FCC Could Investigate Stations Over Ads Opposing PBS Defunding

The Senate is poised this week to consider the House-passed 2025 Rescissions Act (HR-4), which would claw back $1.1 billion in advance CPB funding for FY 2026 and FY 2027. The House narrowly approved HR-4 last month (see 2506130025).

“Federal law prohibits noncommercial stations -- including PBS ones -- from accepting money in exchange for airing political issue ads,” Carr wrote alongside an image that appeared to show an ad from KPTS Hutchinson, Kansas. “I’ve asked the FCC’s enforcement team to determine whether or not that happened here.”

The pictured ad urged viewers to call Sens. Roger Marshall and Jerry Moran, both R-Kansas. “TELL THEM TO VOTE NO ON THE RESCISSION BILL,” it said. The ad also featured PBS Kansas CEO Victor Hogstrom saying that by July 18, the deadline for Congress to approve HR-4, the Senate “could eliminate funding for PBS Kansas, meaning some favorite programs could disappear. Yes, community support powers seriously good TV, but federal support matters. If you've ever laughed, learned, or felt moved watching PBS Kansas, now is the time to call your U.S. senators to help keep your station, your stories on the air.”

The FCC, PBS and America’s Public Television Stations didn’t comment. Carr previously ordered the Enforcement Bureau to investigate PBS and NPR stations for possible violations of underwriting rules (see 2501300065).

Hogstrom confirmed in an interview Friday that KPTS was running the ads, noting that most PBS stations are airing similar spots and have always done so during public media funding battles. “This is a spot that we produce. No money was accepted for it, nor paid for it. No cash was exchanged, in no way, form, or shape.”

A spokesperson for Marshall said viewers should "look no further" for evidence that “NPR and PBS simply serve as taxpayer-funded mouthpieces for the Democratic Party. If they’ve got enough money to run taxpayer-funded ads in Kansas, it makes the decision for us to cut their funding that much easier.”

Multiple attorneys who represent public broadcasters told us that FCC rules prohibit noncommercial stations from being paid to run issue ads, but that has never been seen as barring them from running their own messages.

The U.S. Supreme Court also ruled in 1984 that public media stations may editorialize, and their grassroots lobbying efforts would likely fall under that protection, attorneys told us. As nonprofits, public media stations are bound by well-defined rules on lobbying that PBS and NPR outlets strictly follow, an attorney told us.

“I would encourage PBS & NPR to focus more on how they managed to lose America’s trust,” Carr wrote on X. “That is their problem, not Congress’s work to ensure good stewardship of taxpayer dollars.”

Carr’s post followed on the heels of Trump's warning to lawmakers. “It is very important that all Republicans adhere to my Recissions [sic] Bill and, in particular, DEFUND THE CORPORATION FOR PUBLIC BROADCASTING (PBS and NPR), which is worse than CNN & MSDNC [sic] put together,” Trump wrote. “Any Republican that votes to allow this monstrosity to continue broadcasting will not have my support or Endorsement.”

Lobbyists said Trump appeared to be suggesting he was flexible on not retaining some of HR-4's cuts if Republican senators don't push to blunt the CPB defunding language. Appropriations Committee Chair Susan Collins of Maine and several other senators have raised concerns about HR-4’s proposal to defund CPB (see 2506250058), although some of them appear to be leaning toward shielding specific classes of local public broadcasters from the cuts. Senate Democrats are likely to unanimously oppose HR-4, and some may seek amendments that would remove the CPB clawback (see 2507100071).