A drastic change affects TV and radio services that Americans have taken advantage of for nearly 60 years. At the request of President Trump, Congress recently voted to take back $1.1 billion promised earlier to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB). It would have distributed that money over two years to more than 1,500 local Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) and National Public Radio stations nationwide for programming, research and technology. (Congress created those networks in 1967.) Many stations have begun layoffs to trim spending in efforts to stay on the air with donations from businesses, foundations and audience members.

But the parent corporation announced this month that most of its 100 employees lose their jobs when the budget year ends Sept. 30. It plans to shut by January. "Despite the extraordinary efforts of millions of Americans who called, wrote, and petitioned Congress to preserve federal funding, we now face the difficult reality of closing our operations," says Patricia Harrison, CPB's president. "This decision to provide no funding . . . will cause irreparable harm, especially to small and rural public media stations." Many public broadcasters receive more than half of their budgets from the corporation. "That means the [bill] could be a death sentence for some stations," The New York Times reported. A CPB statement explains: "Rural stations have a harder time raising money from individual donors than urban stations. Without federal funding, many local stations in rural areas are at risk."

On the other side, backers of the defunding say it's part of wider efforts to trim federal spending. "We need to get back to fiscal sanity and this is an important step," says House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La. Federal support of public media is "one of the niceties we can do without," comments Sen. Roger Marshall, R-Kansas. Passage came on close votes: 51-48 in the Senate and 216-213 in the House.

The locally operated stations present journalism, educational and cultural programming, as well as emergency communications. Popular shows include “Masterpiece Theater” dramas, cooking, painting and craft lessons, concerts and dance, nature and history documentaries, and children's programs such as "Sesame Street" and "Mister Rogers' Neighborhood." Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, who voted against the cutoff, notes that three public broadcasters in her state aired "real-time updates and kept us safe" in mid-July when an offshore earthquake posed a risk of big coastal waves. Ken Burns, an award-winning filmmaker whose documentaries draw big audiences on PBS, says: "We're all in a bit of a state of a shock and also sort of reeling at the shortsightedness of it all. This is such an American institution trusted by people across political divides, geographic divides, age groups. . . . In small rural markets, the PBS station is really like the public library.”

TV station head says: "Independent, noncommercial public media is more essential than ever. . . . In many of our communities, especially our smaller ones, the local public television or public radio station is the only source of information." – Michael Isip, president and chief executive of KQED, San Francisco’s PBS station

Filmmaker says: "The entire budget [for public media] is less than one bomber. I know that public broadcasting has nothing to do with the defense of the country. They just help make the country worth defending." – Ken Burns, director of acclaimed documentaries

Editorial says: "Public media improves the lives of millions of Americans, and it strengthens American interests. It should not become yet another victim of our polarized political culture." – The New York Times