPB != PBS and CPB != NPR.
Re: Corporation for Public Broadcasting ceasing operations
#19Does this mean the end of PBS?
Probably not. CPB gave funding to rural smaller stations which buy programming from PBS (or NPR). It will drastically scale back the funding and coverage of public broadcasters, but they should (hopefully) survive. That said, they effectively cease being public at this point. And ironically enough, they have no reason anymore to pander to wider audiences so if anything they will become more "left leaning" over time.
“Reality has a well known liberal bias”, as they say.
Re: Corporation for Public Broadcasting ceasing operations
#20I listen to NPR every day and, honestly, I think this might be for the best. It's going to hurt for a while, but in the end, I think public broadcasting will be stronger when it stands on its own without interference from politicians.