From President and CEO Susan Goldberg: Protect GBH Today
May 5, 2025
Dear GBH Alumni,
On May 1, the White House issued an Executive Order calling on the Corporation for Public Broadcasting to immediately cease funding to PBS and NPR. This decision puts the future of public media at risk and undermines the work of GBH — one of the oldest and most trusted public media organizations in the nation and a critical resource across the Commonwealth.
The loss of public media federal funding would be a crippling blow for the millions of people who rely on our services for news and education, especially children. Shows that we make at GBH, like Arthur, Work It Out Wombats!, and Molly of Denali, would be at risk at a time when our kids are falling behind in math and reading, and more than half don’t have access to Pre-K education. Across the country, it would also further eliminate vital local news outlets when newspapers are closing at a rate of one a week and social platforms refuse to provide even the most basic fact-checking.
GBH is focused on the future, but we will need your help to get there. Our goal is to maintain our independence, strengthen our business model, and ensure the continuation of our award-winning local news and national programs that we create here, such as FRONTLINE, NOVA, MASTERPIECE, AMERICAN EXPERIENCE, and ANTIQUES ROADSHOW.
As we look to what’s next, we will double down on our commitment to cover the issues millions of people care about, from education and science to international affairs, from the environment to the arts and beyond. We will fight to protect the right of current and future generations to enjoy, learn, and be informed through the free public access we provide to the highest quality programming, news, and information.
We believe our work is essential to a healthy democracy. We are so grateful to you as GBH alumni – we stand on your shoulders and are determined to protect your legacy. Now is the time to show that your voice matters. Help us save public media and protect GBH today. Click here to find out more.
Thank you,
Dear Susan,
After 68 years, the real crisis is upon us. More deadly than the 1961 fire. The wrinkled persimmon in the White House, his Nazi henchman, and his ludicrous cabinet, are dangerous, daunting, and depressing.
I came to GBH as a Boston University scholar in 1957, and have marveled at the way in which this institution reinvents itself, refreshes its goals, and reaches for perfection. In the four years I was with you, I helped participate in the early days of its creation. I was there the day in 1958 when the first Ampex videotape machine was put into service.
The dreamers of those years, and their colleagues across the United States, have given us the courage and talent to compete and to be the alternative to commercial TV. We must save PBS and NPR.