Poll: More Americans Support Funding of NPR, PBS

Almost twice as many Americans support the continued federal funding of public media outlets as oppose it, according to a new survey released Wednesday from Pew Research.

While not a majority, 43% of those surveyed said the federal government should continue to fund NPR and PBS at present levels, and 24% said the government should stop funding the outlets altogether; 33% of respondents said they weren’t sure.

When broken down by party, 32% of Democrats said they regularly get their news from NPR, compared with only 9% of Republicans. And 31% of Democrats said they regularly watch PBS, compared with 11% of Republicans.

The survey comes amid talk of stripping NPR and PBS of their federal funding, a move Republicans have long threatened by never acted upon. President Donald Trump has asked Brendan Carr, chairman of the Federal Communication Commission, to open an investigation as to whether either entity has violated federal law by airing commercials.

Earlier in the month, Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., introduced legislation to end federal funding for the two long-standing media outlets. Roughly 1% of NPR is federally funded, according to the outlet, while about PBS received about 16% of its funding from tax dollars.

The Pew Research survey was conducted March 10-16 among 9,400 respondents. A margin of error was not provided.

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