Dear John,
Since Donald Trump gutted funding for public media, nearly 600 public media employees have been laid off, including experienced and respected journalists at NPR. PBS eliminated 15 percent of its workforce. The Corporation for Public Broadcasting shut down entirely.
Having frequently appeared on public media, I always found the conversations to be thoughtful, challenging, and grounded in facts rather than outrage. Losing voices like these is a loss for every community that depends on trusted local journalism.
But the fight isn’t over yet. Congress is considering legislation that would restore funding and provide struggling stations with a critical lifeline. Every station that survives today is one that can help lead a stronger public media system tomorrow.
Tell Congress to support legislation restoring funding for public media now!
The past year has been devastating. The Corporation for Public Broadcasting — once the cornerstone of public media — has disbanded. Over 550 jobs have disappeared from local stations, with rural and tribal communities suffering the deepest losses. More than 115 additional stations are now at risk of closing if federal support is not restored.
Why was Trump so determined to end federal funding for public broadcasting? It’s all part of his larger plan to control not just what we do, but what we think.
Donald Trump is waging war on the American mind.
Throughout history, tyrants have understood that their major enemy is an educated public. Slaveholders prohibited enslaved people from learning to read. The Third Reich burned books. The Khmer Rouge banned music. Stalin and Picochet censored the media.
Trump has embraced the authoritarian slogan from George Orwell’s 1984: “Ignorance is Strength.” He knows that an uneducated electorate is easier to control, that ignorance is the handmaiden of tyranny.
That’s why he’s so hell-bent on defunding public media. Public radio and television is one of the most trusted and reliable sources of factual news and information, and that’s what makes it such a threat to Trump.
Public media has recovered from political attacks before because people recognized that an informed democracy is worth defending.
Tell Congress to support legislation restoring funding for public media now!
Thank you for fighting for public media.
Robert Reich
Inequality Media Civic Action
