On election night in the fall of 2000 I was serving with AmeriCorps in Adirondack Park in upstate New York. I was stationed at an old logging camp, now owned by the state, and spent my days serving as a teacher and mentor in a local school. We got our electricity from a generator and we didn’t have any access to cable TV or high speed internet. So that night, my fellow AmeriCorps members and I huddled around a small transistor radio in our kitchen and listened to the drama of that contentious election play out on North Country Public Radio. It was our only access to the outside world, our only reliable source of local, regional and national news.

My story is not unique. For millions across America, public radio and public television are critical lifelines. Yet in recent weeks, as partisan lawmakers and their well-funded attack dogs launched a bruising assault on NPR, the vital services offered by more than 1,300 local public broadcasting stations, especially those in rural communities, were under attack. Thankfully, this week, we learned that the recent Congressional budget deal left public broadcasting almost entirely intact – in no small part because of the letters, emails and phone calls of the millions of people who stood up for public broadcasting since the start of the year.

Leading up to this budget agreement, the New York Times provided a clear example of what is at stake in the debate over public media funding. In a profile of WMMT, a local public radio station based out of Whitesburg, Kentucky, Katharine Seelye illustrated the unique role that local, community-focused media can provide for rural America.

“WMMT, which reaches across the mountains, coal fields and hollows of eastern Kentucky, southwestern Virginia and southern West Virginia, creates a connective tissue for its far-flung, geographically isolated listeners. It also offers respite from the daily grind. Like the redbud trees that are starting to burst forth in violet patches along the scrubby hillsides here, the sounds from the radio can be, if not essential, at least life-affirming.” Another person interviewed for the story argued that in fact, WMMT was essential, “It alerted residents recently to an oil spill affecting their drinking water much more quickly than town officials could have.”

The vast majority of federal funding provided to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, the independent non-governmental nonprofit organization, is distributed out to local stations like WMMT that collectively reach roughly 98 percent of the U.S. And like WMMT, these stations don’t just broadcast national news and Car Talk. At a time when newspapers are cutting back and struggling to stay afloat, and when the 6 o’clock news is filled with more weather reports and commercials than news, public broadcasters are actually investing more in local reporting. They produce vital local public affairs shows, partner with local educational institutions, and promote diverse local culture and history. For example, WMMT is a public radio station but is not a NPR affiliate. “WMMT is one of the few stations that still provide live, home-grown programs, both music and news, around the clock, except for the wee hours, when it repeats its hosts’ musical playlists,” writes Seelye.

Cutting funding for public broadcasting is not just about local news and children’s programming – it is also about jobs. Seelye notes that “The station has four full-time and three part-time workers and more than 50 volunteers, many of whom host shows and carry in their own recordings.”According to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, federal funds support more than 20,000 jobs and contribute roughly $1 billion to the US economy.

The recent attacks on CPB funding are clear attacks on rural stations, whose audience often have less flexibility in their own budgets, making them “far more dependent on federal money than their urban counterparts and more likely to go under if it is cut.” According to the Times, many rural and Native American stations rely on federal funding for at least 50 percent of their budget. In addition, rural stations face steeper equipment and engineering costs due to the challenges of broadcasting over tough terrain and long distances.

Year after year, Americans rank public broadcasting as the best expenditure of taxpayer dollars after national defense. With all the shouting going on in Washington, it is easy to forget that public broadcasting enjoys broad-based support from across the political spectrum and across the country. Lawmakers representing rural America used to be the strongest advocates for public broadcasting, and while all the fiery rhetoric and trumped-up controversy in Washington seems to have muted their support, it has not extinguished it. This week’s budget vote reflects that support, and is yet another example of the ways massive public pressure can beat back bad media policy decisions.