8 comments

  • mikeyouse 1 hour ago
    Of course it’s due to the federal funding cuts. At least DHS got 2,000x more than these cuts saved from PBS as our deficit continues to explode.

    https://current.org/2025/11/weta-to-cut-staff-cancel-pbs-new...

    • codeddesign 37 minutes ago
      [flagged]
      • ch2026 17 minutes ago
        President Trump explicitly signed an Executive Order to defund public media: https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/05/endi...
        • xp84 6 minutes ago
          Okay, but do you actually know what monies changed hands under the now-ended agreement? Perhaps PBS was not paying ASU, as the person quoted said, it was a mutually beneficial relationship. ASU got to have a very cool internship opportunity right on site of its prominent J-school.

          If PBS was not paying significant money to ASU, then it is unlikely to be related to federal politics.

      • trial3 19 minutes ago
        what are the revised priorities? what revised the priorities? maybe consider doing just the teensiest bit of journalism of your own
      • bc3 33 minutes ago
        This is inherently political. The "revised priorities" are clearly because of our current economic and political climate. Your comment is intentionally obtuse or malicious.
  • slantedview 40 minutes ago
    It's no coincidence that at a time of eroding democracy, public journalism is being cut.
    • meltyness 6 minutes ago
      As an avid and long term PBS viewer, donor, news hour west was 90% a waste of time anyway. Most evenings it is virtually the same broadcast, same segments. Media is more VOD-oriented anyway. They have been posting both broadcasts to YouTube for years, so you can assess this if you'd like.
    • chasil 8 minutes ago
      At the same time, even with the mayhem of the current executive, it is important to read the room.

      The house of representatives controls the budget. Moderating perceived bias would be an obvious survival strategy.

      Edit: Oh, drat, I've been ostracized. Whatever will I do?

    • codeddesign 19 minutes ago
      [flagged]
      • jjulius 15 minutes ago
        This entire response is disingenuously obtuse.
  • junkypuppet 1 hour ago
    The article doesn’t mention it, but I wonder if this has anything to do with ASU’s President trying to cozy up with the Trump administration [0]. Trump has already at least tried to cut federal funding for PBS [1]. I’m not sure where that’s at now.

    [0]: https://www.wsj.com/us-news/education/arizona-state-universi...

    [1]: https://www.npr.org/2025/05/02/nx-s1-5384790/trump-orders-en...

    • slicedice 1 hour ago
      It got cut.
      • DrewADesign 1 hour ago
        People shouting about PBS news being horribly biased are just flat-out wrong. Obviously their viewership leans centrist liberal, but no other news program in recent times approached their level of nonpartisanship when dealing with national politics. Regardless of their affiliation, they’d ask most interviewees a couple of pointed questions but always let them explain themselves uninterrupted, and let them have the last word unless it was blatantly false. In the Obama era they regularly had top Republican leadership on from that era and years past— Pat Buchanan, Newt Gingrich, and Mitch McConnell were on there all the time. I’ve seen Steve Bannon respectfully (actually rather warmly) interviewed within the past year, as well as people from the heritage foundation, Manhattan institute, Cato institute, and other people from across the right-wing spectrum.

        David Brooks isn’t representative of the Republican mainstream at the moment, but they’ve started getting more representative Republican counterpoints on their panels over the past few months, even after the republicans cut their funding.

        They present a more reasonable, tempered, and charitable perspective on both political parties than any other major news outlet.

        Culture war bullshit.

        • meltyness 2 minutes ago
          [delayed]
        • wyldfire 25 minutes ago
          > People shouting about PBS news being horribly biased are just flat-out wrong.

          "Truth is treason in an empire of lies" - George Orwell

        • Forgeties79 1 hour ago
          After I heard someone call McConnell a RINO I knew that no amount of concessions would make them feel coverage was “fair.” It’s Trump’s way or the highway.
  • user3939382 20 minutes ago
    ASU accepted $20M in criminal gains IMHO AFAICT. I have receipts
  • zzzeek 5 minutes ago
    Paging MacKenzie Scott....
  • RickJWagner 2 hours ago
    I’m glad Walter Cronkite is remembered through that school. In my mind, he was one of the last great journalists from an era that wasn’t strongly politically biased.
    • lettergram 1 hour ago
      When I read that I'm always personally confused. He had a commanding voice and had an aurora of being above it all. But when you listened and watched what he actually did, he seemed very political in my mind, though perhaps more of a moderate(?).

      He even advocated for world government, endorsed politicians, etc.

      • themafia 55 minutes ago
        Uncritically accepted the Warren Report.
  • askh4 2 hours ago
    [dead]
  • djaouen 2 hours ago
    [flagged]
    • JoshTriplett 2 hours ago
      The article has ads in it?

      (uBlock Origin successfully blocks all of them.)

    • t0lo 1 hour ago
      Sign of the times
    • alephnerd 2 hours ago
      Are you going to spend a couple hundred dollars a year on a subscription?

      Good, freely accessible, and ad-free press. You can only choose 2.

      The economics of journalism are tough.

      • golem14 34 minutes ago
        I wonder if https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portal:Current_events is actually a good media diet. I mean, I wonder if I will be OK just reading this (and maybe HN) and not suffer irreparable harm :)
      • SoftTalker 1 hour ago
        Strangely we used to think nothing of paying for a daily newspaper (which also contained ads) and many people subscribed to news magazines as well.
        • ipaddr 53 minutes ago
          Have you tried going back 80% ap articles, some opinion columns, classifieds and sports with a lifestyle section.

          We are living in an era of more news, different formats more in depth. I think our expectations are misaligned we expect everything to be one click away and social media to present it to us in a doom scroll. The articles shared just here on hn you would never find in a newspaper. If you are lucky you discover a zine like phrack or 2600 and wait months for the next issue.

        • DrewADesign 1 hour ago
          Yeah. This is the tech world making everything better. Sure the news is biased, poorly-written garbage, but you can have a lot of it, instantly, for like no money!
          • xp84 0 minutes ago
            The Internet is not devoid of good quality media. Yes, some of it you have to pay for. The free papers we had before the Internet were never bastions of great journalism (though I'll admit that national TV news once was once pretty decent, and free).

            And all news is biased. The only thing is, you can only see the bias towards your ideological enemies. When it's your bias, it's called "the truth."

      • Wowfunhappy 1 hour ago
        PBS News Hour is all three.

        :(

        • dingnuts 1 hour ago
          the reason they got defunded is because many people do not agree
      • lynndotpy 1 hour ago
        The economics are rough, but there are many which offer all three. E.g.: NPR's text site: https://text.npr.org/
      • djaouen 2 hours ago
        > Are you going to spend a couple hundred dollars a year on a subscription?

        I would have, if this planet didn't f*ck me over yet again with crippling poverty lol

        • mystraline 1 hour ago
          > I would have, if this planet didn't f*ck me over yet again with crippling poverty lol

          You misspelled capitalists. They are the ones who are fucking you, me, and anyone with money.