The Future of Public Media

For many Americans, Public Media is the home of NPR, PBS, and is synonymous with the likes of Mr. Rogers, Elmo, and Ken Burns documentaries. It is also a crucial resource for local journalism, discourse, and even emergency alerts. In July 2025, the Rescissions Act of 2025 was passed by Congress and signed into law by President Trump, cutting all federal funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting-which will close its doors in January 2026. The hardest hit are smaller market, rural, and tribal stations, some of which are seeing the loss of public safety grants intended to support disaster-prone regions of the nation. What are the impacts of these cuts? And what efforts are underway to support the most at-risk public media organizations?