Summary

FCC Chairman Brendan Carr has launched an investigation into NPR and PBS, alleging they may be violating federal law by airing commercial advertisements.

He also urged Congress to defund them, arguing taxpayer support is outdated.

Critics, including FCC Democratic commissioners and media advocacy groups, say the move is politically motivated and aimed at intimidating independent journalism.

Carr has previously acted on Trump’s media complaints and contributed to Project 2025.

NPR and PBS deny wrongdoing, asserting their underwriting practices comply with FCC regulations.

  • HubertManne
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    187 days ago

    would love my state, california, new york, and other liberal states get together and fund these so that now the red states will have people listening to blue states media because they don’t have a local npr/pbs

  • @Sam_Bass
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    36 days ago

    “Defunding” a privately funded service is known more popularly as theft

  • @CharlesDarwin
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    17 days ago

    The rabid right wing has become so unhinged that they think Nice Polite Republicans and Petroleum Broadcast System are in any way “liberal”.

  • @cultsuperstar
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    17 days ago

    Hey just change the laws so they’re no longer complicit, then say “see, they’re breaking the law.”

  • @randon31415
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    -16 days ago

    The only thing I care about with the under-writers is that the get the word “Carnegie” as in “Carnegie hall” right.

    The number of times I’ve winced when they say they are supported by the car-NEY-gee (three syllables) foundation instead of car-na-gie (one syllable) foundation …

    • @[email protected]
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      66 days ago

      car-na-gie (one syllable)

      But… that’s still three syllables. You literally separated out the three sylables right there.

      • @randon31415
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        16 days ago

        But you don’t say them as three- unless you are N-ee-P-ee-A-rr (six syllables)

  • @xc2215x
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    717 days ago

    Trump will demand all non right wing news banned it seems.

    • FenrirIII
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      157 days ago

      All the major news outlets are bending the knee

  • @gedaliyahM
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    517 days ago

    FWIW this is a really dumb move. The only thing stopping PBS and NPR from becoming the leading leftist voice is the Federal accountability.

    If they pull federal funding, they will mostly survive (thanks to “viewers like you”). They will just be untethered from government obligations.

      • @gedaliyahM
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        37 days ago

        Honestly, that’s a fair point.

    • @Stovetop
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      37 days ago

      How would this end any differently from other mainstream media outlets, though?

      • @gedaliyahM
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        67 days ago

        Obviously because it’s viewer and listener supported. I thought that was pretty clear, but maybe it bears repeating.

        Any news source anywhere near the scale of PBS or NPR is supported by advertisers and owned by a media conglomerate.

        • @draneceusrex
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          57 days ago

          There are certainly advertisers, excuse me, corporate donors contributing. They get their blurbs and ads read at a pretty regular basis, at least between programs. Bur yes, I would hope that the large % of listener donations would keep NPR/PBS the way they are.

  • Bahnd Rollard
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    417 days ago

    Mr. Rogers went to bat for PBS and was able to secure their funding by just chatting with congress critters for a short while. Why would any of these people want to undo his work… (I likely know why… I just need to vent)

      • @[email protected]
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        197 days ago

        It sickens me how much these people villainize love and compassion. Then on top of that they claim to be christians. I may not believe in god but I still like the message of the gospel, but these sick fuckers clearly just absolutely fucking hate it

        • @cultsuperstar
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          47 days ago

          They’re starting to say Jesus’s teachings are weak.

        • @[email protected]
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          27 days ago

          “But Jesus makes his appearance here only as a corpse; the living man, the wine-guzzling vagrant and precocious socialist, is never once mentioned, nor anything he ever had to say. Christ crucified rules, and it may be that the true business of modern Christianity is to crucify him again and again so that he can never get a word out of his mouth.”

          Barbara Ehrenreich, Nickle and Dimed, chpt 2

        • Punkie
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          7 days ago

          I have done a lot of personal study on this. There are “Christians” and there are “Team Christian.” Actual Christians usually practice what they preach, or try to. The “Team Christian” folks are like people who have a favorite football team: they wear the jerseys, watch the games, and claim the tribal aspect of “I am good, they are bad.” But know nothing of the philosophy or inner workings any more than the average football fan plays professional football, or runs the corporation end that manages the team.

          Also, like most bullies, they love saying the opposite just to make you mad. “If Jesus were alive today, he would have shot all the immigrants with a machine gun,” so you go “NO HE WOULDN’T HAVE YOU EVEN READ A BIBLE YOU HYPOCRITE GRRRR!!!” and they laugh at how mad you got. Like a bully saying “nice hair!” because they know it will make you angry, and they’ll act all innocent.

      • @glimse
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        37 days ago

        Lol yeah it’s Mr. Rogers’ fault that kids work hard and aren’t rewarded. Nothing to do with policy changes in their lifetime that prevent them from getting ahead.

  • Blackout
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    377 days ago

    That’s fine. My trumper parents and sister will get PBS donations in their names for every birthday and Christmas from now on.

  • @vegeta
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    7 days ago

    Next up, Alex Jones appointed Czar of Information Accuracy Committee. This consists of Himself, David Icke, Greg Hunter, Candace Owens, and An0maly.

  • @[email protected]
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    237 days ago

    I don’t think the feds fund NPR. They’re brought to us by a generous grant from the Walton Family Trust. Walmart, low prices every day! And Progressive Auto Insurance. Get a quote in 3 minutes with Progressive! Now back to another block of commercial free public radio.

    • Y|yukichigai
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      7 days ago

      Yeah, even though this is obviously politically motivated, the claim that they’re effectively running commercials isn’t that off base. It was one thing when they’d say “we receive funding from Company X: Their Slogan”, but now they’re reading sometimes paragraphs of ad copy, back-to-back.

      • @taiyang
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        37 days ago

        It helps that at least they will say openly when they have a sponsorship during a story. That’s especially fun when NPR will say some nasty shit Meta did and preface that with “full disclosure Meta is one of NPRs sponsors”.

        They’re generally not sensationalists, though, you’ll never hear them say they eviscerated someone. Lol

  • @taiyang
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    157 days ago

    With the whole industry Infowars thing in jeopardy, if PBS or NPR was to be sold to a private holder, could Global Tetrahedron buy one or both? The Onion is already ending up more respectable than The Washington Post, after all.

  • Punkie
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    127 days ago

    Saw this coming from a mile away. I was wondering when this ax would drop. What a shame; I grew up to PBS/NPR.