This Podcast Is... Uncalled For - Thoughts on the Defunding of Public Media

Episode Date: January 16, 2026

Congress recently voted to defund the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, the umbrella funding apparatus for National Public Radio (NPR) and the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) - the primary public media outlets in the United States. Mike, who interned at Kansas City's PBS station, has some thoughts on this. Support your local public media outlets!

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Tune in now. Just press play. Hello, everyone. Welcome to the podcast. and it is a dark day in American history. I record this on July 18, 2025. It is the day that public media may be going away, or is it?

Well, certainly federal support for public funding is going away. And this hurts a lot of people. There are a lot of places in this country, especially rural places that the only the only media outlets available to them are public media their only local

outlets are public and those are slowly but surely going away and let's face it their advantages to public media that private media can never touch and unfortunately for us in the states

a lot of our media is private. But the only things that we can truly say are public, are funded by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which in turn funds both National Public Radio, NPR, and the Public Broadcasting Service, PBS. If you are new to the podcast, I interned at Kansas City's PBS station back in 2012. I still maintain it was one of the best experiences I ever had, working.

And I'm especially sad to see this day come. I'm going to read some articles about what's going on. And first one, interestingly enough, from NPR. NPR.org, how bipartisan support for public media unraveled in the Donnie era. He has not earned my respect enough to refer to him by his last name, so we're calling him Donnie. Credit to the article goes to David Fulkenflig. And here we go.

When President Lyndon B. Johnson, L.B.J. spoke about signing the Public Broadcasting Act in 1967. He marveled at technologies like radio and television and satellites and echoed to the words of Samuel Morse in sending the first telegram message or telegraph I should say What hath man wroughts?

LBJ asked and how will man use his inventions Johnson offered an answer to his own question While we work every day To produce new goods and to create new wealth We want most of all to enrich man's spirit That is the purpose of

this act. And the years that followed brought forth the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, PBS, and NPR, largely with bipartisan support. It also led to a framework of laws intended to ensure those organizations were protected from political pressure. The corporation began funneling an ongoing subsidy to hundreds of public media outlets across the country. Out of that system came

original programming. That became familiar to all corners of the country. Sesame Street. I'm pretty sure if one's, at least everyone from America has heard of Sesame Street. Big Bird, Bernernie, Elmo. At the PBS station I interned They had a few statues of Sesame Street Muppet characters,

so an Oscar to Grouch. Two big birds, including one of the studio that was life-sized paper mache, and I built a moving base for Super Grover and Elma. PBS NewsHour, all things considered. and if you're a South Park fan you know the theme of all things considered

it's the same theme used for the cheesy poofs theme I love cheesy poofs you eat love cheesyboots Tiny Desk

I believe 1T Swift's appeared on this Nova a famous science program not related to

the old Chevy Nova joke that you could never sell a Chevy Nova in a Spanish-speaking country because Nova! It doesn't go. Antiques Road Show, some pawn stars without the profit

motive. And wait, wait, don't tell me. Another South Park gag. One of the co-hosts of this is Bill Curtis. And side note, here I've met Bill Curtis's sister, Jane Shodorf. She's a

politician here in Kansas switched from R to D. Very nice lady. Moving on with the article. They were on the air, online, and on platforms that Johnson could never have envisioned. All helped foster a sense there was something for everyone.

That seeming consensus under sustained attack was shattered this week. Lawmakers on capital Hill have paused legislation on a narrow party line basis to eliminate all federal funding for public broadcasting for the next two years. That's 1.1 billion with a B. Previously approved by the Republican-led Congress and Donnie. The reversal is notionally due to the need to cut funds to help. pay for new Republican priorities

including an expansion of immigration enforcement sign up. That's not really a problem. Stop making that a problem. All right. It's only a problem because you're going after people with darker skin.

Can we just stop with that let these people live their lives? And a lot of them are here legally. So stop it. and extension of Donnie's prior tax cuts. Tax cuts, they're geared towards the wealthiest of the wealthy. You're not going to get this tax cut.

I'm not going to get this tax cuts. If anything, we're going to be screwed by these tax cuts. So, let's just stop it there. That's a myth that definitely needs to die. That's cutting taxes for the, wealthy generates wealth for everyone else. It does not.

You've been trying this since the 80s Republicans just stop. Yet, Donnie had campaigned on retribution and made the news media a core element of his grievance. Public broadcasting

has often, as offered, a ready target, given the government funding, and he has repeatedly called NPR and PBS He's repeatedly claimed NPR and PBS demonstrates ideological

bias. Okay, pause. When I was interning there, I don't know if you folks know this, but there was no ideological bias going on. Quite the

opposite. What I witnessed there was a local journalist That's important to point out. The first time I ever met Nick Haynes, the host of Kansas City Weekend Review, an executive producer at our PBS station,

and very Welsh. He's not English, but he is British. He told me the very first time I met them in that we only focus on local reporting here. Nothing national is just

anything happening around Kansas City, anything coming out of Topeka, anything coming out of Jefferson City. All right. That is it. That was their focus. And that's part of what's so critical about public broadcasting is that that's often for a lot of people, especially in rural communities and smaller communities.

That's often their only outlet of finding local news. Do you think corporate-owned media is going to give a shit about what's happening in small town of America? My point exactly. Back to the article. So last week, the president ramped up pressure on

wavering GOP lawmakers' posting. Excuse my Donny impression here. Any Republican votes to allow this monstressity to continue broadcasting with net head

may support your endorsement. No collusion, no obstruction. It's all the hooks. That's our bullshit. Another Johnson, Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson of Louisiana,

said on Tuesday the time had come to turn off federal largesse to public media. Quote, this is, in our view, the misuse of taxpayer dollars. They're not objective. They pretend to be so.

In its origination, NPR and PBS might have made some sense, but shouldn't be subsidized by taxpayers. Mr. Johnson, resign. All right. Resign. Without federal subsidy, some stations will wither.

Well, NPR receives just a small amount of direct federal government support. Less than 2% of its annual revenue. PBS and local stations were I on it far more heavily. For public radio stations,

federal funding makes up on average 8 to 10% of their budgets. For PBS and its member stations, the figure stands on average at about 15%. I did receive a email from the local PBS station on

this and they said it was 13% which is about 1.7 million dollars but you have to understand to that television is way more expensive than radio just by its very nature but that level varies widely executives at small stations especially those that serve rural or tribal audiences warn they could be devastated or even knocked off the air when aid from Washington fails to arrive at the start of the fiscal year in October. Tri-States public media in southeast Indiana,

a southwest Indiana, excuse me, but special emphasis on agricultural coverage. You think they're going to talk about agriculture and the national news and has a show dedicated to food and farming given the importance of that industry in its region. It already is suffering from a loss of funding from the state government and about a third of its revenue comes from Washington.

Tim Black, the chief executive, said the losses of federal funding would be, quote, pretty darn close. to being catastrophic. He said the station can drain its financial reserves and sell off its HQ to survive another year or two,

but after that, it may go off the air, all together. Others are preparing for a smaller, scrappier future. Quote, I came here because what we do,

we do for free we try to reach everyone regardless of their ability to pay says Sue Rogers the executive vice president's and general manager of WXXI the NPR and PBS members stations in Rochester

New York it will serve every it will test every single strive of creativity we have to continue to try to serve our mission which we will do says Rogers

yet she warns that public media stations won't be able to do all they do now we know that we can do as best we can but there are communities left

out and there will there will be issues uncovered and there will be too much lost in my opinion says Rogers and she points to the 545 million dollars

saved annually less than one one hundredth of one percent of the U.S. government's multi-trillion dollar annual budget one-one one-hundredth of one percent

that's that's a ridiculous think of the premier public media outlets out there the BBC, British Broadcasting Company.

That's the one that immediately comes to mind, but there are other countries that have nothing but publicly owned TV and radio and a lot of them

do a fantastic job, especially the BBC. This is what we're having to deal with. Let's continue with the article. All for such a tiny really,

bucks sixty a person in this country per year. For a tiny commitment of dollars, says Rogers. Intensifying scrutiny on national networks. Beyond the loss of the direct federal subsidy,

NPR and PBSX say profitally, they expect to feel the ripple effects of budget crises at member stations. While the stations receive the vast majority of

federal funds, they use a significant amount of that money to pay the networks for the right to run their programs. Yet, it would be hard for many of them to go with that. Those national programs serve audiences throughout much of the day and help

propel stations fundraising drives. This is a good time to talk about fundraising drives because I did have to do a couple of these during my time at the local PBS. station it's it's a basically a reverse commercial break if that if you can call it that so they do this like once a while I will tell you the only

permanent fixture set wise at the studio is the phone bank all right so you see those folks calling taking phone calls during the pledge drives that's That's all real. That's all right. They're actually there. They're actually taking the calls. I want to pledge this much to your station and all that. And it runs very much like a reverse commercial break.

During the actual programming, take a little break, get something to eat. Yeah, these are the last couple of hours, right? Get something. and then uh oh time time for us to come back so we got back and uh you see all that uh wonderful stuff trying to get people to uh pay for memberships and hey call this number bump up all that all right so uh that's becoming that's going to become uh way more importance uh in this unfortunate new era but still pretty fun 20 years ago on in our

first in-person conversation I asked then NPR chief executive Ken Stern whether the network should forego the one million dollar subsidy it received at the time in order to escape periodic political flare-ups then present George W. Bush's appointee at Corporation for Public Broadcasting Board chairperson had accused PPS of of liberal bias and was pressuring the network over specific programming changes. Again, I state, just pure journalism is happening at PBS. They try to do this as bias-free as humanly possible. In fact, I know for a fact that certain people at that station have right-leaning

biases. But they do a good job of keeping their biases in check and just sticking with the truth. All right. I personally have liberal, progressive

views. But I'm not going let that affect my work here. And I make it known on this podcast. I'm a progressive. All right. So, But anyways, we continue.

It was an off-the-record, get-to-know-you chat, though Stern didn't mind my reflecting on it here all these years later. Stern told me it was important that NPR received some federal funds so it would have a place at the table. It could advocate for public radio stations. On Wednesday, I asked him to revisit his thinking. It worked until it didn't, Stern says, now. Stern says the local stations always enjoyed more favor from lawmakers, especially conservatives, even conservatives, excuse me, then the national networks.

So, local over national. There's that theme coming up. Even today, I suspect that left to their own devices. many Republicans would still vote for funding, says Stern. It's just that now every vote is a political loyalty test, unfortunately. A loyalty test to a convicted felon 34 times over, who's been twice impeached and is proving once again, he doesn't know what the fuck he's doing.

It's going to wind up destroying this country, I'm afraid. while a few Republican senators voiced support for local member stations over the past week, nearly all condemned NPR, including Maine's Susan Collins, often considered the most liberal Republican in the Senate. Journalism and government funding in the U.S. are incompatible. Six years after my conversation with Stern, another country, controversy exploded the tenure of one of his successors, Vivian Schiller. Commentator Juan Williams had just been ousted by her chief news exec over remarks he made on Fox News,

the epitome of the right-wing media ecosphere. And the very definition of corporate media. I want to say this again, outside of NPR and PBS, all of our mainstream media here in the United States is owned by corporations. Then, an undercover camera stunt by right-wing provocateur James O'Keefe submitted her fate. Republicans used NPR as a rallying cry in the waning weeks of the 2010 elections to help take back the U.S. House of Representatives. Schiller argues this week's vote

were inevitable and that NPR leaders should have prepared for this action by walking away from the funds long ago. Quote, any evidence-based news organization that reports critically is going to be accused of left-wing bias. Schiller says

journalism and government funding in the United States, those two things are incompatible. Again, just straight journalism. That's all that's happening here. No left-wing bias, no

right-wing bias, just the fact. That said, when I see these accusations of bias against what I consider one of the finest news organizations in the world. It's very, very painful, says Schiller. These accusations

against NPR's news organization are flat out wrong. So that's where we are. It's excruciating. Well, PBS stirs controversy too. NPR's far more expansive news coverage draws the lion's share

of public outrage. The late former CEO, John Lansing, who retired in early 2024, so I must have recently, past. Considered diversity in hiring and programming choices both a moral imperative and a business strategy to broaden its reach. NPR's staff came close to reflect America's racial and ethnic complexity. Its audiences did not appreciably budge. So another right- wing bullshit talking about

that being inclusive is somehow DEI and bad I respectfully disagree and look if someone's qualified for the job someone's qualified for a job I don't care what their

skin color is alright if they happen to be African American or Latino or Asian so be it they should have the job but dipshit's like Donnie and way too many

conservatives that see otherwise all because a black man was elected president in 2008 we're Republican being from the fucking Edward

there you go conservatives another of this shift and often criticized it they also singled out NPR coverage of Hunter Biden's laptop. The question of the origins

of the COVID virus and issues concerned in LGBT people, particularly transgender rights. Some people with ties to NPR agree with elements of the criticism. Bruce

Drake, a former vice president of news at NPR in the early 2000s, argues that the network has lost more support from its audiences than it is willing to admit and not simply due to changes in how people consume media in the digital age. The NPR issue is not as much political bias as it sounds. Cultural orientation, sensibilities and tone. The same thing that the Democrats were so tone-deaf about in the 2024 election, writes Drake. again

2024 Biden fucked up in 2020 by naming someone his vice president who

I will still maintain at no business being vice president and certainly had no business running for president

that is my opinion all right last week last year rather Yuri Berliner then a

veteran business editor at the network published an essay in the free press that provides this issue. Berliner castigated the network for embracing what he characterized as a progressive

mindset instead of a more open-minded quest for truth in its reporting. He asked for a meeting with NPR's new chief executive Catherine Marr, who had started days earlier and she declined. He left NPR for the pre-press soon after. Berliner said the SEPA marks, quote, a sad day.

NPR was a treasured national trust. It no longer is one. Instead of restoring the journalism gold standard of neutral impartiality, the NPR leadership chose to squander, last year as the network doubled down on agenda

driven journalism by and for progressives so here we are again just straight

journalism I listen at NPR when I'm driving I never got any a sense that they were

catering to progressives right after Berner's essay was published conservative critics

of NPR scored scoured scour scour Mars' social media posts, they found she had condemned Donnie during his first term, as any respectable person should, and proclaimed support for then-candidator Joe Biden in 2020. Being CEO of NPR is Marr's first job in journalism.

The network's board said she was entitled to such views in a prior life. she nonetheless became a lightning rod for Republican lawmakers in the 16-month sense. NPR officials have resolutely defended the fairness of the network's reporting, as they say they are open to criticism. In an effort to shore up public trust Marr and NPR's chief content officer, created a senior editing team to ensure high-level review and awareness of all. news content before broadcast

or posting. This was paid for by a grant from the corporation for Bellew Broadcasting. Stations confront a changed landscape. Some station managers say they two have periodically complained about

news judgments to the network, but they attest it value provided by NPR and PBS programming and news coverage. Others have spoken of the reporting collaborations. NPR had fostered in recent years as a success.

Texas Public Radio and San Antonio had taken the lead on reporting on the recent deadly floods in the Lone Star State. But Dan Katz, the station's news director, cites a collaboration with the Texas Newsroom, a joint project, with other public media stations in the state

and helping him break news. See, there's, there it is again. Public media being probably the only way you're going to find about stories in small town, America. That newsroom has been cultivated in parts with federal money on corporation grants, Katz, says. Ironically, as political debate over NPR had led Donnie's congressional allies to wipe out

federal funds for public broadcasting, several station officials say they had never worked more closely with the network to deliver top-notch local coverage in regions, far from NPR's HQ in Washington or major boroughs in New York, or LA.

Maria O'Mara, the executive director of PBS Utah, NPR affiliates K-U-E-R, and the bilingual station, Avanzah, said she's

ready to move on from the political debate. It has just drained us of time and energy and brain power that we need to face other. existential questions about our system and our public service, she said. She hopes stations now forge an even stronger relationship with the national networks and each other to become more viable and vibrant.

It's about public service. We are needed by our listeners. We feel that clarity and mission. so there we go I know we have a couple I might have a couple more articles on this but

that's that's pretty powerful stuff like I said the local PBS station gave me a chance all right first as an intern volunteered a couple of times and did some paid work

for them still the best best job I ever had. All right. And, well, the best job, one of the best jobs,

I shouldn't have gone ahead and say. I never noticed the bias that these people are complaining about. As far as I know, there is no bias.

It's just straight journalism. Maybe it's this huge perspective of these people that they think it's liberally biased. Once again, there is no liberal bias in mainstream American media. So I'm warned today for this tremendous hit that public media has unnecessarily taken in this country

just to have Donnie's immigration goons beat up on people of color for no reason, to have them sent to gulags for no good reason to continue to piss off our allies to inch us closer to World War III to continue

to push for pollution in a time when we should really be cutting back on carbon emissions no this jackass is doubling down I've already talked about that I've already talked about the whole liberal bias myth

in our media so do you stop the thing about this do you really think companies like Disney and Time Warner Comcast do you think do you really honestly think

they're liberally biased because if you do, you're part of the problem. All right. So turn off the Fox News, turn off the right wing talk radio. And maybe you should be watching more Sesame Street. Oh, all that. You know, they did a good job helping me grow up.

And everything in night, I'm pretty confident. A lot of you who are Americans, a lot of you watched, Sesame Street as children. I'm sure a lot of you watched Reading Rainbow. That was another PBS show, Lafar Burn. I think those are probably

the two things that Lafar Burn is going to be best to know for Reading Rainbow and playing Jordy on Star Trek. Mr. Rogers, he was a PBS program as well. In fact, sat

before Congress in back in the, I think it's 70s or 80s, sat before Congress and told them the values of public media, a public television. All right. And I'm going to echo those myself. All right. The time I had at the PBS station was quite educational. I learned a lot about what goes on behind the scenes and participated in the behind the scenes. stuff at that station, including building a platform to buy a life-size paper machete,

big bird on so you could push them around their main studio. Okay, so I've seen it, and I know for a fact that a notion of liberal bias is a complete bullshit. and if that's your main reason for this travesty, may you burn in hell. Donnie, Mike Johnson, and way too many Republicans to name. May you burn in hell for this. So this podcast is uncalled for,

is host or producing it by myself, Mike Chernowski. alumnus of Kansas City PBS. Our opening music is the, this podcast is on called for a theme created at suno.com, sUNO.com. And our outro music is St. James Infirmary Blues by Austin Mofa, licensed under Creative Commons by attribution 4.0 international license. You can find this song and many more at free music archive.org. On my left stood old Joe McCannity and his eyes were bloodshot and red

Please support the podcast and purchase our exclusive uncalled for merchandise, t-shirts, sweatshirts, mugs, stickers, and so much more. Go to www.com.com. called for pod. Thank you so much for listening. We will see you next time.