Congressional Republicans have eliminated over $1 billion in federal funding for public broadcasting (NPR and PBS) and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis vetoed around $6 million in funding to public broadcasting in Florida
But now Democrats are claiming the “Sky will fall.” According to a Senate Democrat report, with all the cuts by the GOP, “public media cuts could leave millions in the dark during disasters,” said the report.
The report says 79 public radio stations and 33 television stations across 34 states and territories are at imminent danger of going dark if with the cuts.
“Nearly 13 million Americans live in communities under threat of losing their local public broadcast stations. What’s worse, these stations serve large swaths of the Western, Midwestern, and Southeastern U.S. at risk of wildfires, tornadoes, hurricanes, and other public safety emergencies,” the report said.
Democrats also said cuts for public television and radio would hurt those the most that live in rural communities. “For millions of Americans, these stations are often their only source of emergency information during weather disasters. In rural areas, public broadcasters may be the sole source of information during emergencies, leaving them disproportionately impacted by federal funding cuts,” said Democrats in their report.
“According to Democrats, public broadcasting is the only source for people to get their news and weather reports? It’s called an app on their cell phones that anybody can download from any other local and tv station to follow the weather. NPR and PBS act like they are the only source for emergencies, not so,” said former Florida State Rep and now talk radio analyst Matt Caldwell.
70% of funding that goes directly to local public radio and TV stations comes from the federal government.
One report showed that a local PBS TV station in Cocoa, Florida, received about 35% of its revenue from state funding.
