VOICES: Why is public media under attack? It’s not about the money

WYSO's Jerry Kenney, who hosts All Things Considered, stands in the studio at the radio station's Yellow Springs office.

WYSO's Jerry Kenney, who hosts All Things Considered, stands in the studio at the radio station's Yellow Springs office.
Ideas & Voices
By Luke Dennis
June 6, 2025
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WYSO Public Radio has been broadcasting continuously from Yellow Springs since 1958. Our signal can be heard across fourteen counties. We’re at 91.3 on the dial, on the internet, and in nearly every digital space you use. We provide local news, music and storytelling at no cost.

Public radio provides useful and joyful services to our community, and since the passage of the Public Broadcasting Act in 1967 we’ve received federal support to do it. That support is distributed through the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) and is unrestricted. Most stations use it to pay their staff and their electric bills. At WYSO it represents nearly 10% of our budget. For some stations, especially those serving vast rural populations, it’s closer to 50%. Congress allocates these funds in a two-year advance appropriation. This is meant to protect it from whatever winds are blowing in Washington. Congress has already approved CPB funds for fiscal years 2026 and 2027. That money is sitting in the treasury waiting to be distributed, and totals about $1.1B.

What does federal support make possible? For $1.60 per person per year, all Americans have free access to:

  • public safety systems that cover 99% of the United States, including emergency alerts that reach rural areas without internet, reliable cell service or other media (To cite just one example among many: Blue Ridge Public Radio in North Carolina was one of the few ways people got critical safety updates during the devastating flooding after Hurricane Helene.)
  • high-impact educational services (I was raised by Mr. Rogers and Sesame Street – weren’t you?!)
  • community-focused programming
  • trusted local storytelling, journalism and music

If it does all these good things for such a relatively small amount of money, why is public media under attack? It’s not about the money. It’s because our journalism reports the truth about the harmful impacts of President Trump’s policies. Our professional journalists interview the people and organizations impacted. Their voices are persuasive. That’s why public media is under attack. These are efforts to silence us.

President Trump seeks total elimination of federal support for public media through three distinct tactics: An executive order; FCC investigations into our sponsor messages; and a rescissions package. The rescissions package was delivered to congress on Tuesday. If approved it will claw back that $1.1B. That’s what inspired me to write this: if you care, please oppose this rescissions package.

Trump’s antipathy for public media is not inspired by a desire to reduce wasteful government spending. It is an effort to infringe on rights guaranteed by the First Amendment: freedom of speech and freedom of the press. The fundamental purpose of the First Amendment is to create an informed and engaged citizenry. That is at odds with this administration’s efforts to manipulate and control the narrative.

It’s not surprising. The first “to do” in any budding authoritarian’s playbook is to control the media. The 20th century has numerous examples of this.

Help me defend independent media. Visit protectmypublicmedia.org. There you can send emails to your lawmakers.

A free press is an American institution. Hannah Arendt wrote that widespread loss of faith in institutions is a precursor to totalitarianism. Please, let’s not lose faith in the ability of a free press to help us understand this world we’re living in.

Luke Dennis is the General Manager of WYSO and the president of Miami Valley Public Media.

Luke Dennis is the General Manager of WYSO and the president of Miami Valley Public Media. CONTRIBUTED

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About the Author

Luke Dennis