small market

If you’re a Dodgers fan, of course, you would love to see the Dodgers win the World Series again. If you’re a baseball fan above all, though, you ought to be pulling for the Milwaukee Brewers.

The Dodgers served as a convenient bogeyman for owners of many other major league teams last winter. To fans pointing a collective finger at the owner of their local team, all too many of those owners pointed a finger in our direction: It’s not us. It’s them.

“The Dodgers are the greatest poster children we could’ve had for how something has to change,” Colorado Rockies owner Dick Monfort told the Denver Gazette last March.

How, those owners shrugged, can we compete against a team playing in a major market and spending half a billion dollars on a star-studded roster?

The Dodgers are 58-40.

The Brewers play in the smallest market in the major leagues — Sacramento included, Denver definitely included.

The Brewers are 57-40.

This is not about a sprinkling of fairy dust. The Brewers have made the playoffs six times in the past seven years, prospering even beyond the financially motivated departures of star shortstop Willy Adames, Cy Young winner Corbin Burnes and two-time National League reliever of the year Devin Williams, and even after manager Craig Counsell and president of baseball operations David Stearns left for teams in major markets.

“It’s not really an abnormal year,” said designated hitter Christian Yelich, the Brewers’ franchise anchor. “Each year, we’re picked to finish last or second-to-last in our division, regardless of what happened the year before.”

The Brewers cannot pay the going rate for power, so they do not try. Of the free agents signed by Milwaukee last winter, the most expensive one in the lineup for Friday’s victory at Dodger Stadium: outfielder Jake Bauers, signed for $1.4 million. Shortstop Joey Ortiz was obtained in the trade of Burnes; third baseman Caleb Durbin was acquired in the trade of Williams.

The Brewers rank in the bottom 10 in the majors in home runs, but they rank in the top 10 in walks, stolen bases, sacrifice bunts and fewest strikeouts.

Milwaukee’s Caleb Durbin celebrates after hitting a solo home run in the seventh inning of a 2-0 win over the Dodgers at Dodger Stadium on Friday night.

(Mark J. Terrill / Associated Press)

“We know what we are,” Yelich said. “We know we’re not going to have a lineup full of guys that hit 30 homers. You’ve got to force stuff to happen sometimes and try to put pressure on the other team and try to manufacture runs any way you can.”

They are one of two teams — the Detroit Tigers are the other — to rank among the top 10 in runs scored and in earned-run average. No NL team has given up fewer runs than the Brewers.

The Dodgers lead the majors in runs scored. In four games against Milwaukee, the Dodgers have scored a total of four runs.

“They can really pitch,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. “The ’pen is lights out. They catch it. They play good defense. In totality, they do a good job of preventing runs.”

Whether they can do a good job of deterring a lockout, well, that might be a whole other ballgame.

The collective bargaining agreement expires after next season. The owners have not explicitly stated a salary cap is their goal but, at least the way the players’ union sees it, why else would commissioner Rob Manfred already be talking about a lockout as a means to an end?

At the All-Star Game, union chief Tony Clark blasted the concept of a salary cap.

“This is not about competitive balance,” Clark said. “This is institutionalized collusion.”

A salary cap would provide owners with cost certainty and potential increases in franchise values, not that fans would care much about either. So, to the extent that owners might settle on a talking point in negotiations, what Manfred said at the All-Star Game would be it: “There are fans in a lot of our markets who feel like we have a competitive balance problem.”

If you’re the union, you’ll say MLB has not had a repeat champion in 25 years. If you’re an owner, you’ll say no small-market team has won the World Series in 10 years.

If you’re the union, you’ll say expanded playoffs offer every team the chance to win a wild-card spot and get hot in October, as the 84-win Arizona Diamondbacks did two years ago. But, should the Brewers win the World Series this year, owners certainly would call it the exception that proves the rule.

Over the past seven years, the Brewers have made the playoffs as many times as the Yankees have. Yet, for all their success in the regular season, the Brewers have not won a postseason series since 2018.

Baseball has not lost a regular season game to a work stoppage since 1995, the last time the owners pushed hard for a salary cap. They might do so again next year, which would jeopardize the 2027 season, but to argue small markets need a salary cap to win after the team in the smallest market won the World Series might ring hollow.

If the Brewers’ success could derail the potential disaster that would be a work stoppage, America ought to be rooting on The Miz.

Ken Burns has made more than 30 documentaries and won multiple Emmys.

But without funding from public television, his educational programming such as “The Civil War” and “Baseball” might never have existed, he told “PBS News Hour” in an interview Thursday.

Even today, the acclaimed filmmaker whose works — including his upcoming project “The American Revolution” — are broadcast on PBS, said his films get around 20% of their budgets from the Corp. for Public Broadcasting, the body Congress recently voted to defund.

Projects that receive a higher percentage of their funding through public media “just won’t be able to be made,” Burns said. “And so there’ll be less representation by all the different kinds of filmmakers. People coming up will have an impossible time getting started.”

The U.S. Senate this week passed the Trump administration’s proposal to cancel $9 billion in federal funding previously allocated for foreign aid and public broadcasting, and the House of Representatives approved the package after midnight Friday, sending it to President Trump’s desk.

The Corp. for Public Broadcasting, which administers the funds for NPR radio stations and PBS TV affiliates, is on track to lose $1.1 billion that had previously been budgeted for the next two years.

The impact of those cuts will be deeply felt across both NPR and PBS, leaders of both organizations told The Times. Layoffs and reduced programming are expected, and the blows will disproportionately strike smaller markets that rely more heavily on federal funding.

“This is going to hit hardest in the places that need it the most,” said Gabriel Kahn, a professor at the USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism.

Stations in smaller markets are staffed significantly less than stations in larger cities, often because of the disparity in funding. The Corp. for Public Broadcasting acted as “the great equalizer,” Kahn said, padding the budgets of smaller stations so they could continue operating.

“It’s just going to be increasingly lonely out there as these voices, who were of the community and generally very well trusted, are going to disappear,” Kahn said. “Because within a year, you’re not going to be able to hear these things on the radio anymore in a lot of places.”

The cuts fulfill a longtime dream of conservatives and libertarians, who bristle at the notion of public funds supporting media organizations, especially ones they view as left-leaning. Republicans have for decades called for cuts to public broadcasting because of their perceived liberal slant of its programming.

Trump has called NPR and PBS government-funded “left-wing propaganda.”

But several prominent voices in media and politics were quick to call attention to the harm the cuts will have, especially on communities where the local stations rely heavily on federal funding.

“A PBS station is really like the public library. It’s one of those important institutions that may be the only place where people have access to local news,” Burns said. “There’s a kind of sense of local accountability, and as news becomes nationalized and even internationalized, there’s a loss there.”

PBS President Paula Kerger expressed similar concerns.

“Many of our stations which provide access to free unique local programming and emergency alerts will now be forced to make hard decisions in the weeks and months ahead,” Kerger said in a statement Thursday.

Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski, one of two Senate Republicans to vote against the package, said she strongly opposes the cuts to public media in a statement after the vote. She referenced a 7.3 magnitude earthquake in Alaska this week that triggered a tsunami warning as an example of the public service stations provide.

“My colleagues are targeting NPR but will wind up hurting — and, over time, closing down — local radio stations that provide essential news, alerts and educational programming in Alaska and across the country.”

A devastating blow to SoCal stations

Public media outlets in Southern California’s urban areas, which can turn to wealthy locals for donations, are less dependent on federal funding than stations in smaller markets. But they will still feel an immediate loss.

Washington, D.C.-based NPR has two major affiliates serving the Los Angeles area: LAist, or KPCC-FM (89.3), and KCRW-FM (89.9).

LAist, based in Pasadena, was set to receive $1.7 million, about 4% of its annual budget. Alejandra Santamaria, president and chief executive of LAist, said the money is equivalent to 13 journalist positions at the local news operation. KCRW in Santa Monica was expecting $264,000 from the Corp. for Public Broadcasting.

PBS SoCal, which operates member stations KOCE and KCET in Orange and Los Angeles counties, respectively, is facing a loss of $4.3 million in federal funding, according to Andy Russell, president and chief executive of the stations.

Connie Leyva, executive director of KVCR Public Media in San Bernardino, which operates PBS and NPR affiliates, said earlier this week that the Senate action will mean losing $540,000, about 6% of its operating budget. Thus, she has to consider cutting five positions on an already lean staff.

Kahn, the USC professor who is also the publisher and editor of Crosstown L.A., a nonprofit newsroom focused on local reporting and data journalism, said the cuts could have unintended consequences for Trump’s own voters.

“The irony, of course, is that these are areas that generally support Trump with high margins, and they’re are also areas that have the greatest allegiance to their local public radio station,” he said.

In a significant retrenchment, media mogul Byron Allen has retained investment banking firm Moelis & Co. to sell his network-affiliate television stations after spending more than $1 billion to scoop up outlets in smaller markets.

The Allen Media Group announced the news Monday morning. It owns nearly two dozen stations, including in Northern California near Redding, as well as Honolulu; Flint, Mich.; Madison, Wis.; and Tupelo, Miss.

The company needs to pay down debt, Allen said in a statement.

Allen’s firm declined to provide details on its finances.

The Los Angeles firm has spent big bucks during the last six years buying stations with a goal of becoming the largest independent television operator in the U.S. Many of Allen’s stations have standing in their markets with programming from one of the Big Four broadcast networks: ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox.

“We have received numerous inquiries and written offers for most of our television stations and now is the time to explore getting a return on this phenomenal investment,” Allen, chairman and chief executive, said in a statement. “We are going to use this opportunity to take a serious look at the offers, and the sale proceeds will be used to significantly reduce our debt.”

Allen Media Group, which was founded by Allen in 1993, also owns a dozen television channels, including the Weather Channel.

The Los Angeles entrepreneur and former stand-up comedian had been steadily expanding his empire for more than a decade.

However, the television advertising market has become increasingly challenged in recent years as media buyers shift their budgets to digital platforms where they are more likely to find younger consumers. The television advertising market has become more strained with the addition of streaming services, including Netflix, Amazon Prime Video and Paramount+ competing with legacy stations for dollars.

A decade ago, Allen brought a high-profile $20-billion lawsuit against two of the nation’s largest pay-TV distributors, Comcast and Charter Communications, alleging that racism was the reason his small TV channels were not being carried on those services.

The case ultimately reached the U.S. Supreme Court and was legally significant because it relied on the historic Civil Rights Act of 1866, which was enacted a year after the Civil War ended and mandated that Black citizens “shall have the same right … to make and enforce contracts … as is enjoyed by white citizens.”

But the Supreme Court struck down many of Allen’s arguments. In a 9-0 decision in March 2020, the high court said it was not enough for a civil rights plaintiff to assert that his race was one of several factors that motivated a company to refuse to do business with him. Instead, the person must show race was the crucial and deciding factor.

Last month, CBS picked up his show “Comics Unleashed with Byron Allen” to run at 12:35 a.m.