During the second day of the INMA World Congress of News Media, Katherine Maher, CEO of NPR, laid out the current environment for public media in the United States:

“Maybe about a decade, decade and a half ago, this came up. But what makes this time different is not just the conversation about whether public media should be funded, it’s also the other actions that both the administration and Congress have engaged with around public media, and so it’s a much more comprehensive set of challenges that we’re facing.”

Maher further explained that the current administration is using unprecedented tactics to attack public media, leaving its future extremely uncertain.

“ The White House has requested that all of that money be clawed back that has been previously appropriated, which would mean that we would fall off a cliff starting in October,” she said. 

This funding pullback leaves many Americans susceptible to news deserts, Maher said. Presently about 20% of Americans live without a local media source in their community. This directly impacts the political landscape within the country, she said.

“ You see this correlation ... when you don’t have local news, you see decreased electoral participation, you see increased polarisation, lower civic engagement — so less volunteerism, lower voter turnout, fewer people running for office.” 

This is why Maher argues this attack on public media is unjust.

“The executive order that has targeted us in our view is an absolute infringement on the First Amendment. It’s an infringement on the rights of our stations to acquire our programming. It violates their right to speech and it violates their right to association.” 

A matter of public safety

Eliminating access to public media is also a public safety issue Maher said. During times of emergency and natural disasters in remote areas, people rely on public radio.

“We had this devastating hurricane that ripped up the northeast coast and went inland in  North Carolina and knocked out the communities around Asheville, North Carolina. [They] lacked water for over 50 days. Nothing drinkable. You couldn’t take a shower, you couldn’t cook. Blue Ridge Public Radio, which is centred in that community, was the only resource for information while they were clearing the roads to get back in.” 

Maher further went into the life-or-death value of public media: “In that time ... the reporters were sleeping in that station. They opened the doors to that station and our backup generator. They were absolutely committed to ensuring that the community had lifesaving information. It’s those sorts of stories, and it’s not exclusively Blue Ridge Public.”

Facing scrutiny

Maher also spoke on why public media is under so much scrutiny, including accusations of being predominantly left-leaning, with Maher disagreeing.

“I think that our newsroom is exceptionally committed to fairness and our nonpartisan mission,” she said, rejecting the notion that NPR leaves out conservative voices.

“Just by walking through my newsroom, that’s not true, but I can certainly affirm that having travelled around the country to many of our newsrooms. Especially in smaller communities and red states, that is certainly not true.”

NPR’s audience matches the demographics of the country, she said, noting: “If you look at our digital traffic, where we’ve got much higher fidelity data than in broadcast. We see that our audiences represent the political distribution of the country.”

When it comes to the future of NPR, Maher believes that surviving this period is only possible with support of the public and solidarity with other news organisations.

“ We saw over the course of the last few weeks … a red state who was telling us that 40% of calls were people declaring their support for public media and asking that [the elected official] not vote to defund public media. There has been an extraordinary outpouring of support, and I think it’s critical to note.”

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