WON’T YOU BE MY NEIGHBOR — For many children growing up in conservative evangelical Christian households in the 1990s, Saturday morning cartoons were confined to one of two options: the Christian Broadcasting Network or PBS Kids. Aside from the occasional dustup , conservative families in the 1990s saw PBS programming — reading through history’s greatest literary masterpieces with Wishbone or doing science experiments with Bill Nye — as a safe alternative to “secular” shows found on network and cable TV like Sabrina the Teenage Witch or Rugrats. But a lot has changed in the last 30 years, in both the way kids consume television and in the right’s relationship with PBS. And now, conservatives in Congress and the White House are finally ready to cut the cord, ending once and for all federal funding for PBS and National Public Radio. President Donald Trump issued an executive order on May 2 directing the Corporation for Public Broadcasting to cancel funding for both networks. Executives at those media organizations are pushing back — arguing that the changes are unlawful. “Congress directly authorized and funded CPB to be a private nonprofit corporation wholly independent of the federal government,” Corporation for Public Broadcasting CEO Patricia Harris wrote in a statement on May 2. It isn’t the first time Republicans have tried to defund PBS. Both PBS and NPR have long fielded accusations that their news programs lean too far to the left. According to the Ad Fontes media bias chart , PBS Newshour is rated further to the left than ABC’s nightly news program, but not as far left as major CNN or MSNBC shows. NPR is in roughly the same place. Both are rated “skews left,” the most centrist of the four left-leaning categories. “We’re gonna be more tolerant of publicly funded things that we agree with than publicly funded things we don’t agree with,” pointed out Sen. Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.) — a conservative evangelical Christian who also leans libertarian. “Unless you’re a true, honest, free market conservative.” In the past, PBS’ children’s programming has proven a savior for the network. In 1969, Fred Rogers, host of Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood, famously testified before the Senate Subcommittee on Communications against then-President Nixon’s proposed cuts. His testimony helped save funding for the network then, and PBS CEO Paula Kerger is taking a page out of the same playbook in the current fight. She told Margaret Brennan on Face the Nation last Sunday that Trump’s order would halt all childrens’ shows currently in development, and could impact the research which ensures that the programming is actually educating kids. But this time, that argument may not work as well — primarily because it’s much easier to find childrens’ programming online that aligns with individual family tastes. “Now we have 1,000 channels,” said Sen. James Lankford (R-Okla.), who spent more than two decades as a youth pastor. Lankford said changes in technology make government funding for a network obsolete, as most families now stream childrens’ programming online rather than turn on a TV. “Why are we funding this [channel] when we have a $2 trillion deficit?” he asked. Cramer echoed Lankford: “Why do we need to continue to fund … public television and/or radio, when there’s so much competition out there?” Streaming, in other words, has diminished a once-effective argument to keeping PBS alive. Most evangelical groups — including Southern Baptist Convention and the Heritage Foundation — declined to discuss the issue of federal funding for PBS Kids for this report. But Franklin Graham, son of evangelist Billy Graham, told POLITICO that Christians are reacting to kids programming shifting left since the 1990s. He pointed to a 2021 episode of the kids show the Odd Squad, which ran from 2014-2024, that featured a wedding between two women. Graham suggested that if the network moved away from LGBTQ+ storylines and instead ran more Bible stories, there would be greater support for funding. When asked if they shared Graham’s primary concerns with the network, however, Cramer and Lankford both disagreed. “That’s a fair point, particularly with him — Franklin Graham is a very political pastor, and it makes me uncomfortable,” Cramer said, instead arguing that defunding PBS is a financial consideration, not a culture war issue. “For true conservatives, the idea of just funding anything doesn’t make sense in a very competitive marketplace, [including] faith media.” “There’s nothing against Sesame Street,” Lankford added. “It’s a fiscal question.” Welcome to POLITICO Nightly. Reach out with news, tips and ideas at nightly@politico.com . Or contact tonight’s author at nfertig@politico.com or on X (formerly known as Twitter) at @natsfert .
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