Corporation for Public Broadcasting to shut down after being defunded by Congress, targeted by Trump
WASHINGTON AP The Corporation for Population Broadcasting a cornerstone of American heritage for three generations revealed Friday it would take attempts toward its own closure after being defunded by Congress marking the end of a nearly six-decade era in which it fueled the production of renowned educational programs cultural content and even crisis alerts The demise of the corporation known as CPB is a direct conclusion of President Donald Trump s targeting of residents media which he has repeatedly disclosed is spreading political and cultural views antithetical to those the United States should be espousing The closure is expected to have a profound impact on the journalistic and cultural landscape in particular citizens radio and TV stations in small communities across the United States CPB helps fund both PBS and NPR but largest part of its funding is distributed to more than local inhabitants radio and television stations around the country The corporation also has deep ties to much of the nation s bulk familiar activities from NPR s All Things Considered to historically Sesame Street Mister Rogers Neighborhood and the documentaries of Ken Burns The corporation stated its end years after being signed into law by President Lyndon B Johnson would come in an orderly wind-down In a declaration it explained the decision came after the passage through Congress of a package that clawed back its funding for the next two budget years about billion Then the Senate Appropriations Committee reinforced that approach change Thursday by excluding funding for the corporation for the first time in more than years as part of a broader spending bill Despite the extraordinary efforts of millions of Americans who called wrote and petitioned Congress to preserve federal funding for CPB we now face the complicated reality of closing our operations stated Patricia Harrison the corporation s president and CEO A last-gasp attempt at funding fails Democratic members of on the Senate Appropriations Committee made a last-ditch effort this week to save the CBP s funding As part of Thursday s committee deliberations Sen Tammy Baldwin D-Wis authored but then withdrew an amendment to restore CPB funding for the coming budget year She disclosed she still thought there was a path forward to fix this before there are devastating consequences for inhabitants radio and television stations across the country It s hard to believe we ve ended up in the situation we re in she commented And I m going to continue to work with my colleagues to fix it But Sen Shelley Moore Capito R-W Va sounded a less optimistic tone I understand your concerns but we all know we litigated this two weeks ago Capito commented Adopting this amendment would have been contrary to what we have already voted on The closure will come in phases CPB stated it informed employees Friday that largest part staff positions will end with the fiscal year on Sept It mentioned a small transition band will stay in place until January to finish any remaining work including it mentioned ensuring continuity for music rights and royalties that remain essential to the residents media system Residents media has been one of the the greater part trusted institutions in American life providing educational opportunity emergency alerts civil discourse and cultural connection to every corner of the country Harrison revealed We are deeply grateful to our partners across the system for their resilience leadership and unwavering dedication to serving the American people NPR stations use millions of dollars in federal money to pay music licensing fees Now plenty of will have to renegotiate these deals That could impact in particular outlets that build their programs around music discovery NPR President and CEO Katherine Maher estimated lately for example that specific of all classical music broadcast in the United States is on populace radio stations Federal money for community radio and television has traditionally been appropriated to the Corporation for Masses Broadcasting which distributes it to NPR and PBS Roughly of the money goes directly to the PBS and NPR stations across the country although that s only a shorthand way to describe its probable impact Trump who has called the CPB a monstrosity has long revealed that population broadcasting displays an extreme liberal bias helped create the momentum in up-to-date months for an anti-public broadcasting groundswell among his supporters in Congress and around the country It is part of a larger initiative in which he has targeted institutions particularly cultural ones that produce content or espouse attitudes that he considers un-American The CPB s demise represents a political win for those efforts His impact on the media landscape has been profound He has also gone after U S leadership media that had independence charters including the venerable Voice of America ending that media outlet s operations after plenty of decades Trump also fired three members of the corporation s board of directors in April In legal action at the time the fired directors noted their dismissal was governmental overreach targeting an entity whose charter guarantees it independence
