Happy New Year. I’ve been writing less on this Substack lately while working on a book and other projects, but will emerge when something feels worth saying.
The New York Times has a lengthy profile of NPR CEO Katherine Maher, which uses her story to chronicle a tumultuous year in public media. It describes Maher’s determination to succeed in 2025, facing down critics both outside and within public media. “I really don’t like bullies,” she is quoted as saying.
In 2025, Republicans in Congress obeyed President Trump’s order to strip funding from local stations in their own districts because Trump didn’t like things that NPR said. But NPR has prevailed in court battles and is in generally good shape.
The article by Ben Mullin is characteristically well reported, though one phrase surprised me. The article says that after the “terrible blow” of losing public funding, the system is “far weaker overall.”
It is true that local stations lost many millions of dollars, that some have had to lay off staff, and a few are in danger of closing. But my own recent visits to five public stations gave me additional information, and “far weaker overall” is not the way I’d put it.
I attended events, or visited newsrooms, of stations in Indianapolis and Fort Wayne, Indiana; Normal, Illinois; Boise, Idaho; and Ypsilanti, Michigan. I’ve heard from people at other stations, too. Though all face an uncertain future, all seemed reasonably healthy at the moment. Extra audience contributions buoyed them. And, as the Times article acknowledged, ratings are up sharply this year.
Morning Edition, the national radio program that I co-host, added more than a million listeners this spring, and may have added more since. (NPR gets detailed national ratings with a lag of several months.) Up First, the podcast that I co-host, also rose in audience in 2025.
This information allows us to re-evaluate some political debate about NPR. The fact-free hypothesis of NPR’s partisan critics was that NPR lost audience in the early 2020’s because it was too woke. (As I wrote here, much of the “evidence” of bias was imaginary, although I would agree that NPR has sometimes presented stories in ways that exclude people.)
It now seems more likely that NPR lost audience in the early 2020’s because many people were working from home and driving less. Much radio listening takes place in the car. People also were suffering from news fatigue. Now people are driving more, and in a time of constant change they really want an independent source of information. Some choose NPR. Surveys place it among the most trusted news brands.
This will come as a surprise to partisans. So let me acknowledge that many people have objected to NPR or have lost trust in “the media” in general.
Here’s what I have to say about that: I support your skepticism. People should not automatically trust the media. So much of what you read, see and hear is distorted or irrelevant, even when it is technically true. AI is making it worse. I would not mind if people were a lot more skeptical than they are today!
My job is to deal with that. It’s to tell a story clearly enough that you don’t have to trust it on faith. We should prove what we say, citing our sources. We should challenge officials to prove what they say, and take note when they don’t. And we should return to a story again and again, seeking more information and fresh perspectives. As a journalist, I try not to have a final, final opinion on news stories—always leaving room for doubt.
Your local public station has a built-in advantage when it comes to trust. It is rooted in a community, run by people in that community and accountable to it. If you have a problem with your public station, at least you will know who to complain to. Much of the other news available is fed to you by an algorithm controlled by someone else, somewhere else, who is acting in their interest and not yours.
If public media can keep growing their audience while also improving their business model, they have an opportunity to emerge stronger, not weaker.
NPR stations still face great risks. Public media is essentially a subscription service with no paywall: People who use NPR are encouraged to donate for something they can get for free. Amazingly, many do; but if giving drops during the next recession, there is no safety net.
More important, public media are still targets of the federal government, which has openly embraced a partisan approach to regulation.
Public media have the same mission that justified federal funds in the first place: To provide free public interest programming across almost all the United States, which isn’t cheap and which very few media do.
And public media are at risk from the same AI and internet disruptions that have endangered every other source of information. NPR, like many media, needs to adapt its Internet presence to new conditions.
But when the Trump administration commanded Congress to cut off federal funds, the administration also disarmed itself. It eliminated one of the tools it has used to influence universities and other institutions. Public media are now free of that particular threat.
To a large extent, our success now depends on our own creativity, grit and enterprise. We may succeed or fail. But we will speak freely as long as we, and our audience, insist on it.
I was not glad that public media lost federal funding, but I was relieved. Relieved of the threatening drum beats of rescission and the dialogue that preceded it. I hope that public media can now stand taller and not worry when someone doesn't like a story. Stay factual and relevant and independent.
During the government shutdown of 2018, my morning routine included WAMU for Morning Edition. Now in my seventh year of retirement it still does. 👍🙏