How Do We Respond to Attacks on Public Media, DEI and Democracy?

The San Francisco Public Press on April 30, 2025, hosted a fireside chat recorded for this “Civic” episode about attacks on diversity, democracy and media with Ricardo Sandoval-Palos, the public editor at PBS, and Lila LaHood, executive director of the San Francisco Public Press.

In addition to discussing how journalists can do better covering issues their audiences care about in a political environment that is fraught with conflict, how PBS engages with listeners and viewers about their critiques and concerns, and why public media newsrooms aim to reflect the diversity of the communities they serve, Sandoval-Palos and LaHood talked about what might happen if the federal government were to cut funding to PBS and NPR, which receive a portion of their funding from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.

The next day, President Trump signed an executive order attempting to do just that.