Trump's fund cuts: CPB to shut down after GOP slashes funding; 'trashed decades of democracy' say critics

Time of India

3 days ago

The Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) announced that it would be winding down its operations on Friday, in a major victory for Republican lawmakers.
This follows a successful effort to defund local PBS and NPR stations across the United States.
The decision comes just over a week after US President Donald Trump signed a rescissions bill that clawed back $9 billion in previously approved federal funding, including $1.1 billion earmarked for CPB over the next two years.
'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,' said CPB President and CEO Patricia Harrison.
'CPB remains committed to fulfilling its fiduciary responsibilities and supporting our partners through this transition with transparency and care.'
Founded over six decades ago, the CPB has long served as the funding backbone for public broadcasters across the country. With its dissolution, officials are now working to help local stations grapple with sudden financial shortfalls. Harrison has particularly warned that smaller, rural stations could be forced to shut down entirely without federal assistance.
Larger stations, which often have more diversified funding streams including public donations, may fare better. Nonetheless, public media leaders argue that the entire ecosystem will suffer without CPB's foundational support.
'The ripple effects of this closure will be felt across every public media organisation and, more importantly, in every community across the country that relies on public broadcasting,' said NPR CEO Katherine Maher in a statement ctied by CNN.
Nearly all of the corporation's 100 staff roles will be eliminated when funding officially ends on 30 September. A small transition team will stay on through January to ensure 'a responsible and orderly closeout of operations,' the CPB said.
The move represents a political milestone for Trump, who has long campaigned to strip public broadcasting of federal support. Earlier this year, he even attempted, unsuccessfully, to dismiss three members of the CPB board, despite having no legal authority to do so under the legislation that established the organisation in 1967, CNN reported.
Although the corporation initially took legal action to defend its board members, it filed a voluntary dismissal of the case on Friday—an implicit acknowledgment that the administration has won.
'REPUBLICANS HAVE TRIED DOING THIS FOR 40 YEARS, AND FAILED….BUT NO MORE,' Trump wrote on Truth Social, following the approval of the bill in both the Republican-controlled House and Senate.
While public media advocates had held out hope that Congress might restore funding through the normal appropriations process, a draft Senate bill advanced on Thursday without any such provision, effectively shutting the door on a last-minute rescue.
For Trump and his Republican allies, the elimination of CPB is a strike against what they perceive as liberal bias within public broadcasting.
But for media advocates, it marks the end of an era, one that saw the federal government play a crucial role in sustaining non-commercial TV and radio.
'The end of CPB is the direct result of the deep and corrupt failure of Congress and the Trump administration to invest in informing the American public,' said Craig Aaron, co-CEO of the progressive media reform group Free Press. 'They have trashed decades of democracy-building work and will deny many journalists, artists, educators and creators the opportunity to be heard.'
Aaron, however, held out hope for the future, suggesting the crisis could spur the rebirth of publicly funded media 'as a bulwark against authoritarianism that meets the civic needs of all our communities.'