President Trump’s new head of the Federal Communications Commission has ordered an investigation of NPR and PBS, with an eye toward unraveling federal funding for all public broadcasting.
“I am concerned that NPR and PBS broadcasts could be violating federal law by airing commercials,” Chairman Brendan Carr wrote on Wednesday to the presidents and chief executives of NPR and PBS, Katherine Maher and Paula A. Kerger, respectively. “In particular, it is possible that NPR and PBS member stations are broadcasting underwriting announcements that cross the line into prohibited commercial advertisements.”
The FCC does not directly regulate the two networks. Instead, it evaluates the actions of roughly 1,500 public broadcasting stations across the country, which hold licenses granted by the FCC for use of public airwaves for radio and television, even in the digital age.
NPR and PBS receive single digit funding from federal funding. They would be better suited to remain that way and having the freedom to continue publishing their own content than go private and be steered by profit minded board members. Going private opens them up to a hostile takeover. Remaining public gives them more freedom.
Being public exposes them to being taken over by the administration. Going private as a non-publicly owned entity with a stewardship board would likely end up increasing their journalistic freedom. Overtime corruption would likely seep in (as it has with most news organizations) but it’d likely start out quite mission driven.
Things like takeovers and corrupt boards only happen if greed is allowed to be a driver.