Earlier this week, NPR CEO Katherine Maher joined the network’s All Things Considered program to discuss what the impact of losing federal funding would mean for the 246-member radio stations across the country. In total, that amounts to about $100 million dollars. Currently, the network receives around $122 million dollars annually, according to several reports.
Maher said the impact would be felt most by radio stations in rural communities.
“The big impact would be on rural stations, stations in geographies that are quite large or complex in order to be able to receive broadcast or infrastructure,” said Maher. “Costs are very high. You could see some of those stations really having to cut back services or potentially going away altogether.”
Later in the conversation, All Things Considered host Mary Louise Kelly asked about the potential survival of the network if it were to lose so much of its federal funding. In response, Maher attempted to explain that the network would run the risk of coverage being cut.
“If federal funding goes away, that network is absolutely at risk,” said Maher. “The quality of service, the ability to cover everyone, people who live in what would otherwise be news deserts.”
Additionally, Maher mentioned that if the network does not receive funding, the local newsrooms would essentially go away. She was also asked about the ongoing debate: should taxpayer money support NPR when other news sources are widely available?
“I think that it’s important for public media to be able to continue to be relevant in a time where there is a lot of coverage of different issues and areas of interest. And at the same time, I think it’s very easy to say that there’s universal coverage because there’s so much content being produced,” said Maher. “About 20 percent of Americans live in an area without any other local news coverage other than their local public radio station. This is tremendously important as a public service and just because not every single person uses it every day – you know, I don’t drive on our interstates every day, and yet when I need it, it’s there. The same is true of public media.”
Meanwhile, earlier in the week, the Trump administration moved to eliminate federal funding for NPR and PBS. Specifically, it drafted a memo outlining a plan for key members of Congress to cut “all” such spending, accusing both public broadcasters of spreading “radical, woke propaganda, disguised as ‘news.’”
In response to this broader criticism, Maher emphasized the unique mission of public media.
“Most commercial outlets are able to target certain audiences that they want to reach. We have an actual obligation in our mission and in our funding model to try to serve everyone across the country,” said Maher. “We won’t always be able to serve everyone, every belief set, every need, every interest, but we need to serve as broad an audience as possible. That’s the point of public broadcasting, is to be able to put the public in conversation with one another and to operate off a shared set of conversations about what’s going on in the world.”
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