KC Counts speaks with Senator Ben Ray Luján about the impacts of funding cuts to public media outlets across New Mexico. You can list to their full conversation by clicking the "listen" button above. Here is a portion of their conversation which aired on KRWG News Friday, July 25th.
KC:
I want to start by just having you tell our listeners what the landscape of public media in New Mexico looks like across the state, for listeners unfamiliar with other parts of the state.
Senator Luján:
Oh, most certainly. Well, public broadcast media in New Mexico is one of those vital lifelines that we depend on not just for day-to-day information about the news, about the weather, what may be happening in our communities and maybe even getting a little entertainment, the reason I say this is a lifeline is when there's a natural disaster, when there is a flood that you have minutes to react and maybe mobile phones or something, you know, other ways that we get information are out because of what may be happening with the weather. We depend on the public broadcasting, not just the stations and the leaders that are there that are sharing information with us, but the investments that they have made with infrastructure - repeaters and other technology where maybe an AM radio station or some other emergency broadcast can ride on to get the information to us to save our lives. Just last night, as you're aware, south of Las Cruces in Vado with horrific flooding that was even sweeping away cars. It was public broadcast media that was warning people, hey, get to higher ground, something's coming, or if there's an Amber Alert, cause a kid has been kidnapped or a missing loved one who's a senior. It's these important announcements that save people's lives - critically important, especially in rural parts of New Mexico.
KC:
I wanted you to talk a little bit about the value of being non-commercial and why that federal funding is so important.
Senator Luján:
Most certainly. So even though these same announcements can go over other commercial larger radio stations, things of that nature, when the weather goes bad or there's a fire and systems go out. No, it's because of the infrastructure coming from public broadcasting that allows these networks to still be able to share information when everything else has gone dark. That was the case when there were horrific fires out in San Miguel County and near Las Vegas and in Mora and in South and in Colfax. We had the largest fire in the state's history. There was no other system working except for the backbone from AM stations where they were riding on public broadcast information as just one example. That is exactly why this matters. And again, this isn't party which you know, party registration and politics, which is what some of my Republican colleagues, and namely the President of the United States, have been trying to say. This is about getting information to people, regardless of who they're voting for. This is about saving people's lives. And that's one thing that I appreciate so very much about public broadcasting is the nonpartisan presentation of information, but especially life-saving information that could be saving our lives.
KC:
You mentioned the word nonpartisan and obviously, people in Washington D.C. that you work with every day think it is. What do you have to say to folks who believe that inherently, public media is biased?
Senator Luján:
Well, it's simple. It's not. Plain and simple. There's not even a debate here. It's not, if, you know, if we want to have a conversation about Fox News versus MSNBC or one podcast versus another or an influencer on social media versus another. Let's have that conversation. But there's a reason why this was intentionally created to be nonpartisan. It's exactly that, just full stop on that point.
KC:
Let me ask you now, Senator Luján, what are you doing about it?
Senator Luján:
So, in the legislative debate that was occurring when my Republican colleagues voted to eliminate public broadcasting, I authored language that was just very clear and simple that said, do not do this. Do not take away funding that is going to help protect people. That extends to Amber alerts and other alerts that are vital to us. And there was only one Republican colleague that voted to save this, and it's because they had an announcement that very morning of an earthquake that was going to potentially cause a tsunami in Alaska that could have jeopardized hundreds of thousands of lives that particular morning. So, I've been working on that. I've introduced other pieces of legislation to ensure that the Federal Communication Commission cannot revoke broadcast licenses or take action against broadcasters based on viewpoints that they may be broadcasting. And I've also been communicating directly with the FCC chair, chair Carr, condemning actions taken by the FCC under the Trump administration, demonstrating that the FCC is weaponizing its authority over broadcasters and public media for political purposes. We just need some more Republicans that are willing to weigh in and to vote to protect public broadcasting dollars as opposed to voting to eliminate them.
KC:
Senator Ben Ray Lujan, thank you so much for spending this time with us. We appreciate it.
Senator Luján:
Thank you for having me.
