{"id":389723,"date":"2026-01-05T19:55:08","date_gmt":"2026-01-05T19:55:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/389723\/"},"modified":"2026-01-05T19:55:08","modified_gmt":"2026-01-05T19:55:08","slug":"corporation-for-public-broadcasting-shuts-down-after-trump-ends-funds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/389723\/","title":{"rendered":"Corporation for Public Broadcasting Shuts Down After Trump Ends Funds"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tLess than a year after the Trump administration and Congress voted to defund the Corporation for Public Broadcasting<\/a>, the entity \u2014 which helped fund the operations of local public TV and radio stations \u2014 has voted to shut down. The CPB announced Monday that its board of directors voted to close the organization after 58 years, rather than continue to exist and potentially be \u201cvulnerable to future political manipulation or misuse.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe CPB was created by Congress by the Public Broadcasting Act of 1967 to support the federal government\u2019s investment in public broadcasting. The org noted that the rescission of all of CPB\u2019s federal funding came after years of political attacks.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cFor more than half a century, CPB existed to ensure that all Americans\u2014regardless of geography, income, or background\u2014had access to trusted news, educational programming, and local storytelling,\u201d said CPB president\/CEO Patricia Harrison<\/a>. \u201cWhen the Administration and Congress rescinded federal funding, our Board faced a profound responsibility: CPB\u2019s final act would be to protect the integrity of the public media system and the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.<\/p>\n

CPB Board of Directors chair Ruby Calvert called the move \u2014 and what has happened to public media \u2014 \u201cdevastating.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter 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,\u201d Calvert said. \u201cYet, even in this moment, I am convinced that public media will survive, and that a new Congress will address public media\u2019s role in our country because it is critical to our children\u2019s education, our history, culture and democracy to do so.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe news doesn\u2019t come as a surprise after the Republican Congress in July approved Trump\u2019s rescission package, eliminating $1.1 billion in crucial funding for public broadcasting that had been approved for the next two years. Without that money, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting was set to shut down. And the fate of hundreds of TV and radio stations remains up in the air.<\/p>\n

The funding was used to support both public radio and public television stations, directing over 70 percent of CPB\u2019s appropriation straight to local stations. The funds also supported independent filmmakers. Without the funds, PBS has been scrambling<\/a> to support and protect some of its most vulnerable member stations. Some stations have announced plans to shut down; Arkansas\u2019 PBS<\/a> stations disaffiliated with the service and went independent to save money.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cCPB\u2019s support extends to every corner of the country\u2014urban, rural, tribal, and everywhere in between,\u201d the org noted.\u201d In many communities, public media stations are the only free source of trusted news, educational children\u2019s programming, and local and national cultural content.\u201d <\/p>\n

The CPB said that without funding, its board determined that \u201cmaintaining the corporation as a nonfunctional entity would not serve the public interest or advance the goals of public media. A dormant and defunded CPB could have become vulnerable to future political manipulation or misuse, threatening the independence of public media and the trust audiences place in it, and potentially subjecting staff and board members to legal exposure from bad-faith actors.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tAs it closes, CPB is distributing its remaining funds, and also supporting the American Archive of Public Broadcasting in digitizing and preserving historic content. The CPB\u2019s own archives will be preserved at the University of Maryland, which will make it accessible to the public.<\/p>\n

\n\tIn September, the\u00a0Television Academy<\/a>\u00a0honored CPB with its Governors Award, presenting it to Harrison , who had led the organization since 2005, at the Creative Arts ceremony.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cPublic media remains essential to a healthy democracy,\u201d Harrison added. \u201cOur hope is that future leaders and generations will recognize its value, defend its independence, and continue the work of ensuring that trustworthy, educational, and community-centered media remains accessible to all Americans.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Less than a year after the Trump administration and Congress voted to defund the Corporation for Public Broadcasting,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":127677,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[54],"tags":[13025,88,40564,13027,92],"class_list":["post-389723","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tv","tag-corporation-for-public-broadcasting","tag-entertainment","tag-patricia-harrison","tag-pbs","tag-tv"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/389723","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=389723"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/389723\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/127677"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=389723"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=389723"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=389723"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}