Aaand there goes the last attempt at good noncorp news in the US.
this post was submitted on 07 May 2025
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No, NPR will survive. Losing the grants suck. But the vast majority of its revenue isn't from grants.
I'll be upping my donation.
Last I heard, federal grants were like 2% of their annual budget.
Apparently it's even less now:
On average, less than 1% of NPR's annual operating budget comes in the form of grants from CPB and federal agencies and departments.
So uh... I guess they already are surviving on their own?
It's incredibly high quality journalism. I'm so proud of my fellow countrymen for supporting it directly. I listen to it daily - multiple times throughout the day. I've donated once or twice, but I need to reduce my debt before I'm comfortable signing up for a monthly commitment.
I also only one time donate, as I can. No shame in it, I think it's appreciated just the same
It’s the little stations in west bumfuck Idaho and West Virginia that will have trouble staying open. The big content creators like WNYC and GBH will be fine and can lean on corporate donors.
According to NPRs own report....it's 13% of the budget. So not critical, but still hurts a bit. I'll just up my yearly donation to help
Glorified military contractor that works for our enemies, mind you.
how so? I mean it works for anyone who wants to launch a satellite
Who turned off starlink in Ukraine?
yeah thats true
SpaceX and all of Musk’s companies have received many tens of billions in government contracts, subsidies, and incentives and more are on the way.
The meme is right, but it’s WAY short of the amount of money SpaceX is getting.
Musk = POS Nazi.
musk is "a ponszi"
Defund the parasite Musk, or since he is all about free speech maybe he should provide some funding to them.
Musk wants to drop off now that he has control of the federal government. Just like Twitter he will pop back up from time to time as the whole apparatus comes to his knees.
Look… I hate Musk as much as anyone. But SpaceX contracts are not the same as NPR grants.
this is all stuff that nasa would do for cheaper instead, if they got the contracts instead.
cheaper because you wouldnt have to finance making him rich
You know NASA uses all kinds of private contractors too, right? Which means they are paying the “make someone rich” tax as well, just not to Musk.
That means we fix the loopholes and find a streamlined way to reach efficiency. It doesn't mean we exploit the system because "well they do it too" while continuing to complain the system sucks. No, we actually fix the standing problems within our systems. Thats what should happen.
Tax the fucking rich.
Tax the fucking rich
Of course I agree but I don’t know how we got here from saying that NPR grants have nothing to do with aerospace contracting.
...no? my source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_launch_market_competition#2010-2020s:_Competition_and_pricing_pressure and scroll down a bit to the chart with launch costs
the space shuttle sucked
The space shuttle was a mistake, but that is a laughably disingenuous route to claim that NASA couldn't be doing these things for cheaper than private companies. Saturn V rocket launches were cheaper than space shuttle launches.
yeah but the falcon 9 and heavy are the cheapest ever compared to everything
I hate musk, don't misunderstand me, but spaceX has done some incredible things with rocket reusability
I mean, we should be able to hate Elon Musk while still respect the fact that, SpaceX as a company has done incredible things.
You say NASA could've done it for cheaper, but their track record is not great. Apollo program, historical, but was very expensive. Then the Space Shuttle, then the SLS, they are all extremely expensive compared to, not just Falcon 9, but also Russia or China's offerings.
I hate Musk but I am also passionate about space... So yeah, I don't know how to process this. Maybe it's fine for people to just believe SpaceX did nothing good as long as that gets more people to hate Musk... I really don't know (help me)
NASA is a government program, Space X is private enterprise first of all. And what exactly has incredible things has space Space X actually done?
One got us to the moon and back.
One has contributed an amazing amount of information about the universe to us.
One has made it cheaper by recycling rockets, which is not something amazing but largely driven by private enterprise wanting to create a service to gain a profit and return for investors.
They're both chalk and cheese. NASA doesn't have to do it for cheaper because they're not about making profits. They're not a company.
A better comparison would be to compare Space X to that other space company by that other billionaire.
Hopefully, you don't mind coming across as a "bootlicker".
NPR shouldn't be losing anything, is the point.
Nor should PBS
Dude isn't an American, he didn't didn't grow up with PBS- he's not from here, he definitely doesn't understand the cultural significance of PBS in the United States.
I couldn’t mind less. A sad little ad hominem like that from someone stupid enough to see it that way is no skin off my nose.
Yep, and comparing expenditures that differ in orders of magnitude is also complicated. Why is it even worth to cut the lower one when minor changes to the big one have a bigger gain.
The issue is most cuts being deeply political in nature. In my mind these posts only shift the narrative.