Republicans Cancelled Funding for PBS and NPR
- Social Safety Net Team
- Nov 21, 2025
- 3 min read
DID YOU KNOW?
Congress recently voted to take back $1.1 billion in funding to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) which gives funding to the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) and National Public Radio (NPR) stations all over the U.S. This is funding that Congress had already approved for the next 2 years. While this funding is a smaller part of the total funding of stations in larger urban areas, some stations in smaller areas will lose up to 50% of their funding and some stations will have to close. One of Michigan’s local stations, WGVU, expects that it will lose 14%-18% of its annual budget. The station thinks it will amount to $1.4 million this year and the same amount in 2026. In San Francisco, KQED announced that it is going to have to do a staff cut of nearly 15 percent.
Polls indicate that large numbers of Republicans, Democrats, and Independents enjoy watching and listening to PBS and NPR stations. In Michigan alone, there are 43 stations providing radio or television coverage. National monthly viewership of PBS is 36 million. Listeners across all of NPR’s platforms amount to 43 million weekly. More people listen to it than any other radio station in the country. NPR estimated in 2011 that if government funding stopped, up to 30 % of listeners would be cut off.
WHY IS THIS IMPORTANT?
For many people, their main source of news is NPR or PBS. In some rural areas these stations are the only source of local and national news because residents do not have access to broadband so they cannot stream. In addition, many children aged 2-8 have gotten a good start in learning by watching Sesame Street, Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood, Molly of Denali, and other shows. The stations are vital for emergency notifications during disasters such as wildfires, tornados or other emergencies. NPR’s CEO said that “Nearly 3-in-4 Americans say they rely on their public radio stations for alerts and news for their public safety”.
In Michigan, Michigan Public Radio was one of the first to report on the Flint crisis with lead contaminated water. In Alaska, the stations provided warnings of earthquakes and possible tsunamis. In North Carolina, when Hurricane Helene hit, there were power outages that affected cellular and internet, but people were able to get information from NPR.
SO WHY ARE REPUBLICANS DOING THIS WHEN NPR AND PBS ARE SO VALUABLE?
The cuts are not about the budget. It only saves $1.1 billion while at the same time tax cuts for the wealthy amount to about $117 billion just in 2026 with more to follow every year. So in 2026 alone, the Country will save $1.1 billion, but will lose out on $115.9 billion.
Republicans don’t want you to know this.
Republicans know that an educated public is smart enough to ask questions. It is harder to fool educated people, that’s you and me, with lies and attempts to make us hate each other. So, they cut the budget to ruin these services, to keep you uninformed.
Autocratic rulers in other countries have banned books, learning how to read, and even music, all to prevent people from thinking and making their citizens more easily controllable. Also, these people do not like to be criticized in any way, even when the criticism is valid. Donald Trump said, “I love the poorly educated”.
One way to prevent your questions is to eliminate unbiased sources of news like PBS and NPR. Without independent journalism that “Tells-it-like-it-is” without lies and misinformation, no one will be available to point out problems in our government. They want to keep you clueless. This puts our democracy at risk.
WHAT CAN I DO?
If you can, donate money to your local PBS and/or NPR stations so that they can keep supplying you with the news and programs you need.
Remind everyone you know that having access to free and independent sources of news is necessary so that we know enough to make the people who govern us responsible to us, and tell them that keeping PBS and NPR alive and well-funded is vital to the survival of our democracy.
Contact your legislators and ask them to keep challenging the new budget.
Support legal challenges to the 2025 Budget Bill.
IF YOU WANT MORE INFORMATION:
● Save PBS causenet@commoncause.org
● Trump’s victory over PBS and NPR “bias” will be devasting for rural areas, station leaders say By Brian Stelter https://www.cnn.com/2025/07/17/media/pbs-npr-trump-recission-devastating-public-media?iid=cnn_buildContentRecirc_end_recirc&recs_exp=up-ne
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