As NewsBusters has documented, the liberal media has been circling the wagons around PBS and NPR, flacking for continued taxpayer funding of those fellow liberal outlets.
Morning Joe did its part on Thursday, bringing on PBS CEO Paula Kerger, teeing her up to make the case to keep the pipeline of taxpayer dollars open.
In a moment of unintentional hilarity, Katty Kay, an employee of the government-funded BBC, told Kerger:
"In an era of growing misinformation, we need reliable news sources even more than we ever have."
Reliably liberal, Katty surely meant to say!
As the Daily Signal has noted:
"OpenSecrets reports that 100% of political donations from PBS employees went to Democrats during the 2024 political cycle."
And as revealed in the White House fact sheet announcing President Trump's executive order ending taxpayer subsidization of NPR and PBS:
- An NPR editor found that registered Democrats outnumbered Republicans 87 to zero in the newsroom’s editorial positions.
- NPR’s President and CEO admitted that she regards “truth” as a harmful “distraction” from NPR’s objectives.
Kerger claimed that it is vital for PBS to continue receiving taxpayer funds to subsidize radio stations in areas that would otherwise become local "news deserts."
That is palpably false. Citing that same White House fact sheet:
"Unlike in 1967, when CPB [The Corporation for Public Broadcasting] was established, today the media landscape is filled with abundant, diverse, and innovative news options, making government funding of news media outdated, unnecessary, and corrosive to journalistic independence."
Kerger claimed that the role of PBS is "educating" the public. Substitute "indoctrinating" in liberal ideology, and Kerger would have been right on target!
Here's the transcript.
MSNBC
Morning Joe
5/8/25
7:42 am EDTMIKA BRZEZINSKI: The CEOs of PBS and NPR say they are preparing to mount a legal challenge against President Trump's executive order cutting their funding.
Joining us now, the CEO of PBS, Paula Kerger. She recently co-authored a piece with filmmaker Ken Burns for The Hill entitled "America at 250, why we need public media now more than ever."
It's great for you to come on the show. I'd love to get a sense of the legal pushback here, if you could. Some might say, especially those in the Trump administration might say, if something is truly independent, why does it need government funding?
. . .
KATTY KAY: Paula, we mentioned that PBS gets about 15% of its funding from the federal government. But of course, it's not 15% everywhere. There are some communities, some stations, that rely much more heavily on federal money.
What does it mean for audiences, for voters, for Democrats and Republicans, for Americans in those communities if they lose their PBS station?
PAULA KERGER: So what you have to remember is the federal appropriation is largely intended for our stations. It was envisioned when LBJ signed the Public Broadcasting Act that every community in this country should be entitled to a public broadcasting station, and there would be some communities that would need some federal support to enable those stations to exist.
And so the 15% number is an aggregate number. Some of our stations receive a smaller portion of their budget, 5% or 6% or 7%. But there are stations in this country that the federal appropriation represents up to 50% of their budget. And for those stations, this is really an existential moment. If that funding does not continue, if we're not able to support those stations, they really would be challenged to move forward.
And I think that as we are really trying to ensure that everyone has access, I've traveled a lot since I've been in this job. I've visited not all 330, but many of them. And what I will tell you is that for so many stations that I visit, the local public television stations and public radio stations are the last remaining locally owned, operated, and governed media organizations.
These are news deserts that are served beautifully by public media. And that's why we were created, was to close those market gaps that the commercial media landscape is not able to fulfill.
KAY: Yeah. And in an era of growing misinformation, we need reliable news sources even more than we ever have.
How much leverage do you have and how much do you think the American public and viewers will raise their voices if these cuts go through?
KRUGER: Well, I know that in the last week, more than a million people have called, emailed, or texted their members of Congress. This is something people do care about. We're asking people if they care about this to let their elected officials know.
WILLIE GEIST: Paula, just picking up on that point you made there, and all of the extraordinary shows that you broadcasted over the years and that you broadcast now, from Sesame Street to Frontline and everything in between. I think this is a time of sort of reminding people about the institutions of our country, and I count PBS among those.
So, you've come under attack from the president himself, saying PBS is radical left and all of the things he's been saying, trying to hurt our country. So as you see it and as you've seen it in your long tenure there, what is the mission of PBS?
KERGER: Well, I always like to say, you know, although we're a media organization, we're actually in a slightly different business. We use the same tools as everyone else, but our focus is really not just to entertain, but we're hoping that the content that we're producing is also educating and inspiring.
And I think at a moment when we're looking at ways to bring our country together, it is institutions like PBS that are very focused on community. And that's our mission. That has been our core mission from when we were created, and it continues to be our mission today.
