TRUMP REGIME

NY Times - Elon Musk is gunning for public media.  In his new role advising President-elect Donald J. Trump, Mr. Musk has floated sweeping cuts to the federal government, including the elimination of entire departments and the firing of agency leaders. One of the most concrete proposals on his list is eliminating hundreds of millions of dollars in annual funding that the government funnels to PBS and NPR stations, home to cultural touchstones like Elmo, Big Bird and “Fresh Air.”

For decades, NPR and PBS have overcome similar threats. But this year, “the attention and intensity” of the calls to defund public media seem greater, said Michael Isip, the president and chief executive of KQED, which operates NPR and PBS stations in the San Francisco Bay Area.

NPR and PBS stations are bracing for the fight. After the election, leaders of NPR’s biggest member stations circulated a report that warned “it would be unwise to assume that events will play out as they have in the past,” with regard to their federal funding. PBS received an update on the situation from political consultants at a board meeting in early December. And station directors in some states are already making their case to legislators.

Internally, NPR is preparing for a variety of funding possibilities, including that government money will be clawed back immediately, according to two people briefed on the network’s planning.

...More than 98 percent of the U.S. population lives within listening range of at least one of the more than 1,000 public radio stations that carry NPR programming, and many stations use government funding to buy shows and pay for their newsrooms. “The most vulnerable stations serving the most vulnerable people are going to be the ones that are hurt the hardest,” said Eric Nuzum, a former NPR executive and a co-founder of Magnificent Noise, an audio consulting and production company. “We’re talking about very rural parts of the United States.”

 MeidasTouch -  William Webster, the only person to ever lead both the CIA and FBI, has released a letter warning senators about confirming Trump's picks of Kash Patel for FBI director and Tulsi Gabbard for DNI. Webster says the effectiveness of both agencies “depends on operating with complete independence from political influence.” “I urge you to weigh the critical importance of nonpartisan leadership and experience,” Webster wrote. “The safety of the American people — and your own families — depends on it.”