Suddenly, New York and Washington care about rural America. They’re afraid people will die if NPR is defunded because they’ll miss out on important warnings about hurricanes and earthquakes.“It’s a matter of life and death” for rural Americans, said Sen. Chuck Schumer. As someone said in an earlier post, “If that’s true, why is all their programming targeted at upscale urban elites?” And Sen. John Kennedy did an excellent job roasting NPR CEO Katherine Maher, who replied to accusations of bias by asking what stories bothered people. Kennedy had a long list at hand.
New York Times Nicholas Kristof is right there with Schumer, saying that NPR is “an absolute lifeline” to rural America.
What happened to President Joe Biden’s $42 billion Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) program to expand high-speed internet access to rural areas? How many farmhouses were hooked up with high-speed internet under the program? Any?
Rural America has strongly backed President Trump and the GOP, yet the support is not reciprocated. Trump’s Medicaid cuts will close rural hospitals, he cut rural broadband, and the rescissions bill would devastate public broadcasting stations in rural areas. Large parts of rural…
— Nicholas Kristof (@NickKristof) July 16, 2025
The post continues:
… America already have no local newspaper, so a local NPR station may be the only source of news, of information about school snow days of emergency information. On the west side of my town of Yamhill, OR, for example, there are some areas where there is no easy Internet access, and radio is an absolute lifeline. Plus, pre-K is often not available in rural America, and that makes Sesame Street and similar shows particularly valuable. So I hope GOP members of Congress will understand what’s at stake with the rescissions bill and will reject it.
I live in a smaller town in Wyoming. The school districts communicate weather related closures. The weather service sends alerts regarding sends events. Not once has NPR sent anything to anyone here.
— Keith Ellmaker (@stgctiny) July 16, 2025
Recommended
Yes.
People in rural America cannot survive without hearing on Morning Edition how racist and stupid they are.
— Sir Harry Flashman VC, KCB, KCIE (@HFlashmanVCKCB) July 16, 2025
I think you are a piss-poor spokesperson for what is of interest to rural Americans
— Lars Nilsen (@LarsNilsen6117) July 16, 2025
But he says in his bio he’s a farmer of cider apples and wine grapes. So he knows. I wonder if he has internet to send his columns to the New York Times.
NPR is a local source of how indigenous comic book artists overcome their lived trauma of seeing white super heroes in comic books when they were kids.
— JohnMatrix2023 (@JMatrix20266053) July 16, 2025
I just want the government to leave me the fuck alone.
Democrats want to control what I think and every aspect of my life. Defund @NPR a taxpayer funded far left propaganda machine— Wade (@ingovernable1) July 16, 2025
Really incredible watching this effort. The shameless opportunism, manufactured crisis, ridiculing rural communities, it’s got it all.
— Ship of Fools (@dveriksson) July 16, 2025
Biden did not bring broadband to a single person despite having billions in funding because his administration was knee deep in corruption so maybe you should shut up
— jrfromdallas (@DallasNYorker) July 16, 2025
Everything you said is a lie.
RURAL NPR LISTENERS?
MEDICAID CUTS?
Do you ever say anything truthful at all?
— Archon (@Archon501) July 16, 2025
Scare mongering, in the glorious leftist tradition. Concern for rural America is not exactly a hallmark of your ilk, I’m afraid. How about advocating for the Chinese Communist Party to relinquish its land buy ups in the rural U.S. countryside, near strategic facilities?
— Maranatha (@57Maranatha) July 16, 2025
Has NPR covered that story?
PBS and NPR always argue that taxpayer money is just a sliver of their operating budgets, but now people will die if they don’t get federal funding. And Sesame Workshop hasn’t been run by PBS since 2015, so spare us the drama about killing Big Bird.
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