WASHINGTON – May 2, 2025 – Kate Riley, President and CEO of America’s Public Television Stations, made the following statement on the executive order on federal funding for public media:
“America’s Public Television Stations are deeply concerned by the executive order seeking to prohibit federal funding for PBS and NPR, and limit local stations’ ability to make local decisions responsive to their communities. This order defies the will of the American people and would devastate the public safety, educational and local service missions of public media – services that the American public values, trusts and relies on every day.
“By eliminating funding for PBS and NPR, this executive order would destroy the local-national partnership that is essential to local public television stations’ ability to provide their communities with the mix of local, regional, independent and national programming that their communities rely on. Over 160 locally operated and controlled public television stations serve communities small and large throughout this country, providing a lifeline in hundreds of communities where there is no other source of local media. It is essential that these stations retain their local control and autonomy and are able to provide the programming and services that their communities want and rely on. This includes essential emergency alerting capabilities made possible by PBS in collaboration with local stations and the high-quality, safe, trusted and proven-effective PBS KIDS educational programming that families throughout the country depend on.
“These restrictions would be particularly damaging to local stations serving smaller, more rural communities that rely on federal funding for a higher percentage of their budget. This order would make it impossible for many stations to secure programming and services needed by their communities and would destroy the local-national, public-private partnership that enables stations' ability to raise the additional funding needed to support local programming and services that are not available from any other source.
“The federal investment in PBS enables local public television stations to provide critical lifesaving public safety services through the PBS WARN system which is one of two essential pathways for the delivery of geo-targeted wireless emergency alerts to cell phones, and the only nationwide situational awareness tool that allows public safety officials at FEMA and other entities to track and monitor the effectiveness of those alerts.
“Local stations’ partnerships with PBS is also essential to their education missions which support families in preparing their kids for success in school and life with free, universally accessible, proven educational content, including for the over 50 percent of U.S. kids that don’t attend formal preschool. PBS LearningMedia, a partnership between PBS and local stations, is free and used by approximately 1.5 million educators, students and homeschoolers a month. These are services that American families rely on every day. In fact, according to a recent YouGov survey, 82% of voters, including 72% of Trump voters, said they valued PBS for its children’s programming and educational tools.
“These services are essential for the American people and worthy of the federal investment in public media.
“Public media has earned the broad support of the American people, across the political spectrum, including 65% of people who voted for President Trump who think public television is either adequately funded or underfunded, according to a recent YouGov survey. And just last month, the Pew Research Center found that Americans are more likely to support than oppose continuing federal funding for NPR and PBS by a factor of almost 2:1.
“We will be reviewing this executive order more closely and working to prevent the negative impact it would have on the public media system and the American people.”
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About APTS
America’s Public Television Stations (APTS) is a nonprofit membership organization ensuring a strong and financially sound public television system and helping member stations provide essential public services in education, public safety and community connections to their local areas and the American people. For more information, visit www.apts.org.
Contact:
Stacey Karp
202-654-4222
skarp@apts.org