John,

In a November 20, 2024 op-ed for the Wall Street Journal, Elon Musk laid out in detail how his Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) plans to “cut government waste.” And he took direct aim at the “$535 million a year to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting”, which funds PBS, NPR, and over 2,000 local media outlets across the country.¹

For decades, Republicans have tried and failed to defund the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and its two most popular stations: PBS and NPR―and this time they may actually do it.

Musk’s DOGE will work closely with the Office of Management and Budget (OMB)―an executive office that “touches every function of government and every sector of the economy, which makes it central to the business of running the country.”² Trump has nominated Project 2025 architect Russell T. Vought to lead the office. From 2004 - 2008, Vought served as Budget Director, Policy Director, and Executive Director of the Republican Study Committee, and he was there when they proposed a series of budget cuts in 2005 that called for the elimination of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.³

All previous attempts to defund the Corporation for Public Broadcasting have failed, and this one needs to fail too.

Send a direct message to Congress right now, urging them to stop Musk and Vought from defunding the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.

Defunding―or outright eliminating funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting isn’t just foolish, it’s grossly unpopular. In a 2024 survey by YouGov, PBS is the 3rd most trusted news source in the United States―beating out The Associated Press, The New York Times, and The Washington Post.⁴

Almost 1,200 radio stations and 365 TV stations rely on the Corporation for Public Broadcasting for financial support, which allows them to retain editorial independence. 99.9% of the U.S. population lives within listening distance of a public radio or TV station―including rural areas that are more likely to vote for Donald Trump.⁵

Musk says that he intends to cut $2 trillion in government spending. That’s a full one-third of the government’s total spending of $6.1 billion in 2023. Funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting isn’t even a drop in the bucket.

This is part of a larger attack on media organizations that do not do the bidding of Trump and his acolytes like Musk and others. As Elon Musk himself tweeted on his own media platform, “legacy media must die.”⁶

The authoritarian attacks on news media must not be allowed to take place in a free and fair democracy.

Send a message to Congress today urging them to fight back against attempts to defund or destroy the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.

Thank you for all you do,

Deborah Weinstein
Executive Director, CHN Action

¹ Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy: The DOGE Plan to Reform Government
² Understanding OMB’s Role in Presidential Policymaking
³ The House Republican Study Committee's Proposals to Offset the Costs of Hurricane Relief
⁴ Trust in Media 2024: Which news sources Americans trust — and which they think lean left or right
⁵ Trump’s threat to defund all US public media has NPR and PBS on the back foot
⁶ NPR and PBS Stations Brace for Funding Battle Under Trump