Muted: The Silencing of Public Media
With NPR and PBS gutted, and Voice of America airing pro‑Trump propaganda, the last free public institutions are gone.
In the early hours of Friday, July 18, 2025, the House narrowly passed a $9 billion rescission package by a vote of 216–213, codifying cuts identified by the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). The Senate had approved it just before midnight on Thursday, July 17, in a close 51–48 vote.
The package cuts funding to both NPR & PBS (via the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, CPB) and to USAID & VOA (foreign aid/public diplomacy), fulfilling a long‑standing goal of the Trump administration and its allies. Supporters called the move “fiscal responsibility” and “a return to fairness,” claiming public media and foreign aid had become taxpayer‑funded “liberal propaganda.”
As we reported earlier, the package guts the budgets of NPR and PBS, leaving many local affiliates, particularly in rural and underserved areas, facing imminent closure.
Read more here:
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It also delivers the final blow to USAID’s independent public diplomacy efforts, effectively centralizing America’s international communications in the hands of a partisan, Trump‑aligned Voice of America.
And just last month, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene escalated her long‑running campaign against PBS, branding it a “Marxist mouthpiece” and calling for its elimination entirely, rhetoric that has now been codified into policy.
Public media in America, once regarded as a cornerstone of an informed and engaged citizenry, is being systematically dismantled.
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A Long‑Running Target
The vote to defund NPR and PBS may feel sudden, but it’s the culmination of a decades‑long campaign to weaken and dismantle public media in the United States.
Since the Public Broadcasting Act of 1967, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) has distributed federal funds to public media, supporting both national programming and hundreds of local stations. While neither NPR nor PBS relies entirely on CPB funding — both also depend on member station dues, corporate sponsorships, and listener or viewer donations — federal support has remained a critical part of keeping local affiliates alive, especially in rural and underserved areas.
From the beginning, critics have painted public media as elitist and biased. In 1969, Vice President Spiro Agnew accused it of being a platform for “a narrow elite,” and the Nixon administration attempted to slash its funding outright. In the 1980s, the Reagan White House also cut budgets while dismissing PBS and NPR as outdated in a market economy.
This narrative of “liberal bias” has endured, even as surveys consistently show NPR and PBS as two of the most trusted news brands in the country, trusted far more than commercial networks or cable news.
Particular focus has been on PBS’s children’s programming, including such generational linchpins as Sesame Street, Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood, and other beloved shows.
In 2025, Marjorie Taylor Greene launched a high‑profile campaign to eliminate PBS funding entirely, calling it a “Marxist mouthpiece” and introducing measures that were ultimately folded into this week’s rescission package.
We covered Rep. Greene’s February 2025 campaign against PBS,and its roots in decades of attacks, here:
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The vote to cut federal support is not merely a standalone budget move. It codifies executive‑level cuts identified by the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). In June, DOGE’s executive actions targeted USAID and VOA; now, Congress has followed suit at the legislative level, stripping $1.1 billion from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and dealing a swift blow to NPR and PBS funding, effective immediately.
The rescission vote is simply the final act in a play that has been running for more than fifty years, written by those who see an informed public as a threat rather than a goal.
Why Public Media Matters
For millions of Americans, public media isn’t a luxury. It’s the only lifeline to reliable, nonpartisan information.
Local NPR and PBS stations are often the last remaining newsrooms in their community, especially in rural counties where newspapers have folded and commercial broadcasters have abandoned meaningful local coverage. Without CPB support, many of these affiliates would be unable to survive.
Public media provides something the market doesn’t: journalism that serves the public, not shareholders. It brings free, fact-checked news to underserved audiences, including rural listeners, low-income households, Native nations, and non-English speakers, who otherwise risk being left in an information desert.
PBS programming, including Frontline, NewsHour, and NOVA, has helped generations understand complex issues. NPR’s local affiliates break stories about city councils, school boards, and statehouses, stories that national outlets never touch, but that deeply affect our lives.
Internationally, the Voice of America has been America’s face to the world, broadcasting the truth to authoritarian regimes, supporting dissidents and democrats, and serving as a beacon of credibility even when America stumbled at home.
Stripping these institutions of funding and independence erases their unique ability to foster an informed public, leaving us with two bleak choices: paywall‑gated information for those who can afford it, and free disinformation for everyone else.
Voice of America Captured
Voice of America (VOA) has been a cornerstone of U.S. international broadcasting since its founding in 1942, originally created to deliver news behind Nazi lines. Through the Cold War and beyond, it reached over 300 million people in more than 40 languages, bound by a charter to report the truth, even if that meant airing criticism of the United States itself.
But that legacy collapsed this year. In March 2025, the Trump administration’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) slashed VOA’s parent agency (USAGM) by 85%, placing about 1,300 journalists and producers on administrative leave and ultimately firing another 639 staff in June. The cuts gutted editorial operations, staff, and programming infrastructure at a terrifying pace.
That same month, leadership shifts aligned VOA with Trump loyalists. Institutional safeguards were removed, leaving USAGM vulnerable and VOA without its professional backbone. Newsrooms fell silent, with broadcasts reduced to music and reruns, an empty shell of its former self.
The final takeover occurred in July 2025, when the rescission package passed Congress, codifying DOGE’s cuts into law and permanently reducing foreign aid budgets. With its budget slashed and oversight evaporated, VOA began airing One America News (OAN) programming “at no cost,” formally surrendering its editorial independence.
VOA continues to air internationally, but without dedicated journalists and without the integrity that once made it a trusted global voice for democracy.
We reported on the Voice of America cuts previously. Read more here:
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The Aftermath & Call to Action
The consequences are already unfolding.
Stations across the country are announcing closures and layoffs. Communities from Appalachia to the Southwest are losing their only local news source. PBS Kids programming, a rare educational refuge, is disappearing from over‑the‑air broadcasts, leaving millions of children with fewer free learning resources.
On the global stage, VOA’s collapse sends a signal to allies and adversaries alike: America no longer values truth in its own messaging, instead embracing propaganda that mirrors its rivals.
As free journalism recedes, paywalls go up. The vacuum left behind will be filled, not with impartial reporting, but with partisanship, clickbait, and state‑sanctioned lies.
Yet the fight is not over. You can help.
What you can do now:
Donate directly to your local NPR or PBS station. Many will depend entirely on member support to survive.
Subscribe to and support nonprofit and independent journalism organizations.
Contact your representatives and demand restoration of public media funding and protections for editorial independence.
Share this story widely and educate your networks about what’s at stake.
Public media has always been more than news. It’s a shared space where facts, culture, and civic life intersect. Losing it makes us all poorer.
If we do nothing, the information commons will belong entirely to billionaires and demagogues.
In Part 3: Cable News isn’t immune. CNN and MSNBC are already softening under pressure, while Fox, OAN, and Newsmax entrench their hold. Stay tuned.
Stay Informed. Stay Loud.
Subscribe to The Coffman Chronicle for no-BS political analysis, action guides, and weekly truth bombs you won’t get from corporate media.
Bibliography:
“Trump’s attack on NPR and PBS, briefly explained.” The Logoff (Vox), July 18, 2025.
“Freedman, ‘Devastating’: US public broadcasters condemn Trump cuts to key programs.” The Guardian, July 18, 2025.
“U.S. Rolls Back $9 Billion for Foreign Aid, Public Broadcasters.” Time, July 18, 2025.
“Congress Passes Cuts to Public Broadcast and Foreign Aid, Delivering Budget Victory to Trump.” Investopedia, July 18, 2025.
“Senate Votes to Strip Federal Funds for Public Broadcasting.” TV Technology, July 17, 2025.
“House passes rescissions package slashing $9B in federal funding for foreign aid, NPR and PBS.” New York Post, July 18, 2025.
“Scoop: Why Dems didn’t try to make Trump miss his DOGE deadline.” Axios, July 18, 2025.
“The clock's ticking on codifying DOGE cuts into law.” Business Insider, June 26, 2025.
Perlman, Allison, and Josh Shepperd. “Clawback of $1.1B for PBS and NPR puts rural stations at risk.” Colorado Newsline, July 17, 2025.
“What will rescissions package mean for public broadcasting, foreign aid.” WBUR / Here & Now, July 18, 2025.
Coster, Helen. “Right-wing One America News to provide newsfeed to Voice of America.” Reuters, May 7, 2025.
“The Washington Post: Voice of America will carry One America News programming.” Whistleblower (citing WaPo), July 2025.
“Rescissions Act of 2025.” Wikipedia. Last modified July 2025.
“Voice of America.” Wikipedia. Last modified July 2025.
“Corporation for Public Broadcasting.” Wikipedia. Last modified July 2025.
This is the wealthy of America trying to turn us into another Russia 🇷🇺 🙄
Wow, straight from the textbook of democracy.
Oh, wait, I've got something mixed up. From the book for autocrats, of course.