Elon Musk could help Rep. Scott Perry and other Republicans to cut public media funding

Sesame Street‘s “Sunny Days” might not be so bright if Elon Musk does well with his proposal to eliminate hundreds of millions of dollars in annual funding allocated to PBS and NPR stations – home to Elmo and the Gang and popular shows such as All things considered and Fresh Air with Terry Gross & Tonya Mosley.

Musk is in a unique position to recommend defunding public media, a goal that Republicans, including a Pennsylvania congressman, have been striving to achieve. After he brought clout and millions of dollars in surrogacy to campaign for President-elect Donald Trump in Pennsylvania, Trump named Musk to head the proposed “Department of Government Efficiency” along with Vivek Ramaswamy. Given Musk’s position as the richest man in the world, his influence in Trump’s circle and in government may pose a greater threat to public media than previous GOP attempts.

National Public Radio and the Public Broadcasting Service are bracing for the effects of funding cuts. After the 2024 election, executives at NPR’s largest member stations circulated a report saying “it would be unwise to assume that events will play out as they have in the past” regarding federal funding, The New York Times reportedwhen PBS was made aware of the situation by political consultants in early December. Station directors in some states have begun lobbying lawmakers.

WHY is the Philadelphia region’s PBS/NPR member station serving 2.9 million households in the Philadelphia, Delaware and South Jersey area – one of the nation’s top 10 markets per March, according to the Pew Center for Arts and Heritage. Fresh airone of the best-known NPR programs, is owned and produced by WHYY. It’s unclear how WHY will be affected by potential cuts, or if the station is preparing for any impact. New Jersey has too its own public media network — NJ PBS — which is composed of various outlets, including WNJN.

In a statement to The Inquirer, Gary Bramnick, senior director of marketing communications at WHYY, emphasized the importance of public media for educational content, cultural programming and news regardless of a consumer’s income or location.

“By supporting diverse audiences, voices and perspectives, public media is an invaluable asset to our society, offering a unique mix of services that enrich our lives, support an engaged citizenry and ultimately strengthen our democracy,” he said on Friday . “Investing in public media is an investment in a more informed, engaged and fair society.”

A PBS spokesman echoed Bramnick’s sentiments in a statement Friday, saying PBS is grateful to have bipartisan support in Congress.

“We’ve earned this support from decades of work in communities: providing all Americans with content they trust; curating a wide range of stories and programs that help citizens understand our past and shape our future; and helping children and families with opening up worlds of opportunity through educational programming,” the spokesman said. “PBS stations also ensure that emergency alerts are able to reach everyone who needs to hear them.”

Representatives for NPR did not immediately return a request for comment.

This is not the first time public media has had to prepare for its backlash. Republicans have called for cuts to federal funding for public media for decades, with their biggest problem being a perceived liberal bias, the Times reported. In 2020, Trump recommended cutting federal funding to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which distributes taxpayer dollars to NPR and other public media, to $0 in 2023.

And this year, U.S. Rep. Scott Perry (R., Pa.) and U.S. Sen. John Kennedy (R., La.) introduced the No Propaganda Act to do the same. A spokesman for Perry, who represents the Harrisburg area, did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Musk’s proposal.

“CPB cannot be allowed to continue using your hard-earned tax dollars to push a biased and political agenda that goes against what is best for Americans,” Perry said in a statement in April.

Bramnick said the CPB has “played a critical role in ensuring a well-informed, diverse and democratic society.”

Trump’s recommendation four years ago proved unsuccessful and Perry’s bill has been in a House subcommittee since April. And NPR and PBS stations could use several factors to their advantageincluding their support for emergency alert systems. CPB may also be funded two years in advance making it harder for the GOP to take congressional action.

But Musk’s political influence – which recently caused lawmakers to kill and redraft a bipartisan spending deal amid government shutdown negotiations — could provide a potential glimmer of hope for Republicans and present new challenges for public media.

The billionaire has never been shy about expressing his disdain for various media sources, often without reason suggesting his social media platform, X, as a more reliable source of news than accredited news outlets. On Sunday, he said: “Legacy media must die.”

During the 2024 election, Musk frequently used X to promote misinformation about the integrity of voting rights in Pennsylvania as well as his pro-Trump rhetoric. Combined with his unwavering loyalty to the president-elect and the creation of America PAC and the Pennsylvania town halls and petitions it sponsored, some Republicans say Musk’s influence helped Trump win the battleground state.

Now Musk has been rewarded with greater authority and access. And it could help Republicans get closer to achieving a longtime goal.