Earlier this month, Congress approved President Trump's request to strip away the next two years of funds previously allocated to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. As a result, our local public television station and about 1,500 others — along with the national PBS and NPR networks — will no longer receive federal funding starting in October. This week, we invited two local opinion columnists to continue a debate that has been heard in Washington D.C. for years: Should taxpayer dollars fund public broadcasting? Since our funding is caught up in this debate, we put up several firewalls to avoid a conflict of interest. Trip Jennings, executive editor of New Mexico in Depth, hosts this two-part conversation with Santa Fe New Mexican opinion page editor Inez Russell Gomez and Albuquerque Journal editorial contributor Jeff Tucker.

Podcast Host: Lou DiVizio

Correspondent: Trip Jennings

Producer: Gwyneth Doland

Guests:

Inez Russell Gomez, Opinion Editor, Santa Fe New Mexican

Jeff Tucker, Opinion Contributor, Albuquerque Journal