After nearly 60 years in operation, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting is shutting down. The CPB has faced increasing hostility from conservatives and ultimately had its funding cut last year. The closure of the organization eliminates a source of support for organizations like PBS and may put local broadcasters at risk.
CPB shutting down ‘to protect the integrity of the public media system’
The CPB announced on Monday that its board of directors had voted to shutter the organization.
“For more than half a century, CPB existed to ensure that all Americans—regardless of geography, income, or background—had access to trusted news, educational programming, and local storytelling,” CPB President and CEO Patricia Harrison said. “When the Administration and Congress rescinded federal funding, our Board faced a profound responsibility: CPB’s final act would be to protect the integrity of the public media system and the democratic values by dissolving, rather than allowing the organization to remain defunded and vulnerable to additional attacks.”
As Harrison indicated, the CPB became a target of the Trump administration and the Republican-controlled Congress, an escalation of growing conservative hostility toward public broadcast media. In May, President Donald Trump issued an executive order for CPB to cease funding National Public Radio and the Public Broadcasting Service, with him accusing NPR and PBS of bias and possible discrimination. In July, Congress passed legislation zeroing out federal funding for CPB, eliminating over $1 billion in funding previously allocated to the organization. With its financing eliminated, CPB began winding down operations last year, laying off most of its staff, with some employees remaining on until January to handle details such as music rights.
CPB closing is part of ‘devastating’ cuts to public media
The organization was created by Congress in 1967 to support local public radio and television stations. As it closes, the CPB will hand over its archives to the University of Maryland. It will also distribute its remaining funds. NPR and PBS didn’t receive the majority of their funds from the CPB, but these national organizations are taking a financial hit from the loss of CPB support. Around 70% of the CPB’s funds have typically been distributed to local radio and television broadcasters, and some of these local stations may be in danger of closing as they lose their support.
“What has happened to public media is devastating,” CBP Board of Directors Chair Ruby Calvert said in a statement about the board’s decision. “After nearly six decades of innovative, educational public television and radio service, Congress eliminated all funding for CPB, leaving the Board with no way to continue the organization or support the public media system that depends on it.”
Despite the CPB closing, Calvert expressed confidence “that public media will survive, and that a new Congress will address public media’s role in our country because it is critical to our children’s education, our history, culture and democracy to do so.”
The CPB’s closure brings to an end an era of federal support for public radio and television programming. While public media as a whole may survive, it’s unclear that all the local stations that provide public radio or television programming across the country will endure.