“Every day when you're walking down the street

And everybody that you meet

Has an original point of view”

These lyrics, nestled in the theme song of the widely successful Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) show Arthur (1996), hit hard, as the Corporation for Public Broadcasting revealed it would shut down on Friday, August 1st. Catalyzed by a loss of federal funding, the verdict was decided by Congress in late July as part of a larger $9 million rescission package. Clearly, Arthur’s words have fallen on deaf ears as devastating cuts begin to debilitate public media. 

These funding cuts will prove detrimental to our country. 

Much of the motivation behind the defunding of the CPB, and as an extension, PBS and National Public Radio (NPR), comes from President Donald Trump and his fellow Republicans. They have specifically scrutinized the organizations for allegedly leaning politically left, and that such politicized media should not be funded by taxpayer dollars. All Democratic senators, as well as four Republican senators, voted against the most recent legislation, presented in July. It was later passed through the House for a second time and signed by Trump.

As an individual who has grown up on public broadcasting, I can personally and passionately testify to the importance of its existence. I am among an entire generation who enjoyed and learned from PBS Kids programming, and later in life turned to PBS and NPR for reliable news coverage. 

The CPB allows for the distribution of media from coast to coast, especially in “news deserts”, areas where coverage is already low. This could be due to geographical locations, lack of access, or other demographic factors, such as rural, Native American, and Island communities, where public media serves as the only news source. It allows for important information, weather alerts, and local programming to thrive in low-populated areas and poorer communities. PBS content especially has the power to inform and educate, as seen by the influential Sesame Street (1969), which was inspired by the Black neighborhoods of Harlem and the Bronx, and was designed to educate underserved children. Over fifty years later, it has proved itself as a staple of children’s television. Or take Arthur, which tackled many real-world topics, such as conflict resolution, social issues, and genuine emotional connectivity. 

This is one of the best and impactful public-private partnerships in the United States, with public broadcasting costing taxpayers approximately $1.60 per year, according to the American Coalition for Public Radio and APTS Action, a group dedicated to the protection of public media.

With such a low cost and overall high public impact rates, it seems illogical to take away a positive resource that reaches 99% of Americans. 

And yet that is exactly the fate that Congress has decided. 

The choice is extremely concerning, seeing how important public media has been thus far. For one, the idea that an administration can make threats to a news organization and then have its funding pulled so easily, despite studies by the Pew Research Center and Ad Fontes Media that support PBS’s statements on its nonpartisan reporting, is utterly terrifying. I’m worried this could set a precedent of censorship, one that extends beyond government-funded media programs. If a sitting administration criticizes and discourages a certain news outlet for its coverage, whether that be for political leanings or otherwise, and can have its influence and work diminished, who says it can’t happen to others that they don’t agree with? Who says this can’t go on until our media is state-controlled and endorsed, providing no other viewpoints and no other ways of thinking? What happened to Arthur’s mention of "everybody that you meet has an original point of view”? Is there no room to champion them, too? 

A recent example is the cancellation of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, which came days after Colbert’s criticism of his network, CBS’s lawsuit settlement with Donald Trump. Almost immediately, theories came forth about ulterior political motives, after reasons for the show’s cancellation were officially announced as a financial decision. If the speculation is true, is this the beginning of the censorship of the opposition?

After all, it’s what happened in the early years of Nazi Germany. 

When Hitler took power, the regime shut down hundreds of opposition newspapers and took state control of the public radio, even reducing the costs of radios so more Germans would access and listen to Nazi propaganda. At the same time, Nazi press baron Max Amann bought up all non-Nazi newspapers, which increased the party’s share of total newspaper circulation from 3% in 1933 to more than 80% in the 1940s (US Holocaust Memorial Museum). 

A person can argue their resistance to fascism, but could it really have been that easy for less informed people, when it was all they could consume? 

On the topic of the purchase of media, the journalism industry, specifically in the world of broadcasting, is experiencing a massive shift to consolidate, with larger holders buying up smaller and local stations. 

Currently, we face the Big Four, the mainstream media conglomerates that control the narrative, egged on by outdated FCC rules, leaving little to no room for new, different, local, or otherwise disadvantaged voices. Additionally, they are taking our sports games off the air, limiting their viewership to subscribers only, and taking away free access. 

Surprisingly primitive this day of media. 

Especially when, according to the Pew Research Center, viewers are prioritizing local, new, and diverse news coverage and stations. Viewers also worry about access to public media, often broadcast via these stations.

The current chair of the FCC is expected to encourage this mass consolidation, as admitted to me off the record by a marketing executive of a local news station during a recent personal visit. This means less journalistic control as highly politicized media outlets are in charge, muddying the image of journalism as feelings are prioritized over facts.

Journalism is a duty, one that cannot be fulfilled when there is no one to tell the truth. 

Nazi Germany was only the beginning, an early demonstration of the mass increase of inappropriate weaponry of the media, a tool that should only be used to properly inform, educate, and ultimately help the American people. And for public media, it is even more important to preserve, to protect our democracy. Several action groups, like APTS Action, are working to address the damage this defunding will create and has already created, and encourage constituents to contact their members of Congress in order to help save public broadcasting. 

And they can – with help from, as the famous PBS phrase goes, viewers like you.