Ken Burns Speaks Out About About Trump’s Plans to Cut PBS Funding

Renowned documentary filmmaker Ken Burns has spoken out about President Donald Trump‘s plans to cut federal funding for PBS, calling the proposal “shortsighted.”

In an interview that aired on Sunday’s (July 6) edition of CBS News’ Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan, Burns told CBS Evening News co-anchor John Dickerson that the funding cuts seem “fooldhardy” and “misguided” because “there is a perception among a handful of people that this is somehow a blue or a left-wing thing.”

Burns, whose upcoming six-part series on the American Revolution is slated to air on PBS in November, admitted he is “worried” about the future of PBS. He stated that many of his 40-plus documentaries couldn’t have been made without the help of PBS.

“I couldn’t do any of the films I’ve done without them being on PBS. I could go into a streaming service or a premium cable tomorrow and get every one of the millions of dollars it took to do this in one pitch, but they wouldn’t give me 10 years,” he explained. “They want it in a year or a year and a half, and that’s the deal. I can’t do that.”

In May, Trump signed an executive order instructing the private nonprofit Corporation for Public Broadcasting to cease federal funding for PBS and NPR. The President argued that the networks had “spread radical, woke propaganda disguised as ‘news.'” In June, the House approved a request from the White House to reclaim $1.1 billion from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. This issue will soon be debated in the Senate.

Burns described PBS as the “Declaration of Independence applied to the communications world,” and said the cuts are “shortsighted,” noting, “It mainly serves rural areas in which the PBS signal may be the only signal they get.”

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“They also have not only our good children’s and prime time stuff, they have classroom on the air continuing education, homeland security, crop reports, weather emergency information. That we’re going to take away?” he continued. “I just think that maybe we’re throwing the baby out with the bath water.”

“These are really good American institutions that represent everybody from the bottom up, which is what it’s always about,” Burns added. “That’s the essence of what Thomas Jefferson was talking about.”

In addition to its documentaries and educational programming, PBS airs much-loved shows including  All Creatures Great and Small, Call the Midwife, Finding Your Roots, and Grantchester.

Face the Nation, Sundays, 10:30am/9:30c, CBS News