Media Sustenance Demands Government Subsidies for Continuation

Reduced funding for public media forms part of a wider assault on public benefits.

, and Administrator

2025 September 17 . 3:36 PM

2 min read

Government Financial Support is Crucial for Journalism's Existence

Media Sustenance Demands Government Subsidies for Continuation

In the heart of the modern democratic project, there lies a pressing concern: the need for a permanent public revenue stream for journalism. This is crucial to ensure the survival of local news in every community, a vision that paints a picture of neighbors covering local events and events that matter most to their communities.

However, the reality is starkly different. Over the past quarter-century, there has been a drastic decrease in local journalists, with rural communities seeing a 75 percent reduction in their ranks. This absence of adequate news resources is not just a threat to the journalism profession, but a direct threat to democracy itself.

The cuts to public media funding are part of a broader attack on government spending for the public good by the current administration. The struggle over how material resources should be apportioned is, after all, politics. The illusion that journalism can float above politics has been shattered, as profit margins have decreased and reporters are exposed to political pressure.

Advertising revenue, tech platforms, nonprofit donations, and subscriptions are not sufficient to fund journalism at the necessary level. Even stalwarts like NPR and PBS are not immune to the danger, with small broadcasters in rural, red-state news deserts now endangered.

Several U.S. organizations, such as the Local Media Foundation and Local Media Association, work tirelessly to create sustainable business models and financial stability for journalism. Foundations like MacArthur, Knight, Ford, and Schmidt Family Foundation have committed significant funding (around $37 million) to support public media stations at risk from federal funding cuts. The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press and the Committee to Protect Journalists also coordinate legal and safety resources to defend journalistic rights, indirectly supporting the sustainability of journalism.

Yet, as long as Republicans control the federal government, public funding for journalism remains unlikely. The current administration does not seem to believe that government should make people smarter, healthier, and happier.

The hypothesis that laying off thousands of reporters would lead to a less well-informed populace, which would then make it easier for politically motivated misinformation to flourish, has been proven. People like and need journalism, and in the face of an ideological assault, journalists and media institutions must fight in the political arena for their own survival.

In the end, the future of journalism may require more than just the $1.1 billion currently provided through public broadcasting. It may require a robust level of news reporting that can only be achieved with public funding for journalism. Journalists must believe in their own importance to fight for the public good, ensuring that the democratic project does not crumble under the weight of insufficient information.