Friend, we don’t blame you if you’ve been having a hard time keeping track of everything that happened this month. Here’s just a teaser:

• To kick May off, President Trump issued an executive order aiming to end federal support of NPR and PBS “to the maximum extent allowed by law.” This followed his move to claw back $1.1 billion in already-approved federal funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
• Then the Department of Education abruptly terminated the Ready To Learn grant — a lifeline that funds beloved PBS KIDS television programming.
• Then Trump threatened to eliminate funding for programs created under the Digital Equity Act, targeting $2.75 billion in federal grants that Congress had committed to help close the digital divide.
• And did we mention that congressional Republicans once again tried to crush the free-speech rights of nonprofit groups?!

As our attention turns to the disastrous budget bill that the House just sent to the Senate, it’s clear: If we want to save public media, continue closing the digital divide and protect First Amendment freedoms, it’s on us to continue fighting back with everything we’ve got.

That’s where you come in: Will you make your very first gift to Free Press by midnight tomorrow? Your donation will help us meet our $10,000 monthly fundraising goal.

Because our independence is so critical, Free Press does not take a single dollar from business, government or political parties.

That means we rely on individual supporters like you (responding to emails like this one!) to fuel our work — so thank you for giving what you can today.

Thank you so much,

Dutch and the rest of us at Free Press