WQED suspends an education program as Trump cuts funding for 'left wing' public broadcasting companies across the nation

Jeremy Reynolds / Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

WQED Multimedia, the owner of Pittsburgh’s local PBS television station as well as its classical music radio station, has announced the suspension of its Creator Academy, a digital media youth education program, due to federal funding cuts.

In a Thursday statement, WQED cited “unprecedented threats to federal funding for the arts, education, and public broadcasting” and the organization’s “fiduciary duty to adapt our programs to align with funding realities, community impact, and WQED’s long-term sustainability.”

The company laid off four full-time staff members and a part-time staffer in the Creator Academy.

The cuts are tangible local consequences of some of the Trump administration’s funding cuts to various federal programs.

President Donald Trump on May 1 signed an executive order prohibiting PBS and NPR from receiving federal taxpayer dollars. The administration has argued that much of the news and other programming at publicly funded media companies skews to the left.

In an accompanying fact sheet, the administration argues that “NPR and PBS have fueled partisanship and left-wing propaganda with taxpayer dollars, which is highly inappropriate and an improper use of taxpayers’ money.”

The move fits into a broader push to reduce the size and scope of the federal government and to root out funding for what it calls “woke” programming. Such programming can have to do with DEI (diversity, equity and inclusion), “gender ideology” or programs that are at odds with the administration’s stance that there are two genders related to biological sex.

The administration is attacking funding for public broadcasting on multiple fronts, including directing the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, a nonprofit that does not fall under the executive branch, to cease funding companies including PBS and NPR.

WQED, a public broadcasting company, is likely to see cuts from multiple agencies including the National Endowment for the Arts, the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Department of Education and other cuts to public subsidies to PBS.

Much of the programming on WQED is created by PBS — WQED is a distributor — including education programming for children. The station also creates a limited amount of its own local programming.

“WQED proudly shares PBS programs like ‘Masterpiece,’ ‘Nature’ and ‘NOVA’ with our neighbors in western Pennsylvania, but other local stations — mostly Boston, New York and Washington, DC — produce those and other national shows,” said Jason Jedlinski, president and CEO of WQED Multimedia, in an email.

“Our employees here in Pittsburgh — like Rick Sebak, Jim Cunningham, Anna Singer, Minette Seate, and Chris Fennimore — create local content.”

There are current legal challenges to some of the Trump administration’s cuts working their way through the court system, including a challenge to Trump’s attempts to direct the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which is not a federal agency.

The CPB currently gives about $3 million to Pittsburgh organizations, according to its website.

Other organizations that could be directly impacted by these cuts include the radio stations 90.5 WESA, Pittsburgh’s NPR news station and 91.3 WYEP, Pittsburgh’s adult alternative music station. Both stations are operated by the Pittsburgh Community Broadcasting Corporation, which receives CPB funding.

Jeremy Reynolds: [email protected]. His work at the Post-Gazette is supported in part by a grant from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, Getty Foundation and Rubin Institute.