Grandstanding about public funding for television, movies and the arts is an indelible part of our politics. But calling broadcasters and museums “anti-American”?
That epithet, leveled at the Public Broadcasting Service and NPR in a March hearing, captures what’s distinctive about the Trump administration’s attempts to defund and dismantle so many American cultural institutions.
As Congress gears up to consider a White House request to bless the U.S. DOGE Service’s efforts to strip approved funding from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and other institutions, the targets aren’t merely individual shows, museum exhibits and educational programs. Also at issue is the very credibility and patriotism of the institutions that are best positioned to inspire conversations about history and culture at a moment when the United States badly needs such debate.
The language administration officials deploy is striking in both its breadth and venom. Office of Management and Budget Director Russell Vought accused PBS and NPR of “dividing on the basis of wokeism.” The Smithsonian Institution, President Donald Trump charged in an executive order, has fallen under the influence of a movement that, “rather than fostering unity and a deeper understanding of our shared past, … deepens societal divides and fosters a sense of national shame, disregarding the progress America has made and the ideals that continue to inspire millions around the globe.” Reflecting on that March hearing, PBS President Paula Kerger told me, “I have never heard either PBS or myself referred to as un-American.”
If the administration and its allies are successful, their victory will come at the expense of both communities that backed Trump and the celebration of America’s 250th birthday, which the president has said is a major priority.
If Congress decides to claw back approved funding for PBS and cut future funding as well, Kerger said, “we will lose stations for sure — and we will lose stations in places like Cookeville, Tennessee,” in a county where 73 percent of voters backed Trump in 2024, or Granite Falls, Minnesota, just within the border of a county that gave the president 69 percent of the vote, rather than in wealthier metropolitan areas.
If those stations close, residents will lose access not only to broadcasts such as “The American Revolution,” a forthcoming documentary series by Ken Burns Sarah Botstein and David Schmidt, but also to the live local events that stations stage around major programming. The Iowa State Fair’s presentation of “The American Revolution” might look very different from South Dakota’s focus on the Native American experience of the war, or from Utah’s explorations of the classical roots of the Founders’ ideas. All those discussions will vary from the commemorations and reflections taking place in the 13 original colonies.
Many of the Trump administration’s attacks on history and the humanities have a similar effect. Take the decision to cancel $336,000 in National Endowment for the Humanities grants that funded National History Day, which each year gives 600,000 middle and high school students in all 50 states and at American schools overseas the opportunity to do original historical research and analysis.
National History Day doesn’t teach a set interpretation of the past. Instead, students pick a topic related to a theme — this year’s is “Rights & Responsibilities” — and explore it through rigorous research of primary and secondary sources. As a judge at National History Day, I’ve heard students make cases ranging across the political spectrum for everything from ending the Jones Act to the value of Cherokee-founded newspapers.
As with PBS, the National History Day programs in wealthier places will probably continue regardless. But wounding the national program will make it harder for students from across the country to meet in Washington and learn from one another’s work.
Attacks on the Smithsonian won’t necessarily be limited to the iconic museums in Washington, either. The institution supports more than 200 affiliate organizations nationwide. A chill could endanger, for example, the free poster exhibitions that enrich thousands of classrooms.
What’s supposed to replace the conversations and meditations these organizations facilitate?
The Trump administration purportedly intends to divert National Endowment for the Humanities funding toward the construction of a National Garden of American Heroes. The Smithsonian executive order pledges vaguely to turn the museums into “a symbol of inspiration and American greatness” and to ensure that the American Women’s History Museum does “not recognize men as women in any respect.” The nation has been promised an “extraordinary celebration” for its semiquincentennial.
But as much as the Trump administration might want history to be a settled set of facts interpreted only by its approved experts, that idea is in tension with the disagreements and uncertainties that made America great in the first place. “The United States is a symbol that is so inspirational and aspirational that its founding is still reverberating, and all of the questions and anxieties about it are still with us today,” Burns told me.
Trying to smother those questions and anxieties with certitude is a lot more un-American than having them out
What readers are saying
The comments express strong opposition to the Trump administration's efforts to defund cultural institutions like PBS, NPR, and the Smithsonian. Many commenters view these actions as part of a broader agenda to reshape American culture, suppress independent thought, and promote a... Show more
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4 comments:
Everyone needs to STFU for a while. You too Slavin. Just too much whining and bogus claims and fantasy narratives. SJC Karens need to take a dirt nap already.
Evidently this is the very same poster as "Pete," who has posted bloody violent misognyist imagery attacking four (4) wonderful assertive intelligent women -- two (2) elected County Commissioners and two (2) citizen activists who criticize deforestation. Now, the use of the term "dirt nap," combined with the imagery, shows us the tortured soul of this person in sharp repose. See Oxford English Dictionary definition of "dirt nap." https://www.oed.com/dictionary/dirt-nap_n
Leaduradino Fan/Pete/Atheist Pizza News etc., you've spent weeks giving away who you are, and that you're all the same person. And now you publicly wish death on four women whom you consider a threat to ETM's bottom line. You're an agent for England Timms Miller. Your extremist, threatening, bullying, cyberstalking, woman-hating behavior isn't going to pay off for you.
Uhh no. Actually you have no clue who I am. Just more bogus claims. Whatever you people can simply think of you consider true. That's you people's biggest problem.
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