Facing the prospect of losing public funding, the head of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting decried “fake news” and demeaning attitudes toward rural voters Tuesday in defending the organization before Congress.

“People in this country yearned for content they could trust. And where are we right now — we’re living in this environment of ‘fake news,'” testified Patricia de Stacy Harrison, the CEO of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, to an appropriations subcommittee.