In July, the U.S. House voted to pass a Senate-approved bill to rescind $1.1 billion in federal funding that had already been allocated to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which distributes funds to public media organizations NPR, PBS and KCUR.
Journalists and other advocates for public media, however, have spoken out against President Trump's claims that these services "spread radical, woke propaganda."
“Look, facts are facts, and truth is truth," said Leila Fadel, host of NPR's weekday program Morning Edition and daily news podcast Up First.
A recent study by Pew Research Center found that 80% of Americans agree that Republican and Democratic voters can't agree on basic facts.
The study explains this trend, in part, as a consequence of members of each party getting different information from different news sources — and trusting the facts of particular news sources over others.
"It is much easier to shoot the messenger than to deal with the message. And what we do every day as journalists is report without fear or favor, and sometimes that ruffles the wrong feathers," said Fadel. "It's easier to say, ‘They're just biased and you can't trust them,’ so that you don't have to deal with the facts in the journalism."
- Leila Fadel, NPR host, Morning Edition and Up First
