After decades of threatening to “zero out” federal funding of public broadcasting, Republicans may have found their man and their moment. It seems only a matter of time before Elon Musk gets around to chainsawing the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, the entity that distributes money appropriated by Congress to NPR, PBS and their affiliated stations.
Losing federal support might not sink NPR, but it will hurt. This year, CPB will hand out $122 million (a relative pittance in the broader media universe) to hundreds of public radio stations. Those stations, in turn, will kick some of that money back to NPR to pay for nationally syndicated programs such as “All Things Considered” and “Morning Edition.” On average, federal funds account for about 10 to 15 percent of public stations’ operating budgets; station “fees” represent about 30 percent of NPR’s revenue.
As longtime journalist Steve Oney documents in “On Air: The Triumph and Tumult of NPR,” a lively and engaging new history of the organization, it has been money well spent by the government, helping to create and support a national network of enormous value.
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