The Trump administration recently requested that Congress withhold $1.1 billion from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB), a move that would effectively dismantle a public service with a proud record of asking tough questions and exposing what the powerful want buried.
Our award-winning radio show, Reveal, exposes the truth every day on NPR stations throughout the US that receive funding from the CPB. We are not intimidated by the administration’s threats to silence public radio. We’ll continue to investigate and share the truth, no matter who tries to hold us back.
One thing that’s become abundantly clear: Constitutional protections for a free press don’t matter if the executive branch chooses to ignore them. The White House has the power to ban reporters from press briefings. It can order that government data be taken offline. It can direct the Justice Department to prosecute journalists. It can threaten the licenses of television stations, try to kill funding for public television, have news organizations investigated, harass and persecute journalists who are immigrants, and go after the tax-exempt status of nonprofit news organizations. (That last one has happened to only one nonprofit news organization in US history—when the Reagan administration came after our colleagues at Mother Jones. After a two-year battle with the IRS, Mother Jones prevailed.)
As we see it, there are two ways to respond to attacks on the press: One is to fold. The other option is to fight. Because you are reading this email, you can probably guess what we intend to do.
Fighting is not easy—it demands copious staff time, energy, and money. No one gets to tell us what to publish—or not publish—because no one owns our fiercely independent newsroom. But that also means we need to directly raise the resources it takes to keep our journalism alive. There’s only one way for that to happen, and it’s listeners like you stepping up.
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and know that our team is out there working hard for you and upholding the values of a free and independent press.
