Former CEO of NPR Vivian Schiller is more positive about the future of the outlet without taxpayer dollars, admitting during an interview on Saturday that she has long believed mixing journalism and federal funding was a “recipe for disaster.”
“Those of us that care about local journalism are going to help them,” Schiller said during an appearance on MSNBC’s “The Weekend.” She explained, “The fact is this is done. The money is gone. The rescission has happened. So my perspective now is let’s move on.”
The Republican-led Congress passed a White House-submitted rescissions package on Thursday, slashing $9 billion in funding already appropriated by Congress. The cuts include $1 billion to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which funds NPR and PBS, for the rest of the fiscal year.
While many left-leaning media figures have decried the package as an attack on press freedom, Schiller framed the cuts as an opportunity to “reset.”
“Look, in many cases, I have long believed that mixing journalism and federal funding is just a recipe for disaster,” she said. “So in many ways, I think this is an opportunity for a reset. I think the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which was a very bureaucratic organization that was, still is today, doling out that money, will go away. Let’s reset. Let’s come up with a new governance structure. Let’s get support for those rural stations from the communities, from philanthropies and find other ways to support them.”
“I tend to look at the bright side of life and say, ‘Let’s just find a better way forward,’ because there were problems with the former system,” she added.
Katherine Hamilton is a political reporter for Breitbart News. You can follow her on X @thekat_hamilton.
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