After nearly six decades of supporting public broadcasting, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) is closing its doors, following a sweeping cut in the US federal funding, announced after President Donald Trump signed legislation on July 24 cancelling about $1.1 billion that had been previously approved, according to a report published by The Associated Press.
The organisation announced Friday that most staff positions will end on September 30, with a small transition team staying until January to wrap things up. Here is all you need to know about what has happened and why it matters:
Why the Funding Was Pulled
The Trump administration has long accused public media of practising political bias, especially the PBS and the NPR, with the White House only recently terming the CPB an “unnecessary expense.”
According to the report, the Senate Appropriations Committee backed this move by leaving the CPB out of its new spending bill- something that hasn’t happened in over 50 years.
Some lawmakers, particularly those from rural states, voiced concerns about the cuts, warning that many small, local stations might shut down without the CPB’s support.
CPB’s Role in Public Broadcasting
Created by Congress in 1967, the CPB was formed to counterbalance what former FCC Chair Newton Minow had called a “vast wasteland” of commercial television. While it doesn’t produce or control programming itself, the CPB has reportedly funded content on 1,500 radio and TV stations and helped bring iconic shows like Sesame Street and Finding Your Roots to life.
According to the report, around 70% of the CPB’s funding went directly to 330 PBS and 246 NPR stations, with many of those located in rural areas. These cuts, the report said, are expected to hit those smaller stations the hardest. In fact, NPR President John Lansing has warned that up to 80 stations could shut down within the next year, the AP reported.
From Big Bird to Family Trees
The CPB’s support helped launch educational programs that became cultural landmarks. Sesame Street, which began in 1969, aimed to close educational gaps for low-income and minority preschoolers. According to a study, kids who watched it were 14% more likely to be placed in the right grade by middle and high school.
The show’s debut even featured entertainer Carol Burnett, who told the news agency, “I would have done anything they wanted me to do. I loved being exposed to all that goodness and humour.”
Historian Henry Louis Gates Jr. created Finding Your Roots, PBS’s most-watched non-drama program. It explores the ancestry of celebrities using DNA and historical records. “The two subliminal messages of Finding Your Roots… are that we’re a nation of immigrants and… we’re 99.99% the same,” Gates told the AP.
What’s Next?
Some programs may survive on account of alternate funding: Sesame Street has a streaming deal with Netflix. But others, including local shows or Ken Burns’ documentaries (which reportedly received 20% of their funding from the CPB), could be in danger.
Stations like Mississippi Public Broadcasting have already shut down 24/7 kids’ streaming channels. In Kodiak, Alaska, public radio station KMXT says 22% of its budget is now gone.
