On Monday evening, hours before the U.S. Senate passed 51-48 President Trump’s rescission proposal to defund the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which would end taxpayer funding for PBS and NPR, PBS News Hour aired something that was more lobbying for taxpayer dollars than it was news.
Guest host William Brangham hosted Tom Abbott, general manager of KFSK Radio in Petersburg, Alaska, a low-population state that has received high amounts of attention from journalists rallying around the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (which funds PBS and NPR) in the interest of preserving federal funding.
Brangham had his propaganda down pat before introducing his guest remotely from Alaska, a state painted by legacy media as one in particular need of emergency warnings that only public broadcasting can provide (false). There was, of course, no rebuttal aired from a supporter of the rescissions package.
Brangham: Among the programs targeted for cuts in this rescissions package is the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, or CPB. It's the independent nonprofit created by Congress to distribute federal funds to non-commercial TV and radio stations across the U.S. Today, it funds more than 1,500 public stations, many of which produce local news, music shows, but also buy national content from NPR and PBS....Tom Abbott, tell us a little bit about your community and the station and who you serve.
Abbott gave a homespun geography lesson about Petersburg, Alaska, before Brangham segued to PBS’s trump card (pardon the pun), public safety.
Brangham: ….You also play an important role with regards to public safety. Can you explain that?
Tom Abbott: In the event of an emergency, we are the one that is going to receive the alert, whether it's coming from a national source, a state source, a regional source, or, if it's local, we're the ones that are firing it off….
Brangham: If these cuts go through coming out of Washington, D.C., what does that mean for your ability to do all of these things you're describing?
Abbott: Well, it's going to make it very difficult for us to continue providing a meaningful local service here, because 30 percent of our budget comes from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting....
Brangham advanced the useful myth that even in the age of the internet and digital communication, only public radio and television can inform people of local emergency situations.
Brangham: You're in Alaska, which is -- because of the sparse geographic nature and people spread out, public radio and TV are particularly important, but you're also -- there's other parts of the country in the South and the West that are very much the same. What is the argument that you make if someone asks you as to, why should we be funding public media?
Abbott talked about blank spots without cellphone coverage that FM radio (aka NPR) can reach.
Brangham finally sidled up to the key issue, one MRC has been hammering for decades: Bias.
Brangham: You live in a community that is -- Republicans outnumber Democrats quite a bit. And there has been an allegation that Republicans largely make that public media is biased and taxpayers shouldn't support it. I know that's been an issue with regards to donations for your own station. How do you respond to that critique?
Abbott hesitantly conceded the bias point before downplaying it.
Abbott: Well, I like to sit down and talk with people one-on-one and hopefully have a good conversation about that, because, sometimes, they have got a point. And I will grant them that. There have been times where I could see their opinion on it or their point of view on a particular piece. Overall, it's very good reporting….
“Very good reporting”? The Media Research Center has years of research that shows the opposite, including a June 2024 study that found “pro-Hamas” label was never used on PBS, a December 2024 study showing only 162 far-right labels vs. just six for the far-left on PBS and a study just last week showing 36 liberal guests on NPR’s Fresh Air vs. zero conservatives.
This self-serving segment was made possible by BNSF Railway and taxpayers like you.
A transcript is available, click “Expand.”
PBS News Hour
7/16/25
7:18:36 p.m. (ET)
William Brangham: Among the programs targeted for cuts in this rescissions package is the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, or CPB. It's the independent nonprofit created by Congress to distribute federal funds to non-commercial TV and radio stations across the U.S.
Today, it funds more than 1,500 public stations, many of which produce local news, music shows, but also buy national content from NPR and PBS. Collectively, public media stations give 99 percent of the U.S. access to public broadcasting. Nearly 250 of those stations are considered rural stations.
Joining us to discuss what's at stake with these potential cuts is Tom Abbott. He's the general manager of KFSK, the public radio station based in Petersburg, Alaska. So, Tom Abbott, tell us a little bit about your community and the station and who you serve.
Tom Abbott, General Manager, KFSK Radio: Well, KFSK is located in the central part of the Southeast Panhandle of Alaska. We're on the coast of British Columbia, on an island. We're accessible by air or boat only.
It's primarily a commercial fishing fleet here with a population of 3,400. And we have a 24/7 service that provides companionship to people, vital news and information, broadcasting, assembly meetings live, school board meetings, hospital board meetings. And then there's the lighthearted just everyday things of who's celebrating a birthday today.
William Brangham: I know you also do local news, national news. You also play an important role with regards to public safety. Can you explain that?
Tom Abbott: In the event of an emergency, we are the one that is going to receive the alert, whether it's coming from a national source, a state source, a regional source, or, if it's local, we're the ones that are firing it off.
And then we become the public information officer in the event of that emergency to relay the pertinent and important information to the public from the first responders of whatever that emergency may be. And, recently, it was about two years ago on a Halloween evening when there was — we had a week of heavy rain and the mountainside here had a slide, a landslide on it, and it blocked off the one road that we have, cutting the island in half.
We were the ones on the air that night telling people to stay clear of that area while the workers were there clearing the rubble.
William Brangham: If these cuts go through coming out of Washington, D.C., what does that mean for your ability to do all of these things you're describing?
Tom Abbott: Well, it's going to make it very difficult for us to continue providing a meaningful local service here, because 30 percent of our budget comes from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting; 60 percent of our budget is our personnel cost.
The other things that are sort of static expenses that we can't do without, paying the electricity bill, the heating in the wintertime, the upkeep of the building, the upkeep of the broadcast equipment, it's all very expensive, and those are pretty much sort of a static budget
William Brangham: You're in Alaska, which is — because of the sparse geographic nature and people spread out, public radio and TV are particularly important, but you're also — there's other parts of the country in the South and the West that are very much the same.
What is the argument that you make if someone asks you as to, why should we be funding public media?
Tom Abbott: I will take anyone on a tour of this area and you will go to blank spots or dead spots where there is no cell phone coverage here. And it's not very far. It can just be as matter of three miles away. And the FM signal is delivered to that area, but the cell phone coverage is dead in that spot.
William Brangham: You live in a community that is -- Republicans outnumber Democrats quite a bit. And there has been an allegation that Republicans largely make that public media is biased and taxpayers shouldn't support it.
I know that's been an issue with regards to donations for your own station. How do you respond to that critique?
Tom Abbott: Well, I like to sit down and talk with people one-on-one and hopefully have a good conversation about that, because, sometimes, they have got a point. And I will grant them that. There have been times where I could see their opinion on it or their point of view on a particular piece.
Overall, it's very good reporting. But I believe that it's the best service we can provide here. We have had tremendous support in this community. I mean, it was 2-1 voted for Trump over Harris in this most recent presidential election. But it's about 2-1 that also support KFSK as far as a conservative or a liberal goes. The service that we provide is vitally important. And that's why I think we do get support.
William Brangham: Tom Abbott, general manager of KFSK in Alaska, so great to talk to you. Thank you very much for your time.
Tom Abbott: Thank you.
