More than 500 public media staffers have been laid off since Congress stripped public radio and televisions stations of most of their federal funding, according to a tally by SemiPublic, NPR
reports. And public stations started scrambling. South Dakota Public Broadcasting cancelled the weekly public affairs show, In The Moment, and laid off the
host, Lori Walsh. But she was hired back to do a daily podcast after the station raised $8 million through “white-hot rage-giving.” At an event this summer, PBS CEO Paula Kerger
said, “All of this exists because of viewers like you. We have said this on the air for many, many years. And I think, until this year, people didn’t quite fully realize what
that means.”