After six decades, the Corporation of Public Broadcasting is shutting down. Thanks to a Trump-led effort to defund Public Media, and a belief of its Critics that PBS and NPR were biased against conservative viewpoints, and that it indoctrinated children.
For years, Republicans have wanted to defund Public Broadcasting since the Nixon era. President Richard “Tricky Dick” Nixon disliked Public Broadcasting, which included PBS. He sought to cut its funding in September 1971. Nixon even expressed the possibility of controlling Public Broadcasting, according to the New York Times Archives and files of the White House Office of Telecommunications Policy for 1969 to 1974. Decades later in July 2025, Congress approved Trump’s rescission package, which cut $1.1 billion in funding for CPB over the next two years that had previously been approved. The CPB announcement also followed the release of the Senate Appropriations Committee’s fiscal 2026 Labor, Health and Human Services, Education and Related Agencies (Labor-H) appropriations bill, which excludes funding for CPB for the first time in more than five decades.
“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.”
Patricia Harrison, CPB President and CEO
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CPB informed employees that the majority of staff positions will be eliminated with the close of the fiscal year on September 30, 2025. It said a small team would remain until January to “focus on compliance, fiscal distributions, and resolution of long-term financial obligations including ensuring continuity for music rights and royalties that remain essential to the public media system,” according to the CPB statement.
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The Corporation of Public Broadcasting was established by Congress in the Public Broadcasting Act of 1967. Since its introduction, it has seen the production of renowned educational programming, cultural content, and emergency alerts about natural disasters. Years later, after Congress approved the defunding of the CPB, Donald Trump celebrated the victory on Truth Social, writing “ATROCIOUS NPR AND PUBLIC BROADCASTING, WHERE BILLIONS OF DOLLARS A YEAR WERE WASTED. REPUBLICANS HAVE TRIED DOING THIS FOR 40 YEARS, AND FAILED….BUT NO MORE. THIS IS BIG!!!” despite Trump and the CPB Critics victory, there are still supporters of Public Media and their programming, no matter of baseless accusations of Bias or claims of PBS or NPR promoting “Woke Propaganda” or “DEI Promotion.” There are people that love and support PBS, NPR, and CPB.
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Source: Variety, NPR, Press Release, AP News
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