The LuLac Edition #5, 407, August 6th, 2025

 

WRITE ON

WEDNESDAY

Our “Write On Wednesday” logo.

This week we focus in on the war waged by the Trump administration on Public Media. As you know about a million dollars was stolen by Republicans who took away allocated, approved money for all educational stations. This has and will impact WVIA TV and FM. The funding cuts have taken a toll on the employees there who have been serving 22 counties. But that didn’t seem to matter because the two “Representatives” we have could have saved it. But they didn’t. 

Just to refresh yourselves, these two voted against your kids, your grandchildren and anyone with a  brain in LuLac land. Believe me, they’ll pay in 2026. 

But that will happen then. Who needs to pay now is YOU. If you don’t believe me, this week’s Write On Wednesday focuses in on Chris Kelly’s years of sitting it out

 

CONFESSIONS OF A PBS FREELOADER

 

Since I was old enough to visit “Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood,” I’ve lived rent-free on “Sesame Street.” I never paid “The Electric Company” or bought a ticket for “Masterpiece Theater.”

As a teen, I got hooked on PBS documentaries and NPR news and culture coverage. My understanding of the world was immeasurably expanded by watching “Frontline” and listening to “All Things Considered” and “Fresh Air.”  I’ve repeatedly binged “Rick Steves’ Europe,” seen every Ken Burns film at least twice and owe much of my grip on Our Republic’s history and hope for its future to innumerable viewings of “American Experience.”

Throughout my 57-plus years on this planet, public broadcasting has enriched my life in any number of ways.

Until a week ago, I never paid a penny for it.

I’m ashamed to say I’ve always taken PBS and NPR for granted. Both are free to consume, but not to produce. The impact of public media in a free society is priceless. Keeping it free is costly. Keeping it alive requires kicking in, which Chrissy and I did with a monthly pledge. It’s not much, but any investment in an essential American institution is guaranteed to pay significant dividends.

Such investments are crucial in the wake of the Trump administration’s “recission” of  $1.1 billion previously approved to underwrite the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. The CPB is the channel for funding PBS and NPR and their member stations, including our own WVIA. Late Friday, CPB President and CEO Patricia Harrison announced that the treasured American institution will not survive Trump’s budget axe.

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“Despite the extraordinary efforts of millions of Americans who called, wrote, and petitioned Congress to preserve federal funding for CPB, we now face the difficult reality of closing our operations,” Harrison said. “CPB remains committed to fulfilling its fiduciary responsibilities and supporting our partners through this transition with transparency and care.”

I reached out to WVIA President and CEO Carla McCabe a few days prior to Harrison’s grave announcement. McCabe said the station and its benefactors are working on solutions, but she had nothing new to report. We agreed to catch up later this month. In the meantime, she referred me to WVIA News coverage of the assault on public broadcasting.

“This is a substantial loss for us,” McCabe told WVIA reporter Roger DuPuis. “We are essential in this community, and we have to find a way forward to continue offering the trusted and critical services our audience depends on.”

I’ve known and respected Roger as a colleague and competitor for more than 25 years. I worked alongside several journalists on the WVIA roster for decades. They are more than friends to me. They are family. Now, they are competitors, but striving for the same goal that drives my colleagues and me at The Times-Tribune — providing essential, engaging content in service to an informed, empowered audience.

I have always valued public media, but until now never paid for it, which at best made me a hypocrite, at worst a thief. Without subscribers and advertisers, newspapers wouldn’t exist. I never let myself forget that my career — and the countless blessings it bestows — is funded by people who for some mysterious reason value my work (and some who hate it so much they can’t afford to ignore it). Without that support, I’d have to get a “real” job. (I’ve had too many of those. This is much more fun.)

Back in April, Chrissy and I spent a long weekend in Washington, D.C. One of the highlights was a bucket list-worthy tour of NPR’s national headquarters. One of our dearest longtime friends works there, and she escorted us through public media’s inner sanctum, including the small space where the “Tiny Desk Concert” series is produced and the vast newsroom where some of the best journalism in the world comes to life. It was like a visit to “Journolympus.”

Our friend told us Harrison and other NPR higher-ups were meeting with House Republicans to lobby them not to approve cuts to public broadcasting. I told her that was nice, but naive. Republicans have always been against public broadcasting. In 1969 — the year “Sesame Street” opened for visitors — Nixon wanted to cut CPB funding in half. Mr. Rogers went to Washington and testified to the value of public broadcasting, particularly in the intellectual and emotional development of America’s children.

It was impossible to say no to Mr. Rogers, who left the neighborhood for good in 2003. He was 74. Nixon’s proposed cuts were nixed and he moved on to Watergate and resigned in disgrace to avoid impeachment. There are many great PBS programs that document Nixon’s historic self-immolation. I’ve watched them all.

In 2012, Mitt Romney’s threat to “fire” Big Bird was a major misstep in his clumsy, quixotic campaign against President Barack Obama. Trump threatened to cut ALL public media funding in his first term, but was so busy fending off impeachments, firing the few “adults” in his Cabinet and fumbling the federal response to the pandemic that he never got around to it.

By knocking off the CPB within the first few months of his second term, Trump and his MAGA minions made catastrophic damage to  public media a priority. The best response from those of us who value public media is to make funding it a priority. (Subscriptions to this newspaper are also welcome.)

While the loss of the clawed-back funding is a dire setback, McCabe told Roger she trusted the community to rally in support of public broadcasting and WVIA. Now that the CPB is on the way to its grave, donor support will be even more essential

“By no means will this be easy,” she said. ”We will have to make tough decisions. This may result in changes to our programming and operations, but I am hopeful. I believe in this team, and we have a long history of community support. I believe we will attract a broad base of supporters at all levels who understand our value.”

This repented former freeloader belatedly but earnestly values public media enough to pay for it. Won’t you be my rent-paying neighbor?

CHRIS KELLY, the Times-Tribune columnist, believes public media is essential to the “American Experience.” Contact the writer: ckelly@scrantontimes.com; @cjkink on X; Chris Kelly, The Times-Tribune on Facebook.

 

TO INVEST IN PUBLIC MEDIA 

 https://donate.wvia.org/wvia/donate-pledge?_gl=1*102brwb*_gcl_au*MTY4NDE4ODM0OS4xNzU0MzQ1NDMy*_ga*NjE0MzgyNjMzLjE3NTQzNDU0MzI.*_ga_XJWFVVG9DS*czE3NTQzNDU0MzEkbzEkZzAkdDE3NTQzNDU0MzEkajYwJGwwJGgw