John Oliver on the mass defunding of US public media: ‘Just stupid’

On the latest Last Week Tonight, John Oliver checked in on the “dire” state of public media in the US, where almost all public media falls under the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. Until recently, the CPB distributed funding to over 544 radio TV grantees representing more than 1,500 locally managed and operated stations nationwide, reaching more than 99% of the US population with free programming and services. Oliver noted that US public media has been “truly innovative” in reaching underserved audiences – it was public TV that first invented closed captioning in the 1970s; stations around the country offer programming in Haitian Creole, Navajo, Vietnamese and many other languages. “But as you undoubtedly know, it is now facing a serious threat,” Oliver said, as Congress voted over the summer to eliminate $1.1bn allocated to fund public broadcasting for the next two years. Donald Trump, of course, bragged about the funding cuts to public media: “I would say they make CNN look honest, and we got rid of it finally,” he said earlier this year. Related: John Oliver on the dangers and ubiquity of police chases: ‘Something has to be done’ The cuts constitute “one of many egregious actions this administration has taken, which is why the number one search on Google this year is probably going to end up being: ‘Wait, can the government do that?’” Oliver joked. “These cuts will be felt all over, but especially in rural, remote and tribal communities,” he continued, citing an analysis that 115 stations collectively serving 43 million Americans will likely close by mid-2026. “Public media provides incredible benefits to the communities that it serves, and it has just suffered a gigantic blow.” Oliver briefly surveyed the history of the public broadcasting system in the US, which started in 1967 when President Lyndon B Johnson signed the Public Broadcasting Act. That law created the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which then in turn created PBS and NPR. The CPB’s role wasn’t to directly produce content or to oversee public media, but to primarily distribute funding while remaining independent of the government, as a private non-profit corporation. “The only issue that, despite not being a government agency, it is still funded like one,” said Oliver, adding that funding is embedded in the annual congressional appropriations process and thus vulnerable to political attacks. “Almost from the start, it has been a punching bag for Republicans,” he noted. Just two years into its existence, Richard Nixon proposed slashing its funding in half, supposedly to help meet the financial demands of the Vietnam war. The CPB was saved that time by testimony from Fred Rogers, AKA Mr Rogers of children’s television fame, who explained the show’s purpose in addressing kids’ feelings and, according to one senator, “earned” the $20m on the spot. “That’s a truly heartwarming thing that would never, ever happen today,” said Oliver. “If Mr Rogers had given that exact same testimony this year, Ted Cruz would’ve called him a radical left lunatic, Fox News would’ve run with the headline ‘Mr Rogers Socialist Neighborhood’, and the White House would’ve posted an AI video of president Trump kicking him in the balls.” Related: John Oliver on the ‘shocking’ use of felony murder charges in the US Public media has been threatened in the years since, particularly by Republicans decrying its so-called “liberal bias”. “It is brainwashing the American people, and more specifically, American children with un-American, anti-family, pro-crime fake news,” said Marjorie Taylor Greene before Congress this year. “Look, there can be a good faith debate about bias in the media, liberal or otherwise,” Oliver countered. “But I’ll point out that a lot of the time, what conservatives claim as liberal bias is things like showing there’s a long history of racism in America, or that gay people exist, making it hard to interpret those criticisms as anything other than bigotry. “And yet, arguments like those just got used to justify zeroing out the entire budget of the CPB,” he added. “Which is just stupid. In many places, it will have exactly the opposite of the intended effect.” To explain why, Oliver tracked where all those federal dollars went, because while some of the CPB’s funding went directly to NPR and PBS, the vast majority of it – more than 70% – went directly to local public radio and TV stations, who used it to produce local programming, buy broadcast equipment and acquire programming like the PBS Newshour. The more local budgets are slashed, he explained, the more they will have to rely on federal programming produced in, as Greene called it, “liberal echo chambers”. Such measures would critically endanger access to local news. According to an analysis from Northwestern University, in nine counties, public broadcasting is the only source of local news coverage. In 47 others, it is one of two, with the other typically being a weekly newspaper. Oliver listed a number of important scoops from local radio and broadcast reporters, who have done reporting that has undergirded the investigations for his own show. More critically, local broadcasters are crucial during emergencies, distributing alerts during crises such as hurricanes and helping local residents, regardless of income, access local resources and aid. As the general manager of North Carolina’s Blue Ridge Public Radio put it in the aftermath of devastating flooding in the region: “NBC Nightly News can show you pictures of devastating flooding … but they don’t tell locals where to get fresh water. NBC News is not for that.” “Frankly, it’s always been a bit weird how little we fund public media, given how vital it can be,” said Oliver. “To be clear here, US public media is a global outlier in how little federal funding it receives.” Even before these cuts, federal spending amounted to about $1.60 per capita, compared to the nearly $100 or more in Norway, Sweden or the UK. Oliver also cited research on the strong links between the strength of public media and the strength of democracy. “And given that the health of our democracy is currently best described as ‘that one photo of Prince Philip where he was in the car,’ we can use all the public media funding we can get right now,” he concluded.