You mean PBS and NPR never needed federal funding? I’m stunned. I’m shocked. Like *totes* shocked.
Not really.
According to The Washington Post, a few foundations have committed to raising $37 million for PBS and NPR stations: The Knight Foundation, MacArthur Foundation, Ford Foundation, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, Schmidt Family Foundation, and the Melinda Gates-led group Pivotal Ventures.
It all came together through Public Media Company, which established a “bridge fund” for the “most at-risk public radio and TV stations across the country.”
“In addition to the Bridge Fund, Public Media Company will continue to provide organizations with the services, support, and insights they need to thrive and make a lasting local impact,” according to the PMC press release. “Our team remains fully committed to public media’s mission, and we believe in our collective ability to find a way forward no matter how hard the path.”
In May, President Donald Trump signed an executive order ordering those in charge of all agencies to “identify and terminate, to the maximum extent consistent with applicable law, any direct or indirect funding of NPR and PBS.”
PBS, NPR, and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB), which handed out the funds to the stations, challenged Trump’s executive order since Congress appropriated $500 million for them.
The challenge failed when Congress codified Trump’s cuts in the Rescissions Act.
The Knight Foundation “said about $27 million from collective foundation support is going to the bridge fund while another $10 million will go to directly support organizations, stations and programs in the public media ecosystem.”
PMC CEO Tim Isgitt wants to raise over $100 million over the next two years. He claimed the loss of funds threatened “115 stations serving 43 million people.”
Isgitt hopes to have $50 million by this fall since CPB usually sends PBS and NPR stations their money in November.
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