The Corp for Public Broadcasting, Which Funds NPR and PBS, Will Close its Doors
Every Republican presidential administration has attempted to defund CPB. … One has finally succeeded.
The Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which provides funding to NPR and PBS, announced it will “begin an orderly wind-down of its operations.” In a Friday news release, CPB attributed the decision to the recent passage of the federal rescissions package, which “clawed back” $1.1 billion in funding, as well as the corporation’s exclusion — “for the first time in more than five decades” — from the FY2026 appropriations bill.
🚨🚨It is finished. At 12:04 a.m. Eastern, the House passes the $9 billion rescissions package that would claw back $1 billion in taxpayer dollars from PBS and NPR, 216-213. pic.twitter.com/IKf9tYclAZ
— Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) July 18, 2025
CPB is a private, nonprofit organization that allocates funding to over 1,500 locally owned public radio and television stations across the country, according to its website.
Since its establishment by the Public Broadcasting Act of 1967, the political content on most public media channels has leaned heavily to the left. As a result, every Republican presidential administration has attempted to defund it — and, by extension, the PBS and NPR-affiliated outlets it distributes funds to.
During his first term, President Donald Trump tried – unsuccessfully – to keep funding for public media out of his administration’s annual budgets.
After one final, fruitless attempt in 2020, PBS President and CEO Paula Kerger issued a statement defending “the vital role that public television plays in homes and communities across the country. For 50 years, PBS has served as a trusted source for educational and thought-provoking programming, including school readiness initiatives for children, support for teachers and caregivers, public safety communications and lifelong learning across broadcast and digital platforms.”
CPB reiterated this position in Friday’s news release, stating to its supporters:
For nearly 60 years, CPB has carried out its Congressional mission to build and sustain a trusted public media system that informs, educates, and serves communities across the country. Through partnerships with local stations and producers, CPB has supported educational content, locally relevant journalism, emergency communications, cultural programming, and essential services for Americans in every community.
Children’s programming and public safety alerts aside, PBS – and NPR as well – present a distorted perspective on political matters. They are indistinguishable from the legacy media in that they offer readers only one side of every story.
Trump vowed to try again and the second time around, he succeeded. This is a big win.
CPB President and CEO Patricia Harrison expressed regret over the situation:
Despite the extraordinary efforts of millions of Americans who called, wrote, and petitioned Congress to preserve federal funding for CPB, we now face the difficult reality of closing our operations. CPB remains committed to fulfilling its fiduciary responsibilities and supporting our partners through this transition with transparency and care.
Public media has been one of the most trusted institutions in American life, providing educational opportunity, emergency alerts, civil discourse, and cultural connection to every corner of the country. We are deeply grateful to our partners across the system for their resilience, leadership, and unwavering dedication to serving the American people.
CPB reported that most “staff positions will conclude with the close of the fiscal year on September 30, 2025,” but “a small transition team will remain through January 2026 to ensure a responsible and orderly closeout of operations.”
Neera Tanden, a former top aide to President Joe Biden, called the news of CPB’s demise a tragedy.
This is a tragedy.
— Neera Tanden🌻 (@neeratanden) August 1, 2025
Conservatives, of course, are delighted by it. Here are some of the reactions:
— Heritage Foundation (@Heritage) August 1, 2025
State-supported media has no place in a free society.
Taking our tax dollars by force, to generate propaganda, is and always was evil.
Good riddance!— Retiring Roger (@Dean_of_Numbers) August 1, 2025
— Liberty Tom (@Libertylover95) August 1, 2025
Elizabeth writes commentary for Legal Insurrection and The Washington Examiner. She is an academy fellow at The Heritage Foundation. Please follow Elizabeth on X or LinkedIn.
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Comments
This is what I voted for.
Me too!
Great news; long overdue.
I love many shows on PBS. I pay for them via PBS+.
As a child in Baltimore, I was never planted in front of the TV, but I watched two local shows, one of which helped me to say the “sn” blend. It was 1968, and the host was a black woman with a puppet called Sammy Snake. The other was Romper Room.
I am glad that you enjoyed MPT. I too lived in Baltimore and occasionally watched MPT as a kid.
No one is demanding that CPB/PBS/NPR be shut down. We just don’t want our taxes paying for it, along with loads of other wasteful tax dollars.
Happy to hear that you are willing to support it. I don’t live in Maryland anymore. I enjoyed Downton Abbey and would have paid to support it.
I have watched a few BBC television shows on my local PBS (such as To The Manor Born), and I supported PBS with my membership/donations. But I have always opposed the guvmint giving my tax dollars to support PBS.
I am sure that educational material with merit will continue, the past few decades of their material will not.
Oh yes, Romper Room !
Progressive oligarchs couldn’t pony up a few bucks?
Bert and Ernie will live on elsewhere.
Sesame Street is made by the Children’s Television Workshop and is a very profitable brand. The more the left ponies up for defunded PBS/NPR, Planned Barrenhood and their favorite NGO’s is the less money they have to spend on stealing elections.
They’re giving plenty, but not to CPB. As far as I know CPB doesn’t accept donations; its only function is to receive taxpayer funds and distribute them. Without taxpayer funds coming in, there’s no point in it continuing to exist. Donations can be and are being made to NPR, PBS, and local affiliates.
“The Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which provides funding to NPR and PBS, announced it will ‘begin an orderly wind-down of its operations.'”
Let’s use a lefty song (shamelessly exploited to boost the 1932 campaign of Saint Lefty himself) to celebrate,
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gqsT4xnKZPg
But here’s the real theme song of the Democrat Party,
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x72w_69yS1A
If they had stuck to news, avoiding propaganda, they might have survived.
Another one bites the dust.
https://www.bing.com/videos/riverview/relatedvideo?q=another+one+bites+the+dust&&mid=CDAB73CD0C35D0E2523BCDAB73CD0C35D0E2523B&FORM=VCGVRP
They did it to themselves when they went all in hard left. If they had maintained their old format with 60/40 tilt they would probably still be in business.
They never had a 60/40 tilt. William F Buckley literally PAID them to run his show, Firing Line and I wouldn’t be surprised of the McLaughlin Group did
As someone wrote (I believe it may have been here – and paraphrasing), “If an NGO goes bust when government money is cut off, it wasn’t an NGO.”
“Despite the extraordinary efforts of millions of Americans who called, wrote, and petitioned Congress to preserve federal funding for CPB..”
If those millions who called, wrote and petitioned sent a check instead, they wouldn’t need public funding… just saying.
My association with liberals has taught me that they are exceedingly generous with other people’s money, but when it comes to their own, they are the tightest misers on the planet
Now do Amtrak.
Now do public transit subsidies.
WINNING!
That is all.
I certainly used to enjoy SOME programming on local NPR – certainly the classic non-political stuff like Car Talk, or Olde Time Radio. I even listened to the Lefty Leaning News programs, if with a critical ear. It’s not healthy to live entirely in a political echo chamber. You can’t effectively refute the opposition when you need to if you have no idea what they are saying.
But the last decade or so at least even the quiz news shows like Wait, Wait Don’t Tell Me are so Hard Left that they parrot left wing conspiracy stuff like it’s indisputable fact – and not opinion or factually incorrect.
More than occasionally I will hear someone on NPR say something – not opinion – I KNOW is wrong and my impulse is to correct them – which is OC impossible.
The CFPB’s – as I understand it – sole purpose is to distribute Fed funds to local affiliates and such. No Fed funds, no mission. So OC they’re closing shop.
When I was a kid there were only 3-4 TV channels at most, no internet, no Podcasts, and AM radio was still King. There’s no shortage of news and entertainment outlets today, so the any need for govt subsidies is at best questionable. Add to that iNPR becoming the American equivalent of Pravda in its diversity of opinion… and its past time for the Dems to stop making non Dems pay for it.
We always knew what the left was saying, they had every TV network and newspaper batting for them
Used to deliver pizza – so my radio listening time was in the car. Conservative Talk Radio was my go to, but occasionally NPR for contrast. Not a TV person at all at home.
allll those that want to support it>>DO IT
but your tax funded boondoggle is history until lefty takes back over
I’ve enjoyed public tv and radio. I donated in the past voluntarily. I shouldn’t have to donate at the point of a gun.
They might have been trusted once. They no longer are. They are living the past. In fact the whole dramacrat party is living in the past. Either that or they yearn for the good (bad) old days of the past.
Oh the winning.
In other news Trump is firing the hag that has been running the BLS. As Ed pointed out on Hot Air- there’s a lot of oddities in the report that don’t jibe. Wages up while jobs down… among others. On further reflection it would appear she MIGHT be spiking the numbers… just like she stacked the numbers leading up to the election.
She ought to have been fired on day 1 for years of ineptitude … if not for stacking the numbers weeks before the election.
My question…
Why are there any leftist hacks still in any position of authority in any government agency? It would be better to have an inexperienced underling running the show, instead of a person hellbent on sabotaging the who organization. Keep firing until all the leftists are out.
Good.
Knowing none of the operational details, how it – NPR – functions and operates, the word “capitalism” comes to mind. If you are so loved and popular, why haven’t you been out creating a true corporation, with investors and shareholders, competing with other corporate broadcast media organizations. Have you turned away private investors who may have approached you to do just that?
It’s called capitalism, private enterprise. Give it a try to see just how popular and needed you really are. Who knows it just might work, or not.
“Children’s programming and public safety alerts aside”
I’ve received a crapload of public safety alerts in my 7+ decades.
Not a single one was from PBS or NPR.
It’s possible I haven’t been spending near enough time watching TV, especially in bad weather or during moments of Democrat restlessness.
If Trump had done nothing else but this, it would have been enough to justify his election.
Leaving alone for a moment the question of public funding for broadcasting, here is my question:
Why did “CPB” even exis?. It was simply another level of bureaucracy, no doubt with well paid executives, whose whole task was redistributing the Government Funds.
Why did not NPR, PBS, etc, simply apply to the gov for their funding like every other organization living off the taxpayers largesse?
“It was simply another level of bureaucracy, no doubt with well paid executives, whose whole task was redistributing the Government Funds.”
You answered your own question.
wheres the lefty headline:
trumps makes gay couple bert and ernie homeless
or unhoused or whatever they are forcing america to call it