Dear John,
Do you love public radio or television? Then please read this email.
Donald Trump is demanding that Congress claw back a whopping $1.1 billion from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, the agency that funds public radio and television.
If these cuts pass, public radio and TV stations all over the country will be forced to shut down.
The good news is that Trump can only afford to lose three Republican votes, and the latest reporting shows that there are at least four Republican senators who have publicly said they oppose the defunding of public broadcasting.
The Senate has only eight days left to pass Trump’s request, so if we can keep the pressure on for just one more week, public broadcasting will be saved.
Will you make a donation to help get out the truth and fight the defunding of public broadcasting?
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Public radio and television stations count on the federal government to fund as much as half their budget. Especially in small towns and rural communities, these cuts would be devastating.
Trump’s cuts are especially damaging because this is funding that was already appropriated to public broadcasting — money they’re counting on to cover basic expenses. Replacing that funding now would be virtually impossible for many stations, forcing them to shut down.
One Pennsylvania public radio director said it would be a “death sentence.”
Think about how many hours you’ve spent listening to your favorite public radio stations in the car or while getting ready for work. Anywhere you go in the country, you can count on public radio to be there, delivering reliable, in-depth news and information.
Or consider the tens of millions of children who learned to read and count watching public television’s high-quality educational programs.
Funding for public broadcasting represents just 0.01% of the federal budget. The value we get in return for this investment is immense, and that’s why solid majorities of voters oppose these cuts.
So why is Trump so hell-bent on defunding public broadcasting? It’s all part of his authoritarian assault on the free press.
We’re sounding the alarm and mobilizing grassroots support to stop these cuts from passing the Senate. But this is the moment of truth.
Will you make a donation to help alert the public, educate the citizenry, and stop Donald Trump’s plan to defund public media?
Thank you,
Robert Reich
Inequality Media Civic Action
