Dem
47
GOP
53
One thing that all authoritarians do is control the flow of information to the public. They do not want people to hear about their failures or any information that contradicts their stories and "facts." Donald Trump has fully internalized this. He has sued multiple media companies and gotten them to pay him protection money so they can continue to exist.
He is using a different tactic to try to silence NPR and PBS. They get a substantial amount of their income from the nonprofit, government-financed Corporation for Public Broadcasting. So he made sure the rescissions Republicans rammed through last month eliminated all of its funding. On Friday, it announced that it will have to shut down for lack of funds. As George W. Bush would have said: "Mission Accomplished!"
As an aside, speaking of George W. Bush, where is he? He is very much still alive. Does he approve of what Donald Trump is doing on many fronts? He is one of the few people whose opinions still matter to a lot of Republicans. If he were to come out and make a clear statement that what Trump is doing is an affront to everything the Republican Party has stood for these past 171 years, it would make quite an impact. But he is as quiet as a mouse (the kind with no buttons).
The impact of the CPB shutting down will be felt the hardest in rural areas—you know, the places where Trump voters live. The CPB doesn't broadcast on its own, but it gives money to local NPR and PBS stations. For rural ones, the CPB money is often a large part of their budget, without which they can't make ends meet. Urban NPR and PBS stations can broadcast pleas for help in the form "The Trump administration is trying to shut us down. If you value our content, please become a subscriber or make a one-time donation. Without you we can't exist." There are enough wealthy listeners and viewers in urban areas who could pony up and keep the stations alive, but that is less true in rural areas. So Trump voters will have to depend more on Fox News for their information. Trump probably doesn't mind this so much. (V)