The Company for Public Broadcasting (CPB) has introduced that its board of administrators has formally voted to dissolve the group, marking the top of its 58-year position because the federally chartered steward of public broadcasting.
The Company for Public Broadcasting referred to as its dissolution “an act of accountable stewardship to guard the way forward for public media,” emphasizing that it was the board’s closing effort to defend the system it was created to serve. “When the Administration and Congress rescinded federal funding,” stated CPB President and CEO Patricia Harrison, “our Board confronted a profound duty: CPB’s closing act could be to guard the integrity of the general public media system and the democratic values by dissolving, reasonably than permitting the group to stay defunded and susceptible to further assaults.”
The group additional claimed that “a dormant and defunded CPB might have change into susceptible to future political manipulation or misuse, threatening the independence of public media and the belief audiences place in it, and doubtlessly subjecting workers and board members to authorized publicity from bad-faith actors.”
In keeping with the CPB, the choice to shut got here after Congress terminated all remaining federal funding and handed a $9 billion rescissions package deal in mid-2025, which included $1.1 billion in cuts to the CPB. Speaker of the Home Mike Johnson praised the laws on the time for eliminating “wasteful spending” and for defunding what he described as “politically biased media shops like NPR and PBS.” These legislative actions got here after President Donald Trump issued a Could 2025 government order stating, “No media outlet has a constitutional proper to taxpayer subsidies,” asserting that People deserved “honest, correct, and nonpartisan protection” if their taxes are paying for it.
Regardless of a authorized dispute involving a $36 million contract with Nationwide Public Radio (NPR), the Company for Public Broadcasting confronted broader funding cuts that in the end made its operations unsustainable. NPR sued CPB after the group suspended the contract, alleging political interference. CPB initially claimed the choice was motivated by a shift towards digital innovation, however throughout proceedings, the decide instructed CPB’s authorized crew he didn’t discover that argument credible. The case was settled in November 2025, with CPB agreeing to meet the contract.
CPB Chair Ruby Calvert appeared to attribute the group’s collapse on to the actions of the present Republican majority in Congress. “After practically six many years of revolutionary, instructional public tv and radio service, Congress eradicated all funding for CPB, leaving the Board with no technique to proceed the group or assist the general public media system that is determined by it. But, even on this second, I’m satisfied that public media will survive, and {that a} new Congress will tackle public media’s position in our nation as a result of it’s important to our youngsters’s training, our historical past, tradition and democracy to take action.”
Regardless of the closure, CPB leaders reaffirmed that the mission of public media would proceed by means of native stations and companions. “Public media stays important to a wholesome democracy,” Harrison stated. “Our hope is that future leaders and generations will acknowledge its worth, defend its independence, and proceed the work of making certain that reliable, instructional, and community-centered media stays accessible to all People.”
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