Op-Ed: Time for the Tech Bro Mega-Billionaires to Pony Up for Public Media
MAGA's savage budget cuts left local public radio and TV stations across the U.S. scuffling and scrambling as they struggle to keep going. Saving them would cost these four billionaires couch change.
By Lois Phillips
The Knight Foundation, Pivotal, the MacArthur Foundation, the Ford Foundation, the Schmidt Family Foundation, and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation have stepped forward with $37 million in emergency support for vulnerable local public radio and television stations following the loss of federal funding. Their generosity is commendable—but where are the billionaires when we need them?
As of August 1, 2025, the wealthiest person in the world is Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, with a net worth estimated at $401 billion, expected to surpass $1 trillion within the decade. Close behind are Larry Ellison, co-founder and CTO of Oracle, worth $297 billion; Mark Zuckerberg, valued at $274 billion; and Jeff Bezos, with more than $220 billion.
These billionaires are not widely recognized for philanthropy, but with enough public pressure, they might be persuaded to redirect some of their immense wealth toward strengthening democracy. Meanwhile, the American public has watched with alarm as deep funding cuts target higher education, public schools, science, health care, hospitals, voting rights, and women’s reproductive rights—while billions are poured into privatized prisons for immigrants. These are but a few examples of how the present administration is hollowing out the country’s infrastructure.
Four individuals, with fortunes beyond imagining, could each contribute at the billion-dollar level to safeguard the very nation that enabled their extraordinary success. The six foundations have shown what leadership looks like; it is time for the world’s wealthiest to follow.
Santa Barbara-based communications strategist and media consultant Lois Phillips is author of “The History of Women as Speakers: When Women Spoke Up They Changed History.”
Image: Clockwise from upper left: Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, Mark Zuckerberg, Larry Ellison (MSN).
Perfect role for these foundations! Taxpayer money should not be used to support political speech. And no rational person could listen to much to these stations and not come away with the obvious lack of balance in news coverage, and total slant in editorial coverage. There’s a place for this, but not with public money.