If you listen to publicly funded radio or watch publicly funded television, are you obligated to make donations to help support their operation?
Even before Congress voted in July to cut $1.1 billion in funds that were allocated to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, the question of whether listeners or viewers had an obligation to contribute if they regularly listened to broadcasts loomed. Now that their local public broadcasting affiliates find themselves having to find ways to continue operations without a regular source of funds, the question looms larger.
Prior to Congress’ action, viewers or listeners might have believed that because some of their tax dollars were going to help fund the operations of public media outlets, they were already helping fund operations. They’d be correct. According to CPB, prior to the congressional cuts, $1.60 of every individual’s taxes was allocated to public media.
Still, that’s hardly been enough to keep things running. Instead, affiliates have had to rely on listener and viewer donations as well as support from not-for-profit and corporate underwriters. Without that congressional allocation, the need for other sources of money becomes even greater. Affiliates in less affluent rural areas are likely to be hit harder than those in larger markets, but all will be affected.
To be fully transparent, years ago, I worked on a local public television showed as a content consultant. My role was small, but it existed nonetheless. The show was called “On the Money,” and it focused on personal finance. My wife and kids were featured as extras in one episode sitting around the kitchen table discussing the family finances. My son may have been washing the same dishes over and over so the cameraman could get a good shot. The show lasted one season. Its only notable feature was that the co-host was Will Lyman, an actor who has been the narrator of PBS’s “Frontline” series since 1984.
My first editor on The Right Thing column when he was the Sunday business editor at The New York Times is now the president and CEO of New Hampshire Public Radio (NHPR). He reported in a video posted to his LinkedIn page that the cuts will result in his station losing at least $400,000 a year of its operating budget. While I don’t live in New Hampshire, I do listen to NHPR on my drives from Boston to visit in-laws in Maine. NHPR’s "Civics 101" podcast has received Edward R. Murrow and Silver Gavel Awards.
While some people don’t care for public media and others claim a political bias, public media does often provide a source of local news in areas that otherwise would be underserved. I am biased and not just because of my past work for and friendship with those who currently work for public media. I believe they are doing good work and that public media newscasts are often best at providing straight reporting rather than devolving into a bevy of talking-head pundits populating cable news outlets.
There is, however, no ethical obligation to donate money to public media. Nevertheless, if you believe that public media provides a valuable service, then it certainly would be good to consider helping support it way beyond the $1.60 a year per person it is losing through congressional cuts.
Jeffrey L. Seglin, author of The Simple Art of Business Etiquette: How to Rise to the Top by Playing Nice, is a senior lecturer in public policy and director of the communications program at Harvard's Kennedy School. He is also the administrator of www.jeffreyseglin.com, a blog focused on ethical issues.
Do you have ethical questions that you need to have answered? Send them to jeffreyseglin@gmail.com.
Follow him on Twitter @jseglin.
(c) 2025 JEFFREY L. SEGLIN. Distributed by TRIBUNE CONTENT AGENCY, LLC.
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