Nonprofit Behind NPR and PBS Votes to Shut Down After Trump Killed Funding

The board of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB), the nonprofit corporation created by Congress in 1968 to oversee the federal government’s investment in public TV and radio, formally voted on Monday to shut down. The vote is the culmination of a decades-long battle by Republicans to abolish public media completely, though NPR, PBS, and most local public stations will continue operating for the foreseeable future.

Funding for CPB was cut by the Republican-controlled Congress during a vote on a rescissions package on July 17, which stripped more than $500 million from its budget. CPB supported local public radio and TV stations, and many will continue operations through private funding sources, along with donations from the public. That model means that most stations will simply have less money, while the smaller and more rural stations are the most likely to close in the future.

CPB has previously reported that 245 of the total 544 radio and TV grantees that received money from the organization were considered rural, and part of public media’s mandate was supporting communities insufficiently served by commercial media interests. NPR CEO Katherine Maher warned in September that 70-80 public radio stations could close within a year.

“For more than half a century, CPB existed to ensure that all Americans—regardless of geography, income, or background—had access to trusted news, educational programming, and local storytelling,†Patricia Harrison, President and CEO of CPB, said in a statement.

“When the Administration and Congress rescinded federal funding, our Board faced a profound responsibility: CPB’s final act would be to protect the integrity of the public media system and the democratic values by dissolving, rather than allowing the organization to remain defunded and vulnerable to additional attacks,†Harrison continued.

President Donald Trump’s war on public media started long before the rescissions package in July. The president sent an all-caps tweet in April calling for Republicans to defund NPR and PBS, dubbing them the “radical left monsters†who “badly hurt our country.†By the following month, Trump had signed an executive order demanding that CPB be defunded, something he had no authority to do. But he eventually got his wish when Republicans passed the rescissions package.

“What has happened to public media is devastating,†said Ruby Calvert, Chair of CPB’s Board of Directors. “After nearly six decades of innovative, educational public television and radio service, Congress eliminated all funding for CPB, leaving the Board with no way to continue the organization or support the public media system that depends on it.â€

Calvert went on to insist that public media would live on and that there was hope Congress could restore funding in the future. That part remains to be seen. And while there are plenty of people who are hopeful that some of the things that Trump has destroyed might return in a post-Trump world, that could be much easier said than done. From USAID to the Department of Education to scientific expertise at the CDC, it’s a lot easier to destroy something than to build it back up again.