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Corporation For Public Broadcasting To Close Its Doors For Good After Funding Cut Due To Alleged Bias

August 1st, 2025 - 8:52 PM

Corporation For Public Broadcasting To Close Its Doors For Good After Funding Cut Due To Alleged Bias

According to a press release from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, it will soon end its operations after a lengthy battle with the current administration. They have cited the recent passage of a federal rescission package, which of the nine billion to be clawed back from various avenues, about one billion of it was set to be paid to CPB over the next two years.

Per Time Magazine, President and CEO of CPB, Patricia Harrison, said in a statement, “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.” The magazine also went on to note that the shuttering of the organization that piped federal funding to national news outlets like NPR and PBS is not the end of those outlets. They have a diverse revenue stream, including donors and member station fees. The biggest impact will be felt at some of the smaller local stations, which were receiving a large portion of their funds needed to operate from CBP. Most notably, according to Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, CPB covers 30-70 percent of each station’s budget in her district.

This has been a long-running battle with the GOP against CPB for decades. Back in May, President Donald Trump signed an executive order called “Ending Taxpayer Subsidization Of Biased Media.” The EO went on to call for the defunding of CPB, specifically citing alleged bias within the reporting of NPR and PBS. The EO stated that public funding of media is not only outdated, but also “corrosive to the appearance of journalistic independence.” He also went on to specifically cite a CPB governing statute, 47 U.S.C. 396(f)(3); see also id. 396(e)(2), which states that CPB cannot contribute to or support a political party.

CNN reports that NPR CEO Katherine Mahar released a statement saying, “The ripple effects of this closure will be felt across every public media organization and, more importantly, in every community across the country that relies on public broadcasting.” Mahar sat before a congressional hearing earlier this year about the alleged bias, maintaining that she has “never seen any instance of political bias determining editorial decisions.”

Senator John Kennedy, who was also present at the hearing, took to his X account to address the issue. He posted a video where he claims that Americans shouldn’t have to be forced to fund biased media, be it left of center or right of center. He further iterated that it is “disgraceful for the American people to have to fund this rot.” He stood beside a sign that featured some of NPR’s headlines, one of which claimed that racism is a marketing tool for country music.

CNN quoted Craig Aaron, co-CEO of the progressive media reform group Free Press, as saying this in response to the CPB closure, “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. They have trashed decades of democracy-building work and will deny many journalists, artists, educators, and creators the opportunity to be heard.” He continued on to express dreams of public media rising from the ashes as “a bulwark against authoritarianism that meets the civic needs of all our communities.”

The CPB press release also noted that most of its staff will stay on until the end of the fiscal year. A small portion of the staff will remain longer to help with the transition and will be let go after the beginning of the year.

Over on X, @nicksorter penned a post that read, “BREAKING: The Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB), a MAJOR propaganda arm of the Democrat Party, is SHUTTING DOWN following DOGE cuts. CPB was a HUGE contributor to PBS and NPR. Massive Loss for Democrat propagandists!” In contrast, Senator Mark Kelly, @SenMarkKelly, had this to say in a post: “If you’ve ever listened to NPR on your way to work, or watched Sesame Street or Daniel Tiger with your kids, then you know how important public broadcasting is for communities. But now the CPB is shutting down because Trump defunded public broadcasting. Republicans had a chance to stand up for the working families and rural and tribal communities who depend on it most, but they chose not to.”

 

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