{"id":34233,"date":"2025-08-17T05:00:12","date_gmt":"2025-08-17T09:00:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/?p=34233"},"modified":"2025-08-16T23:14:20","modified_gmt":"2025-08-17T03:14:20","slug":"well-maybe-it-wasnt-such-a-small-part-of-the-funding","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/index.php\/2025\/08\/17\/well-maybe-it-wasnt-such-a-small-part-of-the-funding\/","title":{"rendered":"Well, Maybe It Wasn\u2019t Such a Small Part of the Funding"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Despite assurances that federal funds were a miniscule part of the budget for PBS and NPR, those media groups have already begun to feel the effects of the rescission:<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/deadline.com\/2025\/08\/pbs-budget-cuts-federal-funding-1236489467\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">PBS To Cut Budget By 21% Following Public Media\u2019s Loss of Federal Funding<\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>\u201cPBS plans to cut its budget by 21% as public media faces the loss of $1.1 billion in federal funding over the next two fiscal years.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Paula Kerger, president and CEO of PBS, informed station general managers Wednesday of the planned cuts. The overall pool of station dues will be reduced by $35 million, she said. Local outlets are grappling with their own budget holes given the loss of federal support.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Very sad.<\/p>\n<p>David Brooks and Jonathan Capehart are two \u201cjournalists\u201d that appear on Fridays on the PBS NewsHour and I think that part of that $35 million could be offset by firing one of them.\u00a0 Now how to do that is a question.\u00a0 What occurs to me is a scene from the classic tv series Star Trek:<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Star Trek - S2E16 - The Gamesters of Triskelion - Intro\" width=\"783\" height=\"440\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/Qadi87Ley04?start=148&#038;feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>David and Jonathan could be dressed as Thralls and forced to battle in the arena while PBS viewers place wagers in quatloos that will pay the salary of whichever of them walks out of the arena alive.<\/p>\n<p>Also, I read that NPR is forced to reduce its budget by $8 million for next year.\u00a0 Also, very sad.<\/p>\n<p>The article stressed that replacement funds from private corporations have not been forthcoming because the other Congressional budget cuts have impacted how corporations are allocating their charitable donations.\u00a0 Apparently, everyone is scrambling after alternative funding sources and there just isn\u2019t enough money to go around.\u00a0 Also very, very sad.<\/p>\n<p>So, what\u2019s the takeaway here?\u00a0 Well, I think it\u2019s important to remember that when the Left tells you that government funding for something they like is miniscule and unimportant, that means it\u2019s a lot of money and it\u2019s critical to their operation.\u00a0 And I think it goes without saying that the money is being used to make very comfortable existences for the people at the top.\u00a0 There are homes in Northern Virginia and Ivy League tuitions and expensive wines at lunch that are being funded with that money.\u00a0 Now that doesn\u2019t mean that those things will go away because of these cuts.\u00a0 No, that\u2019s not how it works.\u00a0 It probably means several lower echelon people will lose their jobs and several shows won\u2019t get made.\u00a0 Maybe the next Ken Burns series will be cut or Masterpiece will have to use American actors instead of British.\u00a0 Or as I said Books and Capon; I mean Brooks and Capehart will have to get whittled down to Brooks or Capehart.<\/p>\n<p>Now you might wonder if the heads of PBS and NPR might have an epiphany and try to sell Congress on the idea that they could truly produce non-partisan and unbiased content that appeals to both the Left and Right.\u00a0 They could bring aboard conservatives on their boards and in management and put together a lineup of shows that even Donald Trump, Speaker Johnson and Senator Mike Lee would be willing to fund.\u00a0 Now that would be something.\u00a0 Of course, the chances of that happening are of the same order of magnitude as Nancy Pelosi going to heaven.<\/p>\n<p>So, congratulations again to Donald Trump and his friends in Congress.\u00a0 Their unprecedented action to defund PBS and NPR is already bearing fruit in ways we cannot yet appreciate.\u00a0 Some show advocating for pediatric trans-surgery is probably not going to be funded because no corporate sponsor will want to touch it.\u00a0 Very, very, very sad.<\/p>\n<p>Bravo.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Despite assurances that federal funds were a miniscule part of the budget for PBS and NPR, those media groups have already begun to feel the<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,6],"tags":[3996,4764,16],"class_list":["post-34233","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-current-events","category-trump","tag-npr","tag-pbs","tag-trump"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v20.4 - 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