Wouldn't it be better to let those towers go dark, and await the public outcry, instead of temporarily hiding the effects?
The PBS affiliate stations in most need of federal funding are typically in rural, largely Republican areas. Let their own base tell the party they're not happy about being cut-off from their baseball documentaries and all the educational shows their kids watch.
Or maybe those stations will simply close, never to be reopened, which in the grand scheme of things seems like a worse outcome.
Someone close to the administration could reopen them "in the interest of national security" or some such rubbish, isn't Larry's son in the media game?
PragerU shorts injected directly in to Sesame Street wasn't on my 2025 bingo card but its not the wildest thing I've seen out of the US this year.
This is the worse outcome, and the more likely one.
Those republicans have cheered on their local news being literally mouthpieces for a global company: Sinclair Broadcasting
Those republicans left Fox News when they were forced to admit that they lied, and instead tuned into "media" that kept insisting that the 2020 election was "stolen"
Those same people are cheering on an administration that erases American history because it is uncomfortable and cheer on a President who lies when his mouth is open.
Thinking they will suddenly come to their senses is just delusional.
>all the educational shows their kids watch.
They don't let their kids watch educational shows. They buy documentaries from religious fundamentalist groups and force their children to watch shows about how the scientists lie to them for satan. They take their kids to organizations run by the Discovery Institute, including exhibits about how dinosaurs are a lie perpetrated by science.
These people have been purposely nurturing an anti-science cult for decades. They have an entire "alternative" media infrastructure set up. PragerU is just a minuscule part of it.
> Thinking they will suddenly come to their senses is just delusional.
Abstract proclamations don't affect people. Taking something away from them, affects them. That's when the rubber hits the road. That's when the public starts turning on the politicians. Even the strictest party-line voters don't support EVERYTHING (or even most of what) the party says and does.
> They don't let their kids watch educational shows.
> They have an entire "alternative" media infrastructure set up.
"PBS has also reported a diverse ideological split among its consumers [...] 26% who self-identify as Republicans and 37% who say they are independents."
https://www.thewrap.com/defund-pbs-npr-impact/
"Among those that voted for President Trump, PBS/public television has a much higher positive image rating (60%) than the traditional broadcast networks (37%), cable TV networks (41%) and newspapers (24%)."
"66% who voted for President Trump favor increasing or maintaining federal funding for public TV"
https://www.pbs.org/about/about-pbs/blogs/news/survey-shows-...