ELLY GRIMM
• Leader & Times
Many aspects of life have come under attack from the Trump Administration since the start of his second term, including the realm of public television.
“NPR and PBS have fueled partisanship and left-wing propaganda with taxpayer dollars, which is highly inappropriate and an improper use of taxpayers’ money, as President Trump has stated,” a May 1 release from WhiteHouse.gov noted. “Unlike in 1967, when the CPB (Corporation for Public Broadcasting) was established, today the media landscape is filled with abundant, diverse, and innovative news options, making government funding of news media outdated, unnecessary, and corrosive to journalistic independence. Moreover, while the CPB is legally mandated to be ‘nonpolitical [in] nature’ and not ‘contribute to or otherwise support any political party,’ both NPR and PBS make significant in-kind contributions to the Democrat party and its political causes ... No media outlet has a Constitutional right to taxpayer subsidized operations, and it’s highly inappropriate for taxpayers to be forced to subsidize biased, partisan content.”
These conversations have continued in recent discussions of Trump’s “Big, Beautiful Bill,” which, if passed could harm Smoky Hills PBS, which has been a fixture in a wide swath of Kansas for multiple decades.
“It was a short time after the inauguration, there were conversations going on within the political spectrum of the possibility of funding being cut, or defunding public media. We've known there's been a risk of that happening since pretty much the beginning of 2025,” Smoky Hills PBS General Manager Betsy Schwien said. “It wasn't until conversations continued to evolve over the past few months and become more frequent, that we became more aware and alert of that possibility. There was no immediate threat to us until that package was delivered to Congress, and ultimately, we didn't know what all that package would include until it was delivered and we were able to review it. That was delivered June 3, and it was a package that also included, two different clumps of funding – funding for public media and a chunk of funding for foreign aid, and that total package was around $9.4 billion, with $1.1 billion directly to funding for public media. And it was funding that was already allocated to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) for fiscal years 2026 and 2027. That package was about 24 pages, and we were two of the pages, with everything else being related to foreign aid.”
Upon hearing of those conversations, Schwien said there has been a lot of uncertainty about the future.
“To be honest, this isn't the first time here have been threats for funding to be cut, whether it's from the state or federal level. There's always that risk of that funding not being approved, so until everything fully becomes reality, it's hard to put any plans fully into place in terms of moving forward,” Schwien said. “Overall, we were anticipating something coming – when, or what exactly, we didn't know, but that anticipation was there, and everything was delivered June 3. We're doing everything we can to make sure the communities we serve throughout Central Kansas and Western Kansas are aware of the situation, and we're asking them to, if they support their local public media station, reach out to their lawmakers and let them know their thoughts. We're not sure when exactly the vote will happen, but we do know Congress has the ability to remove certain things from the package but not add anything to it, so we're waiting along with everyone else to see what actually happens.”
Should the “Big, Beautiful Bill” ultimately pass, Schwien said there could be a devastating impact.
“Something we want to really make sure communities know is our organization, Smoky Hills PBS, serves 71 counties throughout Kansas, which is a very big portion of the state. Federal funding is a large portion of our overall budget – in fact, the easiest way I can put it is federal funding accounts for about half of our budget, and losing that funding would have an extremely devastating impact,” Schwien said. “Ultimately, our organization would still exist and would still be on the air, but things would look a lot different. What that total landscape could look like, that's to be determined in the coming weeks once we have a clearer idea of what things will look like. We would still be the public television station throughout Central Kansas and Western Kansas, but we wouldn't be completely the same, and there would be some changes made.”
The importance of public television, Schwien said, cannot be understated.
“Public television brings a very unique value to viewers in the communities we serve. We're more than just a TV station – we bring so many valuable programs and projects to the communities we serve, including high school sports, which is appreciated beyond words by not only the young people participating in those activities but also their families who might otherwise not get to see them,” Schwien said. “For more than 40 years, we've been a vital part of life for our viewers in Central Kansas and Western Kansas, and we've been able to show our viewers different parts of the state throughout our travels and programming, and we've gotten many phone calls and other communication thanking us for that. We also do our Share A Story program in 80 libraries throughout Kansas where children get to come and read a story, do a fun activity and even take a book home with them to keep. We bring so many different educational opportunities throughout the state, and I don't think people realize just how valuable that is. We provide so many educational tools and resources to homes and teachers and classrooms – all of it free – and that's just a small portion of what we bring to communities that just can't have a price tag attached. So many people rely on our television station, and it's free – a lot of other services charge subscription fees and things like that, but we don't. We also provide emergency alert warnings, and because we're a free services, it reaches so many more homes. We're more than just a TV station, we do so many activities and outreach programs throughout the state that would struggle to exist if our funding gets cut.”
With things being in limbo at the moment, Schwien said it is hard to do much in the way of concrete planning.
“It's been hard to do too much planning, because we don't know what that final landscape will look like from a funding standpoint. Our federal funding we receive does not come directly to us – it goes through the CPB, and we have many different requirements we have to fulfill on an annual basis in order to receive that federal funding, and then CPB then delivers us that funding,” Schwien said. “I don't know what that's going to look like if the whole budget be eliminated. Will CPB still exist? I don't know, and then the question becomes, what would that look like? We need certain questions to be answered before we can truly give any estimation on what things would look like, but I can tell you we'll definitely have to be more creative on how we establish our overall budget and allocate funds toward different projects, which is something we're already putting together and have been working on for some time. Our production opportunities will be something else needing to be looked at, because being able to go out and do local productions in communities isn't free, and we do rely on that federal funding to help support a lot of the initiatives we do and a lot of initiatives that take place in the communities we serve. We still have that mission to help enhance and promote public safety, and we want to provide resources to the communities we serve and preserve local history and continue establishing those community connections, but it's going to look different.”
Schwien added she and her colleagues have not been silent about the situation.
“We've been doing a lot to spread the word about all of this. For those who tune in to our station, they've seen a lot of promos that direct the public to protectmypublicmedia.org, where they can go directly to their local representatives and let their voice be heard,” Schwien said. “We've been connecting with communities and state media outlets to inform them about the current status of everything, and we've also been reaching out to lawmakers individually and stressing the importance of local stations like ours and the value we bring. We want people to really think about what our organization brings to their community, and if you truly value what we do and what we provide, let your voice be heard and continue supporting us.”
Overall, Schwien said, the main goal is to serve the public, and she hopes she and her staff will be abel to continue doing so.
“When it comes to public media, it's not just about the radio or TV, it's about access,” Schwien said. “It's about access to education programming, it's about access to local community coverage, and access to reliable information, especially in rural and underserved areas. Those areas might not otherwise receive any kind of coverage or information, so we're really important in regard to that. We pride ourselves on our local value and hope we're able to continue receive funding and keep things moving in a positive direction.”
