NPR and PBS Leaders Urge Congress Against Defunding, Emphasize Neutrality

Kerger says the federal funding PBS gets via CPB “remains irreplaceable and absolutely essential to the survival of the public media system,” even though “viewer contributions are an important source of funding for local member stations.” Federal funding “represents about sixteen percent of PBS’s overall funding, in line with the average for PBS member stations, and it is essential for supporting the operating costs of many local member stations, especially in rural communities, where this funding can make up nearly half of a member station’s budget,” she says.

Without “this investment, public media stations of all sizes would be forced to cut some or all of their local service -- and some would likely be forced to shut down entirely,” Kerger says. “Should smaller member stations that depend on federal funding for their operations be forced to close, or if PBS itself is prohibited from direct or indirect access to federal funds, PBS would have significantly fewer resources to invest on behalf of local member stations,” including “noncommercial educational programming.”

Maher acknowledges “that there is skepticism from” lawmakers “around why public funds should go to NPR, whether NPR is truly committed to serving the totality of the American public, and whether we are an effective steward [of] taxpayer dollars. I hear, respect, and understand those concerns.” Public radio “represents one of the nation’s most efficient public-private partnerships,” she says. “The vast majority of the $121 million annual federal appropriation allocated for radio -- more than $100 million -- goes directly to 386 local noncommercial radio grantees across the nation. This investment enables your local station to raise an average of $7 for every one federal dollar. In places that serve more rural, distributed, or lower income communities, that dollar goes even further -- public radio is very often the only news service in places where market economics [do] not support the expense of local news.”

Kerger and Maher argue that their networks actively work to ensure balanced news coverage, despite recent controversies. “Unlike other media organizations, there is a strict firewall between NPR’s CEO and NPR’s newsroom,” Maher says. “I do not direct coverage, I do not influence stories, I have no control over editorial decisions, and I have no say in how NPR’s journalists will cover today’s hearing. This firewall safeguards against any real or perceived conflict of interest or undue influence, to protect the integrity and independence of NPR’s reporting.” NPR is currently “taking several concrete steps to ensure our coverage is rigorous, unbiased, and in service to all Americans,” including hiring “analysts so we can ensure that we’re giving fair airtime to different voices and issues,” she says.

The Heritage Foundation fellow Mike Gonzalez counters in his testimony that public broadcasters have “refused to abide by this simple code” of working to control underlying political biases, particularly in favor of the Democratic Party. “They have been coddled by allies in Congress into feeling immune to it,” he says. “They have shown scorn for conservative views on a consistent basis, and have done so safe in the knowledge that their friends in Congress, of both parties, will save their bacon year in and year out. And indeed, this has so far always been the case since they were created” in the 1960s.

CPB “should be next in joining other members of the New Deal’s and Great Society’s alphabet soup of agencies on the ash-heap of history,” Gonzalez says. “NPR and PBS have violated the public trust, and have therefore forsaken their claim on the public money. As the ancient Chinese used to say of successive dynasties that eventually exhausted the long-suffering public’s patience, and were inevitably toppled, public broadcasting has through its uninhibited bias lost the Mandate of Heaven. It should be defunded and the CPB should be dissolved.”