The Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) announced Monday that its Board of Directors has voted to dissolve the organization after nearly sixty years.
This comes several months after a measure was approved by Congress and signed into law by President Donald Trump (R) rolling back $9 billion worth of already approved federal spending, including $1.1 billion that was originally destined for the CPB.
According to the CPB, the Board determined that it would “not serve the public interest” to continue operating as a “nonfunctional entity” in the absence of Congressional funding.
The CPB was primarily responsible for distributing funding to local public radio and television stations, as well as NPR and PBS. According to the Washington Post, about 15 percent of PBS’ funding comes from the federal government, as well as around 1 percent of NPR’s funding.
Maine Public CEO and President Rick Schneider told the Portland Press Herald that the federal funding pulled back by the federal government last year accounted for about 12 percent of their budget.
Through donations, Schneider said that the outlet has been able to avoid staffing and program cuts thus far.
In order to completely fill the gap left by the absence of federal funding, Schneider explained that private donors will now need to cover about 87 percent of the station’s budget, an increase over the 75 percent typically supported by these contributions.
The remaining portion of the budget is covered by state funding and money from other miscellaneous sources.
“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,” the CPB wrote in a press release Monday.
Although some Republicans, including Maine’s Sen. Susan Collins (R) and Alaska’s Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R), raised concerns at the time about the funding cuts to the CPB, President Trump strongly pushed back on the idea of eliminating these particular cuts from the rescission package.
“It is very important that all Republicans adhere to my Recissions Bill and, in particular, DEFUND THE CORPORATION FOR PUBLIC BROADCASTING (PBS and NPR), which is worse than CNN & MSDNC put together,” Trump said in a Truth Social post last week. “Any Republican that votes to allow this monstrosity to continue broadcasting will not have my support or Endorsement. Thank you for your attention to this matter!”
[RELATED: President Donald Trump Signs Bill Eliminating $9 Billion of Previously-Approved Federal Spending]
In a press release shared Monday, the CPB attributed the Board’s decision to disband the organization — described as a “private, nonprofit corporation created by Congress” — to this withdrawal of this funding, as well as “sustained political attacks.”
“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,” said Patricia Harrison, President and CEO of CPB.
“What has happened to public media is devastating,” said Ruby Calvert, Chair of CPB’s Board of Directors.
“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,” Calvert continued. “Yet, even in this moment, I am convinced 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 press release goes on to explain that all remaining funds controlled by the CPB will be distributed in accordance with Congressional intent.
CPB will also continue supporting the American Archive of Public Broadcasting in its work digitizing and preserving historic content.
The organization’s own archives dating back to its founding in 1967 will be preserved in partnership with the University of Maryland and made accessible to the public.
Click Here to Read the Corporation for Public Broadcasting’s Full Statement
