To Congress:

Public-media outlets in the United States are consistently rated among the most trusted media sources in public-opinion surveys. Our nation’s public-media system produces great journalism but is one of the most poorly funded in the world.

Studies show that the health of a country’s democracy is directly connected to the strength of its public media. More robust funding for public media would strengthen our country’s democracy, leading to lower levels of extremism and deeper public engagement in civic life. That’s exactly what the Public Broadcasting Act of 1967 intended.

Please reject legislation to defund public media and protect these valued news sources.

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    Tell Congress to Preserve Funding for Public Media

    Tell Congress: We Need Public Media

    NPR and PBS, and the hundreds of local public-media stations affiliated with them, receive the bulk of their funding in the form of private capital from individual contributors, foundations and corporations — because the federal government invests very little in our public-media system.

    But Republicans in Congress frequently propose eliminating all federal funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, a main revenue source for the hundreds of local NPR and PBS stations that air Sesame Street and PBS NewsHour.

    A 2022 poll rated PBS and its 350 member stations as the most-trusted nationally known institution. Survey respondents also rated the federal funding that supports PBS as taxpayer money “well spent.”1 Lawmakers need to listen to their constituents and stop putting public-media funding on the chopping block.

    We’ve beaten back threats to slash funding for public media before. And we can do it again. Urge Congress to protect public media.

    1. “PBS and Member Stations Named ‘Most Trusted’ Media Organization for 19 Consecutive Years,” PBS press release, March 17, 2022