With the mission of “ensur[ing] universal access to non-commercial, high-quality content and telecommunications services … to more than 1,500 locally owned public radio and television stations across the country,” the CPB has helped fund National Public Radio since 1967, according to the CPB website.

On Oct. 1, that funding stopped.

Congress voted to cut around $1.1 billion in federal funding for public media as part of a rescission package. This is because NPR and other public media platforms have been accused of having a liberal bias, according to a press release from President Donald Trump in May.

So, why does this matter?

Well, hidden away on a small corner of campus, we have 89.5 KACU, a student-run local NPR member station, that lost 31% of funding for the coming year. This equals out to around $150,000, said Heather Claborn, the station manager and news director for KACU.

She believes the main goal of the package Congress passed was to hurt NPR on a national level; however, this was not the result. Instead, NPR only lost a small portion of its funding, but the local member stations are experiencing devastating losses.

Many of these smaller stations were already struggling to maintain their staffing and funding before the vote; now they will need to make up a lot of that lost funding from their own listeners, Claborn said.

“For a lot of the big stations, it was like four or five or maybe 8% of their budget. To lose 31% of your budget is a big hit,” Claborn said. “We can’t just ask listeners to come up with $150,000.”

These local stations are important because they are a part of the community around them and help keep residents informed, and this closing of local news is part of a larger concerning trend throughout the U.S.

A study done by the Local News Initiative found that the number of news deserts is quickly rising and getting bigger. At the end of 2025, there were 212 counties in the U.S. without any local news sources and 1,525 counties with only one local news source. This results in roughly 50 million Americans living with little to no local news sources.

Since the CPB funding cuts in October, we have seen more legacy media cut their staff and limit reporting.

In early February, the Washington Post cut 30% of its employees, which amounts to over 300 of the 800 journalists in the newsroom, according to the New York Times. This reduced the Post’s metro section and international section, and completely eliminated its sports section.

The Post, which was founded in 1877, with the motto, “Democracy dies in darkness,” has played a pivotal role in American politics. Perhaps most notably, it’s the breaking of the Watergate scandal and the publishing of the Pentagon Papers in the 70s.

For many, these legacy outlets may seem distant and unimportant from the problems facing Americans, but in the end, journalism helps everyone, and when we see news organizations face cuts, we should be concerned. Local news provides valuable information and accountability to its readers. When there is no local news, there is no one reporting and holding local governments accountable.

Dr. Ronald Morgan, professor in the department of history and global studies, is a longtime listener of KACU. As a historian, he emphasized the importance of quality journalism.

“In politics, players are telling us their version of what they want us to think in order to gain their political points and carry out their agendas,” Morgan said. “Journalists say I’m going to go to Gaza and tell you what’s happening. I’m going to go to Sudan and tell you what’s happening. I’m going to go to a factory in South Side Chicago and tell you what we’re seeing there. News has to be separated from financial and commercial self interest.”

When government and those in power do not do there job, or fail to represent the beliefs and needs of their people it is journalists who help hold them accountable.

If you are reading these words, you are already doing something right. Go pick up a paper or turn on your radio and continue to invest in quality journalism.