Ken Burns warns Oregonians of ‘shortsighted’ cuts to public broadcasting

As Congress prepares to decide on the future of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, prolific documentary filmmaker Ken Burns called the move “incredibly shortsighted” at a Tuesday night event in Portland.

“I think this will come back to hurt us,” Burns said, comparing it with other Trump-era cuts at federal agencies. “Just like taking away people who interpret data from weather satellites, or people who are evaluating new drugs or new vaccines.”

Related: Federal funding for public media is at risk. Here's what you can do

The U.S. Senate is poised to vote this week on a rescission package that would take back $1.1 billion from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. That money was already approved by Congress for the next two years, but the Trump administration has pushed lawmakers to remove the funding over perceived political bias at PBS and NPR. The U.S. House voted along party lines in favor of the bill in June.

Cuts to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting will affect public television and radio stations across the country, particularly rural stations that rely heavily on the federal funding for their budgets. OPB receives around 9% of its budget, or roughly $5 million, from federal funding.

Burns, who visited Portland as part of a multi-city tour discussing an upcoming documentary “The American Revolution,” lamented that those are the communities that will see the greatest losses in programming and services under any cuts.

“The local community that doesn’t have any other source of funding, those are the people that are really going to suffer,” Burns said.

President Donald Trump has frequently made political hay out of criticizing PBS and NPR, often labeling them and other major media outlets as too liberal and part of an out-of-touch mainstream media.

“It’s really disappointing that it became part of a political football when it’s been an institution that has represented Americans extraordinarily well for 70 years,” Burns said.

Burns criticized the president’s narrative, noting that one of PBS’s mainstay programs was created by conservative intellectual William F. Buckley in 1980. That show, “Firing Line,” is currently in its 34th season on PBS.

Public broadcasting not only supplies programs like “Sesame Street,” but critical services like emergency broadcasts and public education. Rural stations that rely on the funding are often serving communities with very few, if any, news sources.

“These are the people that are really going to suffer,” Burns said. “Those communities that depend on someone going to the school board meeting, somebody asking mayor candidates about an important thing, whether the fire department should buy another pumper or not.”

Related: WATCH: “The American Revolution” premieres on OPB TV on Nov. 16.

Burns himself will be impacted if Congress decides to cut the federal funds. He told OPB that the Corporation for Public Broadcasting provides roughly a quarter of the budget for his lengthy documentaries, which have primarily focused on aspects of American life and history. He said he worries about what that will mean not just for him, but for other people pursuing longform storytelling.

“It’s going to be those people who are just starting out, that don’t have 40 years of track record as I’ve had,” Burns said.

Some Republicans have raised concerns with the rescission bill, which also aims to claw back money for various foreign aid programs, according to NPR. Vice President J.D. Vance had to be called into a late night vote Tuesday to move the bill forward for debate on the Senate floor after Republican Sens. Mitch McConnell, Lisa Murkowski and Susan Collins joined Democrats opposing the package.

Beyond news and entertainment programming, public broadcasters often provide emergency services and communications. In the days leading up to a July 18 deadline to decide on the bill, Republican Sen. Mike Rounds of South Dakota also said he wanted to see changes that would protect stations serving Indigenous residents in his state.

The Hill reported Wednesday that Rounds had reached a deal for approximately 28 tribal-serving stations in 14 states, and that Republicans had secured enough votes to pass the package as it heads for floor debate.

Oregon’s senior Sen. Ron Wyden opposed the bill when speaking to his colleagues earlier this month. The Democrat described it as a “death sentence” for public broadcasters in rural areas.

If Republican senators opt to make significant changes to the House-passed bill, it would need to return to the House floor for another vote within days.

Editor’s note: This story was written and reported by OPB reporter Troy Brynelson. It was edited by managing editor Ryan Haas. In accordance with OPB editorial policies for stories involving OPB, no executive staff reviewed this story before publication.