Calls to eliminate government funding for NPR and PBS may have reached a peak, but the two networks have been living under that threat for decades.
Congressional Republicans have periodically attempted to defund the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, the government-backed organization that administers hundreds of millions of dollars in taxpayer funding directed to public broadcasters across the United States.
As House speaker, Newt Gingrich championed one such movement in the 1990s, and Congress overrode cuts proposed by President George W. Bush each year he was in office. President Trump, in a question-and-answer session on Tuesday, reiterated his desire to see PBS and NPR defunded.
Congress has rejected those attempts, in part, because public media programs like “Sesame Street” and “All Things Considered” have been popular with some listeners and viewers in their districts. Some Republican legislators, such as Senator Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, have defended the public media organizations in their states, saying that they provide news and weather information to residents in rural areas.
The most dramatic showdown between legislators and public media defenders came more than a half-century ago. In 1969, Fred Rogers, the creator of the children’s TV show “Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood,” testified before Congress to protest cuts to public media proposed by the Nixon administration. After his testimony, which underscored the value of helping children manage their emotions, a proposal to cut public media funding by half was waved away by Senator John O. Pastore, a Democrat.
“Looks like you just earned the $20 million,” Mr. Pastore said to Mr. Rogers.
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