WASHINGTON, D.C. — As the U.S. Senate prepares to vote on the Rescissions Act of 2025, the cancellation of some $1.1 billion in already approved funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) has sent many NPR and PBS member stations into a fundraising frenzy, with aggressive pitches to help save their current operational and on-air structure.
Now, CPB is sharing the results of a newly conducted national survey that concludes voters “place more trust in public media” than media overall. And, the data show, these voters “hold a more favorable opinion of public media compared with for profit media.”
The CPB poll was conducted online from June 29-July 1, 2025 by Peak Insights among 1,000 likely voters. Among those respondents, these voters highly value public media’s core services and programming such as emergency alerts (82%); children’s educational programming (66%); local programming (66%); and national news reporting (60%).
The survey also suggests this group of voters more widely trust public media compared with media in general when it comes to reporting the news “fully, accurately and fairly.”
Only 35% of the 1,000 respondents trust media in general, yet 53% of these individuals trust public media networks and local stations.
Importantly, of the 1,000 people surveyed, 53% oppose eliminating all federal funding for public media, compared with 44% in support.
In addition, a majority of survey takers hold a favorable opinion of local public television and radio stations (65% favorable); PBS was 61% favorable.
However, just 54% of survey takers were favorable of NPR, a sign that its reporting and news focus could be too liberal and progressive for many in the U.S., based on Morning Edition and All Things Considered editorial decision-making seen over the last few years.
That said, for profit media among these respondents was 61% unfavorable.
