What's at stake when public media funds are cut

The gutting of federal funding for public broadcasters is expected to cause hundreds of local station groups to significantly scale back or shutter across the country, often in rural places where there isn't any other local news source. Public broadcasters don't just provide news, but also critical information alerts that can mean life or death for local communities. Once a broadcaster is shuttered, it's unlikely its spectrum license ever returns to a community news station, PBS CEO Paula Kerger explained in a recent interview with The Washington Post. "I can imagine they would be auctioned off for whatever purpose and you won't have a local television station again in a community." In the wake of historic weather events and natural disasters, public broadcasters have often been the ones to deploy life-saving federal alerts. Local radio stations are also responsible for deploying a slew of public safety warnings, including Amber Alerts and Silver Alerts.