For decades, critics have pushed to end federal funding for PBS and NPR, arguing that the government has no business forcing taxpayers to subsidize biased, left-wing news organizations.
After President Trump and GOP lawmakers clawed back $1.1 billion in previously approved funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB), Sen. Lisa Murkowski joined Democrats in warning of dire consequences for NPR and PBS, thereby revealing that these entities rely heavily on taxpayer subsidies.
It turns out that wealthy, left-leaning donors have come to the rescue, as these media outlets have survived without the public’s money.
Rather, these entities are being propped up by wealthy liberal philanthropists. NPR recently noted that it had taken in $113 million in new charitable gifts, including $80 million from philanthropist and Obama Foundation board member Connie Ballmer and $33 million from an anonymous giver.
While it may take some extra effort for public broadcasting to generate their own funds, this is exactly what conservative outlets have had to do for decades.
Murkowski was among those who claimed the federal funding cuts would cripple PBS and NPR. Last year, she was one of only two Republicans – along with Sen. Susan Collins of Maine – who opposed the rescission package that eliminated the $1.1 billion from CPB.
While admitting that national NPR and PBS content draws valid criticism for bias, Murkowski asserted that broad cuts would harm local Alaska stations in remote areas. In a July 2025 Senate floor statement, she said: “If you think there’s too much bias at NPR, let’s address that. But you don’t need to gut the entire Corporation for Public Broadcasting.”
She later offered an amendment to shield local station grants while barring funds from going directly to NPR; it failed. In a formal statement, she warned: “My colleagues are targeting NPR but will wind up hurting – and, over time, closing down – local radio stations that provide essential news, alerts, and educational programming in Alaska and across the country.”
In actuality, no NPR affiliates in Alaska have shut down after the cuts. Instead, these outlets have had to prioritize content, tighten their belts, cut some staff positions and make greater outreach efforts to those who actually support their angle on the news – exactly what most independent outlets do regularly.
While public media leaders across the country described the cuts as “catastrophic” for rural stations, a January 2026 analysis by The New York Times noted that “vanishingly few” stations have actually closed their doors.
4 Comments
When I was growing up watching PBS they used to have telethons where rows of people manning telephones and the host would ask the viewers to call in and make a donation. If the viewers want PBS, they will gladly pay for it with their own money, not mine.
In this day and age of easily accessed information and the bloat of content creation through platforms like Youtube, their really isn’t a need for PBS anyways. We can pick and choose from an nearly infinite amount of content what we wish to learn. Sometimes the dinosaurs just go extinct.
Is Murkowski still claiming to be a Republican yet operates under far left leaning positions? This is a bum who needs to be kicked out. She has cheated as much as she can and she is worried about the Saves Act. She has shown herself to be a bully and the influence on our legislatures has been toxic. She is a liar, cheater and a crook. If it were possible to recall her, we would. She is one of many “criminals” in Congress. We need to return to when the states elected the Senate, not the popular vote. There would be more accountable over the Senate in Congress. We are Maga Patriots and our goal is to start applying the Rule of Law, Ten Commandments, Bill of Rights, Declaration of Independence. Our History has been deliberately hidden from us in order to “decolonize us” which means getting rid of Western Christian Civilization. Many people do not realize this is happening. Many in Congress and in the legislatures are ignorantly following Colombia University and other universities that have been infiltrated by the “franco-germanic” philosophies which mean anti-marriage,anti-family, anti-Christian, and anti-traditional values which had made America so great.
awesome comment