Contributor: Bob Ross is once again ready to help protect public media

The unapologetically forgiving illustrator Bob Ross, who assured us that mistakes are just “happy accidents,” doesn’t usually talk politics. But it’s worth noting when he got caught up in punditry when he painted the wrong evergreen: “It’s a crooked tree,” he joked. “We’ll send him to Washington.”

Crooked Tree in DC took the unusual step this year to return funds they had previously approved for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB), which closed its doors on September 30, leaving public radio and television stations across the country in dire straits. The works of the late Bob Ross, a former Air Force drill sergeant, continue to resonate with PBS audiences around the world. “The Joy of Painting” It will now go on the auction block to benefit the public media. first Three of the 30 drawings Will go to bid in Los Angeles on Tuesday.

This is a wonderful and generous move from Bob Ross’ company – and one that should not have happened. Although Bob Ross’s legacy will live on with or without CPB, the loss of mass media is hitting small towns, rural areas, and Native Americans hardest. These are Americans who use public media as a vital source of information, emergency alerts, cultural programming and community identity.

It is up to all of us to protect the public media as an essential, free news service. We have the opportunity to reorganize public media, develop our business with a sustainable model and ensure that this resource can continue to function and serve the public. After more than a decade of supporting public media, our family foundation is doing more in difficult times. We are asking other foundations, philanthropic families and individuals, and anyone who has grown to enjoy Bob Ross or even painting miniature trees to join us.

Much has changed in the field of media over the past 60 years, but the need for public media remains the same. The 1967 report that laid the foundation for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting simply stated: Public media “must at its core consist of strong and independent local stations, sufficiently numerous and well equipped. They must reach all parts of the country. They must be individually responsive to the needs of local communities and collectively serve the needs of local audiences and support.”

In a rare turn for reports, all of this actually happened. The network of public radio and television stations – created thanks to philanthropic funding, bipartisan congressional and private sector support – has the power to reach more than 95% of Americans, using less than 0.01% of the federal budget, or less than $2 per household. Most stations rely on federal funds for a small portion of their budget, usually only 10% to 15%.

For this low rate, the stations provided free educational programming—from “Sesame Street” to “Nova”—alongside local journalism; weather and agriculture news; coverage of events, sports and culture; candidate debates; and a profile of the figures above and below the ballots. These stations reduce polarization and promote volunteerism and voter participation in whatever state they are located in, red or blue. Nine of the 10 rural public stations offer original, on-the-ground local reporting.

Public radio provides emergency information — including evacuation notices — when severe weather knocks out power or broadband, which is already sparse and expensive in many rural areas. Original reporting on issues like water access in West Virginia’s Appalachian towns and land acquisition on Kansas farms would be unheard of without public radio, especially given the significant decline of local journalism over the past few decades. And indigenous communities will not have access to news in their native languages.

It’s no wonder that public media remains the most trusted source of news everywhere, including among conservative listeners and viewers, despite what politicians at the national level claim. Independent studies have found no evidence of consistent bias in public media reporting. And although individual stories may strike listeners and viewers as biased, public media investigate and address claims of bias. If it gets stronger, fine, but in the meantime Congress threw the baby out with the bath water.

Before the federal government steps up its funding for public media, both public radio and television are already working to strengthen the essential local services they provide—efforts we can support right now. Our foundation was the first funder of NPR’s Collaborative Journalism Network five years ago to develop the capacity of small, local stations through regional classes that can pursue joint investigations, increase coverage of underserved communities, share news teams, provide local stories for national audiences, and pursue technical and other efficiencies.

The result has expanded news coverage in the Midwest, Appalachia and Mid-South, the Mountain West, the Gulf states, New England and California on issues ranging from state-level politics to mental health care in nursing homes to unacceptably high costs.

In fact, the public media has already responded strongly to the collapse of federal funding with new fundraising drives across a variety of funding sources — an auction of Bob Ross paintings is expected to raise about $1 million — and pledges to rely more on shared services. By embracing more of us, perhaps the public media will not only save itself, but show us how to sustain sustainable local news—and with it, the communication, community, and identity that are essential threads in the fabric of our nation.

Wendy Schmidt is co-founder and director of the Schmidt Family Foundation. She and her husband, Eric, are longtime supporters of NPR.