Emily Randall: This Is Why It's Good For Democracy To Invest In Public Media

2 days ago

At Wednesday's House DOGE Committee hearing, Rep. Emily Randall (D-WA) defended NPR and PBS from GOP attacks.

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Transcript

00:00Randall from Washington for five minutes. Thank you so much. You know I I'm new to

00:12Congress. This is my first term and I came from a legislative body that didn't

00:21have quite as heated debates in our committees and were generally fairly

00:28welcoming to our folks joining us to testify so I want to say thank you to

00:34all of you for taking the time out of your schedule to come and share your

00:39experience with all of us and with the American people. I'm grateful for your

00:46time and for the work that you do in service of your communities and

00:53neighbors. You know American families used to get all the same news, right?

01:00Folks would have access to a handful of news channels, they would watch the same

01:05nightly news programs, they would go from one to the other to the other and we

01:10could all agree on what was happening in our country. We all used to operate from

01:18the same baseline of information but today it is no secret that we are

01:25operating in a much more diversified and fractured media environment. The

01:30content space, the use of AI generated content, Americans now have to be able to

01:36discern for themselves whether something they are hearing is true or not. But

01:42investing in public media is a bedrock to our healthy, critically informed and

01:48engaged public and our democracy and I know that my colleagues on the other

01:55side of the aisle have argued over whether every piece of programming is in

02:00service of the public but I also want to point out that you know in my fairly

02:07rural district we have a lot of areas that aren't served by broadband. You know

02:13a lot of folks who cannot easily access numerous podcasts while they are out

02:20working on their property, they you know have to maybe wait for something to

02:24download when they're at home using maybe even a wired internet connection,

02:30right? I'm in a dead zone for about an hour and a half as I'm

02:37driving from one city to another in my community. But public radio is broadly

02:45accessible and it's important for you know folks counting on the weather

02:52report, for kids who are you know in pre-kindergarten who are watching Elmo

02:59and learning to count and do math, it's important for the young people who you

03:06know we're home during COVID and we're able to continue learning with the help

03:12of public broadcasting. I think we have a lot of problems in this country, a lot of

03:20problems that we should be tackling for regular Americans who are struggling to

03:26afford to live, to afford housing, to afford health care, to be able to live

03:34the lives that they dream of for themselves and their children. I think

03:39we've got some national security concerns that have been talked about a

03:42lot in this committee, but I think talking about defunding public

03:49broadcasting and public media is an egregious misuse of our time here. Mr.

04:00Ullman, when we talk about cutting funds for the Corporation for Public

04:05Broadcasting, we're talking about those local small stations that rely on that

04:11money. 70% of Corporation for Public Broadcasting funding goes directly to

04:18public radio. I know you've worked in Tacoma in the past and can attest to how

04:22some how rural some parts of western Washington are, it's not all Tacoma. What

04:29role do public media stations like NPR and PBS play in supporting local

04:34stations? What kind of programming do they provide? The local communities are

04:39at the heart of the work we do. As I shared in my opening remarks, we talk

04:44about the people and the places there. You bring up a memory of mine.

04:49Chehalis, Aberdeen, Hoquiam area, KBTC was the only public

04:54television station there. You know about the struggles that that community was

04:59having over a decade ago, job loss, all kinds of terrible economic situations. We

05:08provided educational services there with a half a million dollar local grant that

05:13we partnered with the community on. It was incredible work. We do the same thing

05:18in Alaska with military families, homeschoolers, elementary schools. Those

05:24are the pieces we provide and then local news stories that people can use

05:29about where they live and what they do. That's what we do. That would be lost.

05:36Thank you so much. Madam Chair, I yield back. Thank you. I now recognize the

05:42gentleman from Tennessee.

Emily Randall: This Is Why It's Good For Democracy To Invest In Public Media

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