Cutting Off NPR and PBS

There is no reason, Republicans say, for the government to fund NPR and PBS.

Last week, G.O.P. members of Congress, led by Marjorie Taylor Greene, flayed the leaders of both organizations for what they said was partisan programming. “You all can hate us on your own dime,” Greene said. The next day, a Republican introduced a bill to end all government support.

What would happen to public broadcasting if Republicans succeeded? In today’s newsletter, I’ll explain.

NPR

The specter of government abandonment has haunted public radio for so long that executives drafted a secret plan for the worst.

In February 2011, NPR assembled a 36-page document that detailed exactly what would happen if the Treasury stopped cutting checks to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, the government-backed company that supports NPR and PBS. The document, which has not previously been reported, is bleak. It describes a precarious radio system that will bear the blow poorly, with consequences for listeners across the nation.

“Most NPR member stations operate at, or barely above, break-even,” it begins. A cutoff would cause up to $240 million to vanish and up to 18 percent of roughly 1,000 member stations to close. The Midwest, the South and the West would be affected the most. Nationwide, up to 30 percent of listeners would lose access to NPR programming.

NPR provides national coverage, but the independent member stations across the country get most of the money devoted to public radio. That makes them more vulnerable than the national headquarters, which says it gets only 1 percent of its budget from Congress. (It gets a bit more from local stations that pay for its programming).