What can TV3 learn from Trump's attack on PBS?

The American radio and television industry is so overpowered—and led by nearly century-old private initiatives—that the public channel PBS—and its radio sister, NPR—have always been seen as the poor sisters of the media landscape. But this characterization is somewhat clichéd: after all, more than 40 million citizens tune in to the radio each week, and some 36 million watch local news at least once a month from one of PBS's partner stations. Considering that they only offer hard-core programming, with no entertainment formats,reality shows, broadcasting sports or series—it's a commendable figure. But what I admire most is their resilience in a hostile environment. It seems that, although Donald Trump has turned his unfriendly horn on both media outlets and ruled to leave them without public funding, their chances of actually getting out are slim, especially since the allocation of tax funds comes from a pact signed with Congress that extends until 2020; so the principle of legal certainty will probably put the president in his place.

In any case, public money only represents 5% of the budget of the company that controls NPR and PBS. The rest comes mainly from private donations, and this gives public broadcasting a fortress that is bombproof and impervious to presidential whims. Reading it, one inevitably thinks about the fragility of TV3 and what would happen if the Generalitat were one day controlled by forces with virulently anti-Catalan sentiment, like Ciutadans in its day or Vox currently. Not even RTVE is that fragile, because it's largely funded by telecoms and private television. Perhaps the Corporation should begin a debate on how to shield TV3 and Catalunya Ràdio from the Trumpet of the day.