STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
A narrow majority in Congress took another step in ceding their power to the president.
MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:
The Constitution gives Congress authority over government spending. But at the president's request, they overturned spending they'd previously agreed to for foreign aid and public broadcasting. The request was more of a demand. He'd threatened consequences for lawmakers who didn't go along. Some voted in favor while publicly expressing concern or even saying they didn't know what they were voting for. The White House promises to use the technique again.
INSKEEP: The people affected this time include hundreds of public radio stations. NPR media correspondent David Folkenflik has been covering them. And we'll note, as we have been doing, that no corporate official or news executive in this company has reviewed the interview we're about to do. David, good morning.
DAVID FOLKENFLIK, BYLINE: Good morning, Steve.
INSKEEP: People have sort of followed this, but it's complicated. So what money are we talking about here?
FOLKENFLIK: Well, so there are hundreds of local public radio, public television stations across this country. They get money from a lot of sources, but a good chunk comes from what's called the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. That's the not-for-profit set up by Congress that funnels federal money to these stations, other actors in the public broadcasting world. So call it $1.1 billion over two years. A tiny sliver of that comes to NPR. But about 8% to 10% of funding for public radio stations across the country on average comes from that federal source. About 15% of PBS' revenues and PBS member stations' revenues come from Corporation for Public Broadcasting. And I want to be clear, it's not the same for every station. So some stations might get 6%, 8%. Some might be 20%, 30%.
INSKEEP: Right.
FOLKENFLIK: In some cases, particularly rural areas, more like 50%.
INSKEEP: Yeah, it varies highly. And they were funded two years in advance to avoid political influence. That's the money that is now canceled. What is the backstory of Republicans going after this now?
FOLKENFLIK: Well, look, it has been an episodic thing that has happened in the 50-plus years since the creation of public broadcasting as a federally subsidized thing back in 1967 under President Lyndon Baines Johnson. But nonetheless, public broadcasting has enjoyed strong bipartisan support, which has been reflected in recent polls that have been released by NPR, but also by others, about this very issue. The real issue is that this used to be seen as something that Republicans wanted to run on. And now, under President Trump, it's been something Republicans wanted to win.
President Trump has talked about, in campaigning last year, about revenge and vengeance as part of his mandate. And he put the media as a center core of that. Having the lever of federal funding meant that he had a way in which to focus on the media. He wanted to take it away. He's been calling NPR and PBS sort of left-wing monsters. He described them again last week as monstrous. The charge of bias is one that the networks have rejected, and yet it comes up again and again from Republicans. This time, they wanted to score a win. And with his pressure...
INSKEEP: Yeah.
FOLKENFLIK: ...They did.
INSKEEP: And we'll just note the reality for the record that many of the Republicans who accused bias or voted against public radio have been on NPR telling their own stories, in their own words. And that's all a matter of just the transcript. So what do public media stations do now?
FOLKENFLIK: Well, I think what you're seeing right now, in the hours after this, you're going to start to see across the country a lot of folks fundraising. But they really, with any luck, have been thinking about this hard. There's going to be some consolidation. Some stations may close down and go dark and not serve all 99-plus percent of the nation that we do now. And that's going to be particularly in underserved areas, rural areas, perhaps tribal areas. Although, there's been some promises by South Dakota's Mike Rounds that some money will be set aside for them. But I think you're going to see a radical reconstruction of what the public broadcasting system looks like in radio, in television. They're going to have to meet a very different future.
INSKEEP: NPR media correspondent David Folkenflik. Thanks for your insights.
FOLKENFLIK: You bet. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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