ACT NOW:

• ACT BEFORE JULY 18TH, 2025: There is currently a move to claw back the $1.1 billion in funding that Congress had approved for NPR and PBS. The House voted 214-212 to rescind that amount as well as $8.3 billion in foreign aid. The Senate has a deadline of July 18 to vote on the bill.
• You can contact your Senators and urge them to vote against the bill, i.e., support continued funding for NPR and PBS. 
• Donate to the Reporters Committee on Freedom of the Press, which is engaged in litigation to protect freedom of the press and individual reporters in the US.

• The Station Finder - find your local NPR station and donate

• Protect My Public Media: with a few clicks, you can reach out directly to your public officials. Let them know what public media means to you, and urge them to vote against the rescission proposal

• Support the Committee to protect journalists

• Get involved with ClassACT HR73! Stay tuned for our Freedom of the Press ClassACTion Alerts, which detail timely actions you can take to help preserve the free press in the United States. Just sign up with ClassACT HR73 to receive the alerts!

BACKGROUND AND HISTORY

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Indigenous Knowledge

• Trump is coming for the press, The Boston Globe

• Can Public Media Survive Trump? The New Yorker 

• Journalists and their Shadows, by Patrick Lawrence, Clarity Press, Inc.

• NPR Sues Trump over Order to Cut Funding, The New York Times

• If Trump cuts funding to NPR and PBS, rural America will pay a devastating price, The Guardian

• House narrowly passes bill to claw back $1.1 billion from public media, NPR

• Rural Republicans Used to Back NPR. Then MAGA Changed Everything, The Washington Post 

• Indiana Public Broadcasting statewide reporting team eliminated, The Indiana Capital Chronicle 

• ​​Hundreds of Voice of America reporters fired as Trump guts outlet, BBC

• From the Poynter Institute: "The Obama administration has used the Espionage Act to go after whistleblowers who leaked to journalists ... more than all previous administrations combined." 

• A Free People Need a Free Press, The New York Times 

THE CRISIS OF LOCAL NEWS

• Vanishing Voices: The Crisis of Local Journalism in America, The Science Survey

• American Journalism Project: rebuilding local news 

• Local Journalism Index 2025 that has just been released by Muck Rack and Rebuild Local News

JOURNALISM AND THE BILLIONAIRE CLASS

• LA Times owner maneuvers into Trump’s orbit with Middle East meeting, Politico

• Who is Stewart Bainum Jr.? Maryland-raised businessman whose nonprofit is in line to buy The Sun has had second careers in politics, philanthropy, The Baltimore Sun 

• Is Jeff Bezos Selling out the Washington Post? The New Yorker 

• Lesley Stahl on what a Settlement with Donald Trump Would Mean for CBS News, Apple Podcasts