By Michael Schneider, Variety | Less than a year after the Trump administration and Congress voted to defund the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, the entity – which helped fund the operations of local public TV and radio stations – has voted to shut down. The CPB announced Monday that its board of directors voted to close the organization after 58 years, rather than continue to exist and potentially be “vulnerable to future political manipulation or misuse.”
The CPB was created by Congress by the Public Broadcasting Act of 1967 to support the federal government’s investment in public broadcasting. The org noted that the rescission of all of CPB’s federal funding came after years of political attacks.
“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,” said CPB president/CEO Patricia Harrison. “When the Administration and Congress rescinded federal funding, our Board faced a profound responsibility: CPB’s final act would be to protect the integrity of the public media system and the democratic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.
CPB Board of Directors chair Ruby Calvert called the move – and what has happened to public media – “devastating.”
“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,” Calvert said. “Yet, even in this moment, I am convinced that public media will survive, and that a new Congress will address public media’s role in our country because it is critical to our children’s education, our history, culture and democracy to do so.”
The news doesn’t come as a surprise after the Republican Congress in July approved Trump’s rescission package, eliminating $1.1 billion in crucial funding for public broadcasting that had been approved for the next two years. Without that money, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting was set to shut down. And the fate of hundreds of TV and radio stations remains up in the air.
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Go here to read the full story:
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/corporation-for-public-broadcasting-to-shut-down-after-58-years-due-to-trump-eliminating-funding/
KSUT – Durango – Also Faces a Shutdown
NPR & KSUT vs. Trump – KSUT Executive Director Tami Graham was in Washington DC earlier this month (December) to attend a hearing on the lawsuit against the Trump Administration. KSUT’s Adam Burke reports. Click here to listen:
https://soundcloud.com/jonathan-hunt-121906934/npr-ksut-v-trump-29min-segment?si=9edd4616363445d2ba14095ba02e09af&utm_source=clipboard&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=social_sharing