Public Media

Donors Saving Public Media

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Article in Poynter by Paul Farhi, 10/20/26

Headline:  “Public broadcasting found a lifeline after defunding. How long will it last?”

Subhead:  “A surge of ‘rage giving’ and philanthropy helped stave off widespread closures, but many public media organizations remain vulnerable”

“. . .President Donald Trump was urging Congress to wipe out almost all federal funding of public broadcasting — some $1.1 billion in subsidies. As many Republicans had before him, Trump demonized PBS and NPR as biased against conservatives. But the ‘rescission,’ or formal clawing back of funds appropriated by a previous Congress, would be a historic reversal: the first time Washington had withdrawn the financial support. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.poynter.org/reporting-editing/2026/public-broadcasting-federal-funding-cuts-donations/

Public Radio Breaks With Universities

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Article in Columbia Journalism Review by Luch Schillerm 10/13/26

Headline: “All They’re Going to Hear Is Capitulation”

Subhead: “The Trump administration’s ideological attacks on public media and education converge at university-based radio stations. Some are breaking free.”

“. . .Sarah Morris calls it a “conscious uncoupling.” She is the general manager of KCUR, the major NPR station in Kansas City; her station is licensed to the University of Missouri–Kansas City, and has been since 1957. The two entities—the University of Missouri and KCUR—decided in 2025 to separate in a style Morris characterized as ‘believed to be mutually beneficial, friendly and well down the path toward independence’. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.cjr.org/feature/all-theyre-going-to-hear-is-capitulation-trump-attacks-public-media-education-university-radio-stations-kut-npr-texas.php

Streaming Killing Public Media?

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Article in The Guardian by Mark Sweney, 9/19/26

Headline:  “‘A losing battle’: will UK public service broadcasters survive amid US onslaught?”

Subhead:  “Jobs and programme budgets in firing line at BBC, Channel 4 and ITV as they are outgunned by YouTube and Netflix“

“‘I wouldn’t be surprised if the BBC or Channel 4 disappeared,’ says one of the thousands of TV staff at risk of redundancy, as British broadcasters face what has rapidly become a fight for survival against US digital rivals.

“’My generation grew up with Netflix and YouTube … Honestly, I feel like it is a losing battle.’

“Over the course of the summer the crisis facing the UK’s biggest public service broadcasters (PSBs) – the BBC, Channel 4 and ITV – has reached fever pitch amid announcements of deep job cuts and talk of business models unfit to face up to the deep-pocketed streamers. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.theguardian.com/media/2026/sep/19/uk-public-service-broadcasters-us-bbc-channel-4-itv-netflix-disney-amazon

Fighting Public Mediacide

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Article in Poynter by Tom Jones, 9/8/26

Headline:  “Opinion | As ‘perfect storm’ hits public media, initiative seeks a reimagined system to serve communities”

Subhead:  “Poynter Institute, Public Media Company will guide effort to recommend plans for renewed public media after federal funding cuts”

“A little more than a year ago, the federal government delivered a devastating blow to a critical part of our media landscape: It defunded public media.

“The move, under the direction of President Donald Trump, stripped important funding from public radio and television stations that provide crucial news and information from our biggest cities all the way to our most rural outposts. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.poynter.org/commentary/2026/as-perfect-storm-hits-public-media-initiative-seeks-a-reimagined-system-to-serve-communities/

Media Consolidation Backfire

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Article in Columbia Journalism Review by Carolina Abbott Galvão, 9/8/26

Headline:  “What Happened in Lancaster?”

Subhead:  “The saga of a public radio station, a regional newspaper, the Pennsylvania family that funded them, and an NPR host turned nonprofit executive.”

“. . .’To advance their legacy of supporting local journalism and media literacy, the Steinman family sought to pair LNP [daily newspaper] with another locally based media organization—one with a self-perpetuating community board and a track record of strong leadership,’ Krasne told LNP’s digital arm, LancasterOnline. . .”

“. . .On October 3, 2024, three out of the seven people working in the station’s newsroom were laid off, and a fourth was reassigned. McDevitt, Long, and Jordan Wilkie, a democracy reporter, were the only three people left on the editorial staff. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.cjr.org/feature/what-happened-in-lancaster-lnp-witf-steinman-family-npr-all-things-considered.php

Covering a Local Disaster

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Article in Poynter by Amaris Castillo, 7/24/26

Headline:  “When the Boundary Waters burned, local journalists answered the call”

Subhead:  “As wildfires spread through one of America’s most cherished wilderness areas, small Minnesota newsrooms became essential for residents and visitors”

“. . .The Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness spans more than 1 million acres of forests, glacial lakes and streams in northeastern Minnesota. It is one of the nation’s most cherished wilderness areas. . .”

“As firefighters battled the blazes in an area that is already hard to access, local journalists mobilized to provide their audiences with up-to-date information. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.poynter.org/reporting-editing/2026/boundary-waters-wildfires-local-journalism-minnesota/

 

Radioactive Magazine for 7/14/26

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Lenny Bruce

Interview by Spencer Graves 7/14/26 on KKFI-FM

Headline:  George Carlin’s and Lenny Bruce’s Legacy on Censorship

“Tuesday’s episode of Radioactive Magazine features an interview with Robert Corn-Revere, a leading First Amendment attorney and Chief Counsel for the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE). . .”

“. . .a discussion of the US Supreme Court decision in FCC v. Pacifica (1978), which saw WBAI in NYC fined for airing George Carlin’s famous ‘Seven Dirty Words’ in 1973. Roughly 9 years earlier, comedian Lenny Bruce was found guilty of obscenity in New York for a comedy routine in an adults-only night club. Corn-Revere helped secure a posthumous pardon for Bruce from New York Governor Pataki, and more recently Corn-Revere named his two dogs ‘Lenny’ and ‘Bruce’.

Listen to the episode at:

Radioactive Magazine airs Tuesdays at 6:PM CST on KKFI 90.1 FM, streaming live at http://kkfi.org

Handling Reporting Mistakes

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Article in The Atlantic by Charlie Warzel, 6/30/26

Headline:  “A Tough Day for NPR“

Subhead:  “Are there any lessons to the newsroom’s Supreme Court error?”

“It was all a ‘misunderstanding.’ That’s the word that NPR Editor in Chief Thomas Evans used to describe why, today, the outlet erroneously published a report by the veteran Supreme Court reporter Nina Totenberg that Justice Samuel Alito had retired. . . In the story, Totenberg attributed her reporting to the Court itself, not to an anonymous source. Minutes later, the Supreme Court’s public-information office said that the Court had not made any such announcement.

“NPR, to its credit, quickly retracted the story, issued a correction, and apologized. . . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/2026/06/npr-alito-supreme-court-retraction/687750/

FAIR, 40 Years

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Article in FAIR by Jeff Cohen, 6/12/26

Headline: “Forty Years of Raising Hell About Corporate Media Bias”

“. . .I came up with the idea for FAIR in the mid-1980s, when corporate news outlets were on bended knee for a reactionary, declining, war-mongering president—and when Reaganism was ushering in an era of dangerous media mergers. Thankfully, FAIR is still around to challenge today’s even worse media conglomeration. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://fair.org/home/forty-years-of-raising-hell-about-corporate-media-bias/

Community Media Pioneer Dies

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Article in Democracy Now! by Staff, 5/29/26

Headline:  “Philadelphia Community Access Media Founder Gretjen Clausing Dies at 61”

“Gretjen Clausing, the founding executive director of Philadelphia Community Access Media, has passed away at the age of 61. Clausing dedicated decades of her life advocating for public access to the media and freedom of expression and was actively involved in national campaigns in support of community media and local journalism. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.democracynow.org/2026/5/29/headlines/philadelphia_community_access_media_founder_gretjen_clausing_dies_at_61