S1: Welcome in San Diego , it's Jade Hindman , fewer journalist , fewer dollars. The World's Marco Werman joins us to talk about the impacts on local news. This is KPBS Midday Edition. Connecting our communities through conversation. Public media stations all across the country , including KPBS , are bracing for the impact of Trump's rescission package. Among the $9 billion included in the cuts are $1.1 billion from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. And that means cutting all federal support for NPR and PBS programs. I sat down with a longtime public media voice here in San Diego to hear his perspective on that. Marco Werman hosts The World along with co-host Carolyn Beeler. The show is a production of WGBH in Boston and the Public Radio Exchange. Marco is also a journalist in residence at UC San Diego. And I began by asking Marco how he's doing amid all these cuts.
S2: You know , I'm taking every day as it comes , one day at a time , one foot in front of the other. Um , yeah. It's not , uh , it's not an encouraging time , but , uh , you know , we've got work to do , and the mission is to keep people informed about what's going on locally , nationally , around the globe. Um , I still have a job , and so I've got to do that job. Um , uh , I'm a little nervous , but , you know. Avanti. We move ahead. Indeed.
S1: Indeed.
S2: It's already had an impact. Uh , we face layoffs in our newsroom. Uh , we're , you know , probably half the production power that we had , um , about a month ago. I won't call our staff bare bones , but the lay offs. In our shop , we lost about ten people out of a room of 2025 , so it's obviously reduced our capacity to cover the full breadth of global news we want to cover. That capacity has been diminished considerably. I should say that the world is different from NPR. We're not an NPR show. We're not produced by NPR. We are produced by WGBH in Boston and the Public Radio Exchange PRX. Just to compare , NPR is its own entity , has its own building in Washington , has an endowment , in part thanks to the Joan Kroc money that came through in 2003. But just also , they have NPR visibility , and it also has its own fundraising department that's entirely focused on NPR. The world is a property of the public radio exchange. But more importantly , the parent company is WGBH in Boston , which changes the financial calculus. Every station is different , but WGBH , it does have fundraising that it tends to its programs like ours. But WGBH also makes other programs and important ones in the system. TV programs like Nova and Frontline and Masterpiece stations that are part of an ecosystem take those programs. But the funding that is provided by the CPB , that goes to PBS , that goes to WGBH to make those programs is now gone. That ecosystem is suddenly destabilized. And the dividends that could come to a program like ours , the world at WGBH , suddenly become really vulnerable. So it's really , really it's very complex. But , you know , the bottom line is we're we have to do more with less. Yeah.
S1: Yeah. Well , we've seen past efforts to defund public media over the years , and they've all failed until now , having worked in public media for several decades now.
S2: And then I came back to the States and started a small community station in upstate New York in 1990. It was already a television public television station that was licensed to the State University of New York at Plattsburgh , and they basically used that license to start a public radio station. Um , so this is 1990. I'm old enough to remember before that , when Ronald Reagan tried to go after public radio and TV , uh , did not work. Newt Gingrich , uh , in his contract with America , tried , uh , never got that through. Uh , in the past , you know , its concerns about educational programming and the life saving emergency communications , uh , function that public media play across the country. Important things , uh , always dissuaded , uh , Republican Republicans from killing , uh , the corporation for for Public broadcasting. I mean , to me , the analysis is pretty simple. And I was just reading , uh , comments from the senator in my former home state of Massachusetts , Ed Markey , who said Republicans who supported public media for their entire careers are voting to kill it. And there's only one reason Donald Trump. It's a Donald Trump loyalty test. And Republicans fell in line. Um , and that's how I see it , a loyalty test. Uh , and , of course , there are big concerns around that. In an already polarized environment , this loyalty test is going to undermine knowledge and knowledge acquisition. It'll undermine the truth. Uh , and as many lawmakers who oppose this clawback have argued , it's going to put a lot of people in harm's way , especially in rural areas where , you know , they don't have the emergency radio alert system that public media provide. We just need to look at the July 4th floods in Texas to know what these tragedies could come to. Right.
S1: Right. And let's talk a little bit more about just the , you know , the lack of information that that communities have access to , um , you know , with the administration making changes to the weather service , even , um , with with data from the CDC , um , not necessarily being made public. Talk a bit about how important journalism is in this moment. Um , as a result of those things and , gosh , how journalism has been hampered by funding cuts and and influence from the white House. Yeah.
S2: Yeah. I mean , it's a pretty terrible moment that we're in. I keep hearing this factoid that local newspapers are dying at the rate of one per week. Uh , I think we're at a point where I've been hearing that for so long that I don't know how many more papers are left to die off. Um , I mean , public media , local journalism. It's essential. The press is the fourth estate. And I'll quote another , uh , Massachusetts politician , the former speaker of the House , tip O'Neill. He said all politics is local , which means all journalism is local or should be local. I mean , when we do stories on the world , we do our best. We do our best to tell global stories from a local level , because it's what's happening locally that sets a trend for any nation. When people engage with local events and politics and trends , they are playing a key role in a democracy. So , you know , back to the role of public media and local journalism. We're supposed to learn civics in school. Local journalism is where the civic engagement and knowledge continues after those civics lessons. Um , if we don't have quality local journalism , if there's no public media to build a discussion and dialogue in those spaces that commercial media is not paying attention to , then engagement doesn't happen and democracy shrivels up. So I feel this is this is a really , uh , very critical time. Uh , and people need to really think about what we're losing if we lose this public media space. Mm.
S1: Mm.
S2: Um , I mean , I think inside our industry there are people who say that we in public media were not prepared for this moment , even through all the signposting through the years and the numerous attempts to kill the CPB in public media by Republicans. But I think public media also has to really explain and hammer home what we do and why we do it. Commercial free news isn't just a luxury or convenience , so viewers and listeners don't have to wade through sales pitches for soap and fast food. Commercial free , independent news is so there's no bias imposed by the companies that buy commercial time when you don't have commercials and corporate influences removed from journalism. And this is what the Public Broadcasting Act that President Lyndon Johnson signed in 1967 , was really about independence for media and seeking to present diverse voices and points of view. I mean , before 1967 , commercial radio and TV , they were the property of major networks and local broadcasters , and the goal was attracting advertisers and making profit. It was not about balance , it was not about hearing diverse points of view. The Public Broadcasting Act changed that. Not to say that commercial radio and TV isn't still pursuing those goals. They are. But you know we had this space. Mhm.
S1: Mhm. You've been based in San Diego for the past couple of years hosting the world from UCSD. How would you describe the landscape for journalism right here.
S2: Well let's see. I mean San Diego is just a really compelling place. I mean , I think about the US having two places that really capture America's relationship with the rest of the world. One is New York City , Because JFK airport has been like the new Ellis Island for the past 50 to 60 years , attracting people who fly into the US from all over. Um , the other place is where we are right here. The San Diego Tijuana complex is kind of similar dynamic , except instead of planes as cars and trucks and foot traffic , which makes this an incredibly dynamic area. Bilingualism is is is the norm in a very real way that no other part of the country has. Um , you know , uh , this area offers huge potential , but at the same time as a border area , it just underscores huge challenges. Um , the concentration of migrants has not been made easier by the Trump White House. It's only become more fraught. Um , the upward mobility of manufacturing in Tijuana has wrought massive pollution troubles , as we know , that are now acute and feel like there's no solution in sight. Um , so it's it's a fascinating place to be a local journalist covering these issues as well as an international journalist who's looking at the bi national issues , you know , we face in San Diego. So it's it's a pretty cool place.
S1: Yeah , yeah. And a lot can be missed , though , if there aren't enough journalists to cover all that's happening. Absolutely.
S2: Absolutely. Yeah.
S1: Yeah. Well , more generally. Marco.
S2: Um , in a bias free manner. Um , and so we leave politics at the door. Um , and honestly , in the time that we have to get our show from the morning editorial meeting at 8:15 a.m. EST to , uh , the deadline of 3 p.m. when we go on air. There's not a lot of time to have political discussions. Um , we we I mean , yeah , if there's a political discussion happening and it's roiling , uh , cable networks , um , it's roiling the internet. Um , but we keep the politics at the door , and we have to ask our questions. Uh , you know what is real ? What is accurate ? What is fair ? And are we are we talking to the right people ? Do we have all point ? Do we have all the points of view so that when we go to air , we can say with confidence that we're telling a story ? That is what is actually happening.
S1: Outside of public media.
S2: I mean , I've been seeing the lines and the sides get drawn. You know , the people at 60 minutes who , uh , when Trump was suing CBS , um , they have now settled , um , we're like , you know , this is not what we signed up for. And then there are other people inside the network who are saying , no , we have to do this. I mean , uh , Brian Stelter , the CNN media correspondent , was basically , you know , explaining that , uh , he's doing this to basically scare the media. I mean , we just saw the lawsuit against , uh , Bob Woodward , uh , get dropped. Uh , the CBS , uh , lawsuit was about 60 minutes , misleadingly editing a clip of Kamala Harris , allegedly , that Trump claimed put her in a positive light. So two different stories , perhaps two completely different motivations for why Trump was suing. So it's kind of hard to know what what brings the Wall Street Journal lawsuit against their their headline , their story last week. On Friday , Jeffrey Epstein's friend sent him body letters for her 50th birthday album. One was from Donald Trump. Um , so now he's suing them ? Yeah. I mean , basically , uh , here's a quote from Brian Stelter. He's trying to have a chilling effect on reporting more broadly. He's trying to stay to other news outlets. Don't come after me , don't report on me. Don't look into my past , or I'll try to ruin you. So that's how I see it.
S1: Well , and beyond that , there's there's also been an effort , I think , to discredit journalists , um , calling journalists enemy of the state , the verbal attacks and media conferences. It builds on one another.
S2: Right , right. With , um , you know , a lot of misinformation and disinformation on social media , those kind of claims , uh , that Trump uses to go after the media. They can , you know , they can get traction because who's to know what's right anymore ? Hmm.
S1:
S2: There's the independence of producing the news show you want to produce. There are no commercial buyers saying that we have to cover certain things or to avoid certain topics. There are no talking points we have to hit , like you might find on Fox or any cable network where you know pretty much ahead of time what they're going to say. Uh , our , our editors tell our reporters , look , if you can't tell that story in four minutes , if you think it needs eight minutes , make the argument and let's hear it. And if the argument holds water , that story is going to be eight minutes. So it's it's where we get to really play in the journalism sandbox and help people understand , you know , the show's called the world , help people understand where they are in relation to the rest of the planet and why that matters. I don't hear that anywhere else. It's not happening on commercial TV or radio. Um , and , uh , yeah. And public media is doing a great job. You know , the best television news program in San Diego is on public TV as a KPBS. I watch so much commercial TV news and frankly , there are some markets where it's embarrassing. Well , San Diego should be so proud of what KPBS is doing with local TV news.
S1: That was my conversation with Marco Werman. He co-hosts The World along with Carolyn Beeler. The world is a production of WGBH in Boston and the Public Radio Exchange. Marco is also a journalist in residence at UC San Diego. That's our show for today. I'm your host , Jade Hindman. Thanks for tuning in to Midday Edition. Be sure to have a great day on purpose , everyone.
