- cross-posted to:
- technology@lemmy.zip
- cross-posted to:
- technology@lemmy.zip
Summary
FCC Chairman Brendan Carr has launched an investigation into NPR and PBS, alleging they may be violating federal law by airing commercial advertisements.
He also urged Congress to defund them, arguing taxpayer support is outdated.
Critics, including FCC Democratic commissioners and media advocacy groups, say the move is politically motivated and aimed at intimidating independent journalism.
Carr has previously acted on Trump’s media complaints and contributed to Project 2025.
NPR and PBS deny wrongdoing, asserting their underwriting practices comply with FCC regulations.
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With the whole industry Infowars thing in jeopardy, if PBS or NPR was to be sold to a private holder, could Global Tetrahedron buy one or both? The Onion is already ending up more respectable than The Washington Post, after all.
Saw this coming from a mile away. I was wondering when this ax would drop. What a shame; I grew up to PBS/NPR.
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FWIW this is a really dumb move. The only thing stopping PBS and NPR from becoming the leading leftist voice is the Federal accountability.
If they pull federal funding, they will mostly survive (thanks to “viewers like you”). They will just be untethered from government obligations.
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Honestly, that’s a fair point.
I love the intellectual humility.
How would this end any differently from other mainstream media outlets, though?
Obviously because it’s viewer and listener supported. I thought that was pretty clear, but maybe it bears repeating.
Any news source anywhere near the scale of PBS or NPR is supported by advertisers and owned by a media conglomerate.
There are certainly advertisers, excuse me, corporate donors contributing. They get their blurbs and ads read at a pretty regular basis, at least between programs. Bur yes, I would hope that the large % of listener donations would keep NPR/PBS the way they are.
Doesn’t a big chunk of their donations come from Koch brother funds?
Trump will demand all non right wing news banned it seems.
All the major news outlets are bending the knee
That’s fine. My trumper parents and sister will get PBS donations in their names for every birthday and Christmas from now on.
Brilliant move! I bet the ACLU and the EFF would appreciate the relatives’ generous donations as well.
Ohh, I like this.
Mr. Rogers went to bat for PBS and was able to secure their funding by just chatting with congress critters for a short while. Why would any of these people want to undo his work… (I likely know why… I just need to vent)
Because they think he’s evil
It sickens me how much these people villainize love and compassion. Then on top of that they claim to be christians. I may not believe in god but I still like the message of the gospel, but these sick fuckers clearly just absolutely fucking hate it
“But Jesus makes his appearance here only as a corpse; the living man, the wine-guzzling vagrant and precocious socialist, is never once mentioned, nor anything he ever had to say. Christ crucified rules, and it may be that the true business of modern Christianity is to crucify him again and again so that he can never get a word out of his mouth.”
Barbara Ehrenreich, Nickle and Dimed, chpt 2
I have done a lot of personal study on this. There are “Christians” and there are “Team Christian.” Actual Christians usually practice what they preach, or try to. The “Team Christian” folks are like people who have a favorite football team: they wear the jerseys, watch the games, and claim the tribal aspect of “I am good, they are bad.” But know nothing of the philosophy or inner workings any more than the average football fan plays professional football, or runs the corporation end that manages the team.
Also, like most bullies, they love saying the opposite just to make you mad. “If Jesus were alive today, he would have shot all the immigrants with a machine gun,” so you go “NO HE WOULDN’T HAVE YOU EVEN READ A BIBLE YOU HYPOCRITE GRRRR!!!” and they laugh at how mad you got. Like a bully saying “nice hair!” because they know it will make you angry, and they’ll act all innocent.
Jesus is too WOKE.
The Bible is actually on the planned banned book list
I’ve seen it be banned already, not sure if it held in those states/counties
Lol yeah it’s Mr. Rogers’ fault that kids work hard and aren’t rewarded. Nothing to do with policy changes in their lifetime that prevent them from getting ahead.
Next up, Alex Jones appointed Czar of Information Accuracy Committee. This consists of Himself, David Icke, Greg Hunter, Candace Owens, and An0maly.
I don’t think the feds fund NPR. They’re brought to us by a generous grant from the Walton Family Trust. Walmart, low prices every day! And Progressive Auto Insurance. Get a quote in 3 minutes with Progressive! Now back to another block of commercial free public radio.
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It helps that at least they will say openly when they have a sponsorship during a story. That’s especially fun when NPR will say some nasty shit Meta did and preface that with “full disclosure Meta is one of NPRs sponsors”.
They’re generally not sensationalists, though, you’ll never hear them say they eviscerated someone. Lol
Everything done on and by social media though? Perfectly fine. FCC has zero notes.
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NPR and PBS are different things though… ?
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Ah gotcha
My only hope is that PBS and NPR have gotten so used to subsisting nearly 100% on member donations over the past few decades of constant GOP attacks on their funding, that this doesn’t have the affect that they’d hope.
Though I can see them actually shutting them down and not allowing them to exist, not just defunding them…
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cpb receives a not insignificant amount of federal funding. but since the pba, which established the cpb in 1967, specifically gives no control to the feds–they’ll just nuke the whole thing instead.
Weaponizing the government
