Latest news with #KSUT
Fox News
18-07-2025
- Politics
- Fox News
Rural NPR stations ‘disappointed,' determined to survive after rescission package eliminates federal funding
Leaders of NPR member stations in rural America are "a bit sad" and "disappointed," but determined to continue to serve their communities despite their loss of federal funding. Congress is officially sending a package detailing $9 billion in spending cuts to President Donald Trump's desk after the House of Representatives passed the bill, called a "rescissions package," in a late-night vote on Thursday. Trump's multibillion-dollar clawback package teed up cuts to "woke" spending on foreign aid programs and NPR and PBS, as Republicans finally yanked federal money from public news outlets in a move advocates said was long overdue. Tami Graham is the executive director of KSUT, an NPR member station located in the southwestern corner of Colorado that serves the rural Four Corners region. On October 1, KSUT will lose nearly 20% of its budget because of the rescission bill. "So, for us, that's $330,000, and it's a pretty immediate turnaround we're having to do to try to fundraise so that we don't have to cut critical staff, programming, local news, et cetera. Those are the kind of decisions we're facing down right now," Graham told Fox News Digital. Graham said staffers were "somber and yet determined" upon arriving to work on Thursday, after the Senate approved Trump's rescission package and reality set in. "We know how much our region supports us and values our hyperlocal service to them in emergency alerts, and local news and information about what's happening in the region," Graham said. "It's heavy, it's a bit sad," she continued. "There's very much a determination of, 'We're going to get through this, our listeners value us, and our region values us,' but it's not the kind of news that any of us want to be contemplating." KSUT is "not going anywhere," Graham stressed, noting that rural areas that rely on public media because of spotty cell service, broadband and internet will significantly feel the impact of the rescission bill. Trump's rescissions package includes $8 billion in cuts from the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), and over $1 billion from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB), the government-backed funding arm for NPR and PBS. "We get a larger percentage of support from CPB than major market stations because we're rural, because we are serving news deserts, because we don't have the ability to fundraise from our listenership in the way that cities, major markets do," Graham said. "It'll have minimal impact on NPR," Graham said. "But it's a huge impact on rural America and the news and information and emergency alerts they receive." Shawn Turner, who serves as WKAR Public Media general manager and also sits on NPR's Board of Directors, oversees the member station that serves eight counties across mid-Michigan that include several "news deserts." "The loss of federal funding will significantly impact our ability to have our reporters get out to those communities, go to community meetings, talk to people in those communities, go to events to be able to report on what's happening in those communities," Turner told Fox News Digital. "We'll be relying more on part-time reporters, volunteers, where we can over time, but the quality of the reporting will be impacted," he added. "People across Michigan will not have access to local news and information from their NPR station like they've had in the past." Turner said there was "disappointment" inside WKAR on the heels of the funding cut. "People are feeling like the commitment they've made to serve their community has just taken a hit. And that simply does not feel good for any of the people who have committed their life to this work," he said. While staffers were frustrated, Turner said he was heartened by the degree to which mid-Michiganders worked to ensure that their voices were heard. He said thousands of phone calls and letters reached members of Congress imploring lawmakers to understand that communities need public media. Much like KSUT, Turner wants Americans to know that WKAR will not simply fold, and that member stations will attempt to adapt. He explained that some of the services WKAR provides, such as a radio reading service for the visually impaired and educational services, will be reduced but will remain in some capacity for as long as possible. "We're adjusting the way that we serve our community, but it will be more difficult," Turner said. NPR and PBS have long been lambasted by Trump and other Republicans as left-leaning institutions that don't deserve taxpayer money. Whistleblower Uri Berliner, a longtime editor at NPR, laid out in painful detail the liberal bias gripping public radio on a national level last year. The President is expected to sign the spending cut bill on Friday.
Yahoo
02-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
NPR lawsuit aims to strike a blow for press freedom against Trump's attacks
In the Trump administration's unprecedented war on the American media, a lawsuit brought by public broadcasters could mark a much-needed strike back for press freedom. The lawsuit, brought by NPR and three Colorado-based public radio stations, challenges an executive order that cut federal funding to what Donald Trump described as 'biased media', with lawyers arguing that the order violated the first amendment right to free speech. The decision by NPR, KSUT, Roaring Fork and Colorado Public Radio to take on Donald Trump comes as the president has targeted multiple news organizations through lawsuits and investigations – and as experts warn some outlets are acquiescing to Trump's war on the media. NPR's lawsuit could be a prominent pushback against that. The lawsuit argues that Trump's executive order, signed on 1 May, violates the first amendment by targeting NPR for news coverage the president considers 'biased'. NPR and its partners are aiming to have the order, which would strip direct and indirect funding from NPR and PBS, permanently blocked and declared unconstitutional. Experts believe NPR has a strong case, and that it could be Trump's attacks on public media that could hand NPR a win. The president and the White House have described NPR and PBS as being 'leftwing propaganda', and has criticized the network for discussing LGBTQ+ themes. 'Trump's honesty about why he wants to eviscerate federal funding for NPR and PBS could be his legal downfall,' Jessica Levinson, a professor at Loyola Law School and host of the Passing Judgment podcast, wrote in an op-ed for MSNBC. 'NPR has thus argued that Trump admitted that he's using his power as head of the executive branch of our government to target NPR and PBS because he disagrees with the content of their speech.' Levinson wrote: 'The Trump administration isn't targeting NPR because it covers political news. To the contrary; the administration appears to have explicitly admitted that it's targeting NPR because of what Trump considers to be its bias as it covers political news. NPR's lawsuit argues that, therefore, Trump's executive order is 'textbook retaliation and viewpoint-based discrimination.'' Trump's pursuit of NPR follows a pattern of the president's second term, with Trump keen to target media organizations he believes have reported on him negatively. The Associated Press, one of the world's premier news agencies, which is relied upon by thousands of news outlets, was banned from the Oval Office and Air Force One after it refused to use Trump's preferred term of 'Gulf of America' to refer to the Gulf of Mexico. Trump is suing the owner of CBS News for $10bn, alleging the channel selectively edited an interview with Kamala Harris, which the network denies, and the Des Moines Register newspaper, which he accuses of 'election interference' over a poll from before the election that showed Kamala Harris leading Trump in Iowa. NPR has been vocal in its opposition to the lawsuit. 'It is evident from the president's executive order, as well as statements released by the White House and prior statements by the president that we are being punished for our editorial choices,' Katherine Maher, the CEO of NPR, said in an interview with the station this week. Maher added: 'We are not choosing to do this out of politics. We are choosing to do this as a matter of necessity and principle. All of our rights that we enjoy in this democracy flow from the first amendment: freedom of speech, association, freedom of the press. When we see those rights infringed upon, we have an obligation to challenge them.' The funding cut, NPR said, 'would have a devastating impact on American communities across the nation', adding: 'Locally owned public media stations represent a proud American tradition of public-private partnership for our shared common good.' 'The Corporation for Public Broadcasting [which distributes and funds NPR and other public media] is creating media to support a particular political party on the taxpayers' dime,' Harrison Fields, a White House spokesperson, said in a statement. 'Therefore, the president is exercising his lawful authority to limit funding to NPR and PBS. The president was elected with a mandate to ensure efficient use of taxpayer dollars, and he will continue to use his lawful authority to achieve that objective.'
