Trump’s FCC chair investigates NPR and PBS, urges Congress to defund them
Trump’s FCC chair investigates NPR and PBS, urges Congress to defund them
Brendan Carr described as “Trump’s Censorship Czar” as he launches media probes.
Summary
FCC Chairman Brendan Carr has launched an investigation into NPR and PBS, alleging they may be violating federal law by airing commercial advertisements.
He also urged Congress to defund them, arguing taxpayer support is outdated.
Critics, including FCC Democratic commissioners and media advocacy groups, say the move is politically motivated and aimed at intimidating independent journalism.
Carr has previously acted on Trump's media complaints and contributed to Project 2025.
NPR and PBS deny wrongdoing, asserting their underwriting practices comply with FCC regulations.
Trump will demand all non right wing news banned it seems.
All the major news outlets are bending the knee
FWIW this is a really dumb move. The only thing stopping PBS and NPR from becoming the leading leftist voice is the Federal accountability.
If they pull federal funding, they will mostly survive (thanks to "viewers like you"). They will just be untethered from government obligations.
How would this end any differently from other mainstream media outlets, though?
Mr. Rogers went to bat for PBS and was able to secure their funding by just chatting with congress critters for a short while. Why would any of these people want to undo his work... (I likely know why... I just need to vent)
Because they think he's evil
Lol yeah it's Mr. Rogers' fault that kids work hard and aren't rewarded. Nothing to do with policy changes in their lifetime that prevent them from getting ahead.
That's fine. My trumper parents and sister will get PBS donations in their names for every birthday and Christmas from now on.
Ohh, I like this.
Brilliant move! I bet the ACLU and the EFF would appreciate the relatives' generous donations as well.
Next up, Alex Jones appointed Czar of Information Accuracy Committee. This consists of Himself, David Icke, Greg Hunter, Candace Owens, and An0maly.
would love my state, california, new york, and other liberal states get together and fund these so that now the red states will have people listening to blue states media because they don't have a local npr/pbs
The real Radio Free America.
I don't think the feds fund NPR. They're brought to us by a generous grant from the Walton Family Trust. Walmart, low prices every day! And Progressive Auto Insurance. Get a quote in 3 minutes with Progressive! Now back to another block of commercial free public radio.
Yeah, even though this is obviously politically motivated, the claim that they're effectively running commercials isn't that off base. It was one thing when they'd say "we receive funding from Company X: Their Slogan", but now they're reading sometimes paragraphs of ad copy, back-to-back.
With the whole industry Infowars thing in jeopardy, if PBS or NPR was to be sold to a private holder, could Global Tetrahedron buy one or both? The Onion is already ending up more respectable than The Washington Post, after all.
"Defunding" a privately funded service is known more popularly as theft
My only hope is that PBS and NPR have gotten so used to subsisting nearly 100% on member donations over the past few decades of constant GOP attacks on their funding, that this doesn't have the affect that they'd hope.
Though I can see them actually shutting them down and not allowing them to exist, not just defunding them...
cpb receives a not insignificant amount of federal funding. but since the pba, which established the cpb in 1967, specifically gives no control to the feds--they'll just nuke the whole thing instead.
Weaponizing the government
The rabid right wing has become so unhinged that they think Nice Polite Republicans and Petroleum Broadcast System are in any way "liberal".
"investigates"
Hey just change the laws so they're no longer complicit, then say "see, they're breaking the law."
The only thing I care about with the under-writers is that the get the word "Carnegie" as in "Carnegie hall" right.
The number of times I've winced when they say they are supported by the car-NEY-gee (three syllables) foundation instead of car-na-gie (one syllable) foundation ...
car-na-gie (one syllable)
But... that's still three syllables. You literally separated out the three sylables right there.
But you don't say them as three- unless you are N-ee-P-ee-A-rr (six syllables)