The U.S. Senate's approval of President Donald Trump's rescission request stands to impact public radio and TV stations across the country, including Ideastream Public Media. As of this publication, action still needs to be taken by the House of Representatives for the rescission to be approved.
The Senate on Thursday approved the $9 billion rescission package aimed at clawing back money already allocated for public radio and television.
Kevin Martin, Ideastream Public Media's president and CEO, said if the rescission request is approved, Ideastream will lose $2.6 million beginning in October, the start of the 2026 fiscal year. Funding for 2027 will also be rescinded.
Martin said the $2.6 million is about 10% of Ideastream's budget.
"It's a little hard to say," Martin said when asked how the cuts would impact day-to-day operations. "If it was just financial, I think that's a hole that we could plug. We've been actually preparing for this for months with contingency planning. But what I think is, it is a bigger issue for the system. And the system is going to have to come together because there's now a question of national content. Where does it come from? Who produces it? How is it distributed?"
Some Republicans, including President Trump, have claimed NPR and PBS have showed bias in their overall reporting, which prompted initial calls for defunding of the organizations last spring. The heads of both NPR and PBS vehemently denied such allegations.
"I think whenever you have humans involved in any reporting, you're going to have bias," Martin said when asked about the accusations. "And I can tell you that for a media entity, objectivity and fairness is really not the best operating model. What we've learned is you can make lots more money and you get a lot higher ratings if you appeal to a certain segment in our society. I think it's much harder to try to appeal to everyone, but I still think it is a worthy goal."
Martin offered a message to supporters of Ideastream who may feel defeated, frustrated or concerned about the cuts.
"The first thing I'd like to say is thank you. Ideastream is not going anywhere. We're going to be doing what we're doing for a very, very long time. What we need to figure out is how we can contribute to those who may not make it and how can we partner with them, collaborate with them," he said.
No member of Ideastream's executive team had any part in the decision-making in this report including questions, editorial control and publication.
You can listen to an abbreviated version of Josh Boose's conversation with Kevin Martin in the audio player at the top of this story.
