House Republicans seal fate of NPR, PBS, foreign aid funds; costing WITF $1.3M

• By Jaxon White / LNP | LancasterOnline

House Republicans early Friday morning gave final approval to President Donald Trump’s proposed $9 billion in cuts to U.S. foreign aid programs and for NPR, PBS and their member stations.

WITF, the public radio and television station for 19 counties in south-central Pennsylvania, will lose $1.3 million, or 8% of its annual budget, as a result of the $1.1 billion cut to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which directs federal dollars to public broadcast stations nationwide.

“It’s not a fatal blow,” Ron Hetrick, chief executive of WITF, said before the vote. “But it will be a significant blow to our operation.”

Hetrick said WITF’s work falls into three categories: public media, local news and educational services.

Federal funding was “earmarked” for public media, he said. Asked whether losing federal funding would mean WITF would need to scale back other services, Hetrick said, “It’s gonna depend really on how effective we are as an organization at meeting the moment.”

WITF will seek more donations from its 266,000-person weekly audience to help “bridge that gap” in lost revenue, according to Hetrick. He also said Pennon will reconsider what NPR programs the station purchases, mentioning “Morning Edition,” “All Things Considered,” and “Fresh Air” as examples.

WITF and LNP | LancasterOnline operate a single newsroom under the parent organization Pennon, which Hetrick leads as president and CEO. Hetrick did not provide details on what impact he expects the cuts to have on the combined newsroom, which saw 10% of its staff laid off last year.

House Republicans — many of whom have long argued that NPR and PBS show a left-wing bias in their news coverage — passed the rescission package in a 219-210 vote early Friday morning, just ahead of a deadline that night. Senate Republicans advanced it Thursday morning.

Trump has played an instrumental role in pressuring congressional Republicans to rescind money for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. On social media last week, he threatened to withhold his endorsement for any Republican lawmaker who voted against stripping the funds for public media.

The ten Republican House members from Pennsylvania were united in supporting the cuts, including the lawmakers who represent the WITF listening and viewing area – Reps. Lloyd Smucker, Scott Perry, Dan Meuser, John Joyce and Glenn Thompson.

Democrats, whose symbolic efforts to shield public broadcast funds from the cuts failed, argued that slashing public media funding would harm people’s ability to access information during emergencies, especially in rural communities.

Journalists at Pennon are negotiating a union contract with the company, after voting to unionize with the NewsGuild of Greater Philadelphia, Local 38010, earlier this year.

NewsGuild Executive Director Bill Ross said he hopes Pennon is “transparent” with the bargaining committee about its budget and the potential impact the federal cuts could have on the newsroom.

Note: This article was reported by Jaxon White and Jordan Wilkie. It was edited by Russ Walker. As a measure to ensure editorial independence while LNP and WITF journalists reported on their employer, no corporate official or news executive reviewed this story before it was posted publicly.