Demand Progress

Reverse the Trump-Musk cuts to public TV and radio!

Sign the petition:

    Not ? Click here.

    Reverse the Trump-Musk cuts to public TV and radio!

    Petition to Congress:
    We urge you to restore funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting in order to preserve the early childhood, educational, and news programs on local and national outlets that are overwhelmingly popular among Americans, and save the rural and tribal stations that provide critical weather and emergency information to communities.

    Elon Musk, DOGE, Trump, and MAGA loyalists in Congress decimated public radio and TV last year when Republicans defunded the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.1

    Musk and Trump launched a coordinated campaign attacking public media. Musk said, "Defund NPR," and labeled outlets receiving government funding as propaganda.2 Public TV and radio provides people across the country with reliable local and national reporting, educational children's programming, and even critical updates during extreme weather events.

    Public media is beloved by the vast majority of Americans, while Trump derided it as a "waste of money."3 The gutting of public media was central to the White House's authoritarian war on reliable news outlets. With Democrats coming back into control of Congress, they must fully fund the Corporation for Public Broadcasting!

    Sign the petition: Reverse Musk and Trump's cuts to public media now!

    Trump and Musk’s funding cuts have had disastrous consequences that left even some Republicans regretting their votes: local radio stations that provide critical, life-or-death weather and emergency alerts to rural and tribal communities are shuttering, leaving people in imminent danger.4

    The GOP's defunding of public media already forced public TV stations in Arkansas and New Jersey to shut down. Many more stations saw mass layoffs and are preparing to fully go off the air.5,6

    Now that Democrats flipped the House and Senate, they must reverse the damage to public media. And with the mass popularity of these media outlets, public pressure can end these cuts.

    Sign the petition: Fully fund the Corporation for Public Broadcasting!


    Sources:

    1. PBS NewsHour, "Trump signs bill canceling $9 billion in foreign aid and public broadcasting funding," July 24, 2025.
    2. Los Angeles Times, "NPR faces a real threat in defunding fight that's coming," March 14, 2025.
    3. PBS NewsHour, "Trump calls PBS and NPR 'a waste of money' at funding bill signing," February 3, 2026.
    4. Current, "Some Republicans want to reverse GOP cuts to rural and tribal radio stations," April 17, 2026.
    5. Arkansas Times, "RIP, Arkansas PBS," December 11, 2025.
    6. WHYY, "NJ PBS, New Jersey's only dedicated public television channel, will cease operations in the Garden State next summer," September 23, 2025.
    Click here to sign