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President Trump issued an executive order ceasing public funding for National Public Radio (NPR) and the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) late Thursday. The order directs the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) to eliminate funding for the two news organizations, citing ideological bias. However, the question remains. Is it even possible for Trump to defund PBS and NPR? According to Trump, Neither entity presents a fair, accurate, or unbiased portrayal of current events to taxpaying citizens, the order reads. I therefore instruct the CPB Board of Directors and all executive department and agencies to cease Federal funding for NPR and PBS. Patricia Harrison, the President and CEO of CPB, issued a statement on the order, stating that the President of the United States cannot exert power over CPB. CPB is not a federal executive agency subject to the Presidents authority, she said in the press release. Congress directly authorized and funded CPB to be a nonprofit corporation wholly independent of the federal government. The CPB was established in 1967 under the Johnson administration as a part of the Public Broadcasting Act (PBA). Within the Act, Congress explicitly forbids any department, agency, officer, or employee of the United States to exercise any direction, supervision, or control over public telecommunications, or over the Corporation or any of its grantees or contractors According to the history page on the CPB website, CPB registered as a nonprofit in 1968 and established PBS in 1969 as a means of connecting public television stations and distribute programming. NPR incorporated in 1970 as a public radio program service. In 1975, Congress amended the PBA to advance local programming and further protect public media from political interference. Now, both NPR and PBS are essential aspects of American media culture. PBS typically produces educational content, while NPR focuses on news and media. They cover almost 99 percent of the population, according to NPR, and are key components of local emergency and disaster warning systems. For the current fiscal year, Congress allocated $535 million for CPB, affirmed in a recent stop-gap bill passed by a Republican-controlled Congress. CPB remains fully funded by Congress through 2027. At a U.S. House oversight committee meeting in late March, leaders of both PBS and NPR spoke about the importance of providing news to Americans at no charge, according to NPR. They said that stations would feel the effects of a lack of funding the most. Most of the public funds available go to local stations, We will challenged this Executive Order using all means available, NPR president and CEO Katherine Maher said in a statement. The President’s order is an affront to the First Amendment rights of NPR and locally owned and operated stations throughout America to produce and air programming that meets the needs of their communities. A much shorter statement from Paula Kerger, president and CEO of PBS, echoed the same sentiment. The Presidents blatantly unlawful Executive Order, issued in the middle of the night, threatens our ability to serve the American public with educational programming, as we have for the past 50-plus years, she said. We are currently exploring all options to allow PBS to continue to serve our member stations and all Americans.
Category:
E-Commerce
Half of Airbnb users in the U.S. are now using the companys AI-powered customer service agent, CEO Brian Chesky said Thursday during an earnings call. The tool was quietly rolled out last month and is expected to be available to all U.S. users in the coming weeks. Chesky said the AI assistant has already led to a 15% drop in users needing to contact live support agents. While the technology is still in its early stages, he expects it to steadily improve. Its going to get significantly more personalized and agentic over the years to come, he said following the release of Airbnbs first-quarter earnings. Compared with other travel platforms racing to apply AI for trip planning and other complex tasks, Airbnbs approach remains cautious. Expedia, for example, began promoting its ChatGPT-powered trip planning feature in 2023. Chesky has previously expressed a preference for a gradual rollout. During the companys last earnings call in February, he said Airbnb would begin by applying AI to customer service and expand from there. I dont think its quite ready for prime time, Chesky said of AI in trip planning, likening its current stage to the internet in the mid- to late 1990s. Airbnb reported higher revenue in the first quarter but warned investors of slowing booking growth in the current quarter, citing economic uncertainty in the travel sector. The companys stock was relatively flat as of Friday afternoon.
Category:
E-Commerce
Wake up, the running influencers are fighting again. In the hot seat this week is popular running influencer Kate Mackz, who faces heavy backlash over the latest guest on her running interview series: White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt. Mackz, who has nearly 800,000 followers on TikTok, has previously featured notable figures such as political commentator Dana Perino and biohacker-in-chief Bryan Johnson. On Wednesday, she released her newest interview with Leavitt, who declined to run any miles but did give Mackz a tour of the White House. @katemackz I cant believe you get to wake up and be here every single day, Mackz said as she and Leavitt took a stroll through the James S. Brady Press Briefing Room and Leavitts office. Notably absent is the mention of policy or actual politics. The interviewfilmed for both TikTok and Mackzs podcastcomes as the White House intensifies its outreach to nontraditional media, including influencers and podcasters, whose impact on the 2024 election hasnt gone unnoticed. While some view this as a savvy response to a shifting media landscape, critics note that the influencers being granted access tend to lean pro-Trumpor at least avoid asking hard questions. Truly surreal to walk through a place with so much history and meaning, Mackz wrote in the video’s caption. Like much of American politics today, the comments section was deeply divided. Some followers praised the video. Others were less impressed. Oh Kate, this is disappointing, one wrote. Read the room, girl, added another. “The fact she wasn’t even runningyou put a torch to your platform for a video that doesn’t even fit your own brand,” a third follower commented. (Fast Company has reached out to Mackz for comment.) One particularly pointed comment reportedly came from Hope Walz, daughter of Democratic vice presidential candidate Tim Walz, who asked Mackz to unpin her earlier interview with her fatherposted in the lead-up to the electionfrom the top of her page. As of this writing, the video remains pinned and has over 4.4 million views. While the comment is no longer visible, Walz posted her own video yesterday in response, where she discusses running as a political act. You know who taught me that? she says. Tim Walz. @hopewalz running is political!!! #fyp #running original sound – hopewalz In her video, Walz highlights the privilege embedded in the running worldaccess to safe spaces, healthcare, and climate protectionsand criticizes the current administrations cuts to mental health funding, food banks, and environmental programs. We should not be normalizing these people, she says. Im not going to tell anyone what to do with their page, but I think it is insulting to my dad to leave a certain video pinned, especially when he stands for quite literally the opposite of what this administration is doing. You do not get to both-sides this.
Category:
E-Commerce
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