Don's Destruction: While You Slept, House Republicans Voted to Kill Sesame Street

In the latest attack on working families, Republicans gut public broadcasting.

Springfield, IL - In case you missed it, Senate and House Republicans just proved their loyalty lies with Trump - voting to approve his $1.1 billion in cuts to public broadcasting, including local PBS and NPR stations that deliver lifesaving public safety alerts and educational programming. 

Public media stations across Illinois are sounding the alarm, especially those in Central and Southern Illinois, where stations like WTVP, provide local news to more than 390,000 households.

The Democratic Party of Illinois reminds Illinois Republicans Mary Miller (IL-15), Mike Bost (IL-12), and Darin LaHood (IL-16) that they had a choice: protect the freedom of the press and public safety, or once again sell out Illinoisans for Trump’s extremist agenda. They chose the latter.

From children’s programming to emergency broadcasts and trusted local news, public media keeps Illinois communities educated, informed, and connected. At a time when Donald Trump is promising authoritarian power, gutting the Department of Education, and attacking journalists, these cuts are a calculated move to silence dissent and dodge accountability.

Key excerpts from the Chicago Sun-Times: Senate approves cuts to NPR, PBS; Illinois public media stations brace for ‘worst-case scenario’

By Tina Sfondeles

• At WTVP in central Illinois, more than 390,000 households in 17 counties tune into local programming like “A Shot of AG,” a talk show hosted by Rob Sharkey, a farmer from Bradford. Jenn Gordon, president and CEO of WTVP, calls it “a Johnny Carson talk show” that humanizes the agricultural community in central Illinois.

• If the Republican-controlled Congress cuts the CPB funding, Gordon said the station would likely take a financial hit in October, when it typically receives federal grant dollars. About 30% of the station’s budget is reliant on those funds.

• Other public stations in the state are also bracing for big changes. In Moline, WQPT’s general manager Dawn Schmitt said the TV station expects to have to cut staffing — and the amount of community service the station provides.

• A poll conducted last week by the Harris Poll on behalf of NPR found 58% of Republicans and 77% of Democrats supported federal funding of public radio. And 77% of Republicans and 78% of Democrats said they relied on public radio emergency alerts and news for their public safety.