Trump Pulls the Plug: PBS, NPR Face Collapse as CPB Shuts Down
The Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB), the main source of federal funding for PBS and NPR, has announced it will shut down operations. This decision follows a sweeping move by Congress to eliminate nearly $1.1 billion in federal support, a decision pushed by President Donald Trump and backed by Republican lawmakers. After nearly 60 years, the organization that helped create and sustain a national public media network will begin winding down, leaving PBS and NPR in financial limbo and potentially ending local broadcasting in parts of the country.
Trump Delivers on Longstanding GOP Promise
President Trump has long called for cutting federal funding for PBS and NPR, accusing both of political bias and failing to serve the interests of conservative Americans. “PBS, NPR—they stuck their foot in their mouth, but now they’re gone,” said Senator Tommy Tuberville. Trump made clear that pulling the plug on CPB was about accountability and fairness. According to supporters of the move, public broadcasters have routinely promoted far-left ideologies and ignored conservative voices, all while receiving taxpayer money.
Congress passed a $9 billion rescissions package in July that included the rollback of promised funds for CPB through fiscal year 2027. The vote, which mostly followed party lines, marked a major victory for the Trump administration. In the past, similar attempts to defund CPB had failed. This time, the effort succeeded, driven by what conservatives see as years of biased reporting and culture programming from public media outlets.
CPB Announces Shutdown and Staff Layoffs
On August 1, CPB President and CEO Patricia Harrison announced that the organization would begin an “orderly wind-down of its operations” and cease activity entirely by early 2026. “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,” she said.
Most CPB staff positions will be eliminated by September 30, 2025, the end of the current fiscal year. A smaller group of employees will remain through January to complete final tasks, such as making the last financial distributions and resolving long-term obligations related to music rights and royalties.
“For nearly 60 years, CPB has carried out its Congressional mission to build and sustain a trusted public media system that informs, educates, and serves communities across the country,” Harrison said. She called public media “one of the most trusted institutions in American life” and thanked station partners for their “resilience, leadership, and unwavering dedication to serving the American people.”
(Editor’s comment: Trusted by whom?)
Fallout for PBS and NPR
PBS and NPR both responded to the news with concern but pledged to continue their services. PBS said in a statement, “As this remarkable institution winds down, PBS is committed to building on CPB’s legacy and maintaining our service to the American people for years to come.” NPR CEO Katherine Maher called the shutdown “a loss of a major institution and decades of knowledge and expertise.”
Maher also noted the serious financial ripple effects. “We will continue to respond to this crisis by stepping up to support locally owned, nonprofit public radio stations and local journalism across the country,” she said. NPR has pledged $8 million from its own budget to assist local stations that may lose vital funding.
While national NPR and PBS operations receive only a portion of their budgets from CPB, many local stations—especially in rural and underserved areas—depend heavily on federal support. In some cases, stations receive more than 90 percent of their funding from CPB grants. WQED in Pittsburgh recently announced plans to lay off 35 percent of its staff. Other outlets, such as Radio Catskill in upstate New York, are already bracing for the worst.
Public Reaction and Divided Opinions
Polls show that many Americans still support public broadcasting. A recent Harris Poll found that 66 percent of respondents support federal funding for public radio, including 58 percent of Republicans and 77 percent of Democrats. Yet support in polling did not translate into votes in Congress.
Critics of PBS and NPR argue that public media has lost its way. Trump allies accuse them of pushing liberal talking points and excluding conservative perspectives. The controversy reached a peak earlier this year when NPR CEO Katherine Maher and PBS CEO Paula Kerger testified before Congress. They defended their organizations against accusations of bias, but faced aggressive questioning from Republicans who said the networks had “failed to represent the full spectrum of American political views.”
Trump himself has clashed with public broadcasters for years. His administration was sued by CPB for attempting to fire board members. The organization also fought back against Trump’s executive orders to defund PBS and NPR, arguing that CPB is not an executive agency and should not be under White House control. In the end, however, it was Congress—not the courts—that ended CPB’s funding for good.
The End of an Era
The CPB was created by the Public Broadcasting Act of 1967, part of President Lyndon Johnson’s “Great Society” agenda. At the time, Johnson called it a way to ensure that television would not become a “vast wasteland.” Over the years, CPB helped launch iconic programs such as “Sesame Street,” “Frontline,” and “All Things Considered.”
Today, many of those shows are independently produced and may survive. But without CPB funding, some programs may see reduced availability, especially in parts of the country without broadband access or where PBS and NPR are the only source of news and educational content.
Public media advocates are now turning to philanthropists and local donors. Some local stations have reported a surge in community donations. Still, experts say private support will not be enough to make up for the loss of CPB.
As it shuts down, CPB leaves behind a mixed legacy. Supporters see it as a guardian of education, civil discourse, and emergency broadcasting. Critics see it as a taxpayer-funded arm of the political left. For President Trump and his supporters, the closure of CPB is not a tragedy—it is a long-overdue correction.
Trump has made it clear that he sees no reason to use public money to fund media that opposes his policies and ridicules his supporters. With CPB gone and federal funding for public broadcasting wiped out, he has delivered on that belief—and ended a major chapter in American media history.
NP Editor: PBS and NPR may both be able to survive on donations, albeit at a much lower level of survival. If they can’t, then they probably shouldn’t.
We predict that someone (maybe Soros, maybe Waner Brothers…), will swoop in to pick up the pieces. Given the nature of news and entertainment and the reach of PBS, a billion per year investment might not be out of line.
” PBS, NPR Face Collapse as CPB Shuts Down” is the author’s lie, and she knows it, she says it’s not true in the story
The truth is, from the NYT: “PBS, NPR and some of the most popular programs associated with public broadcasting, such as “Sesame Street” and “All Things Considered,” will survive without the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. NPR and PBS get a relatively small portion of their annual budget from the corporation, and children’s TV programs like “Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood” are produced independently of those organizations.”
IOW —- you might lose some smaller, rural, stations, but PBS, NPR, and their shows survive. It’s just than blue urban and suburban areas will remain the same, but a number of red areas will go dark. Sad. Sigh. Be careful what you ask for.
Maybe some of the shows will survive, someone may even buy them and turn them into a real network, but their value as a propaganda machine will be at an end, at least in current form.
Why? PBS and NPR will be just fine. The only people being left out be you people in rural America, MAGA land. I stand confused as to what you mean and how you mean it. Who loses and what do they lose?
Funny how you want to give America less art, less humanities, less entertainment by standing firmly against a big yellow bird. Oh the horror of it all.
Propaganda ended: you got that perfect for ROW when you murdered in March, through executive order, dismantling the US Agency for Global Media (USAGM), that funds Radio Free Asia, Radio Free Europe, and Radio Liberty. We don’t need no stinkin free, we don’t need no stinking liberty.
Radio Free Asia lost 90% of it’s staff. RFE/RL also furloughed staff, cut programming and is neutered from sending out America is First type information. I agree with you: “their value as a propaganda machine will be at an end, at least in current form.”
Good job. Next, let’s kill all environmental controls under the fake guidance of reducing regulations. Breathe deep, drink it all down, it’s safe to pollute water and air again. MAGA — make Amerika grimy again.
Frank… No one ever said it’s safe to pollute water and air again. Just like all lefties, you don’t deal with reality when the landscape of your left view world changes as it must. You react with silly, outlandish claims for fear that your world is crumbling. Get a grip, man!
As stated in the article, “CEO Harrison called public media “one of the most trusted institutions in American life” and thanked station partners for their “resilience, leadership, and unwavering dedication to serving the American people… I’d add, as long as their views are left wing.”
Enjoy your chicken soup as the chickens have finally come home to roost. You can make MAGA slurs and spell everything with a “K” for all it helps. You and Hillary specialize in those kind of lefty, dirty tricks.
Jerome, are you football or basketball hero? Cool. First, I would be glad to talk with you, if you talk to me. But when you talk AT me, I will try not to lower myself in such fashion with the personal attacks of weakness. Lefty, dirty tricks —- pretty sure that was upfront and, in your face, and based on your reaction: mission accomplished. Then again, in your view, I am silly, outlandish, devoid of reality, making outlandish claims in fear of a world crumbling. Whatever Skippy, let’s get on point.
Actually, we have taken steps to reduce global warming since 1965 and LBJ. It’s global warming, our response was national, and now Trump is returning this authority to the States, an act that does not even make common sense, much less national policy sense. Trump’s Zeldin, EPA administrator, proposed to repeal the landmark scientific finding that enables the federal government to regulate the greenhouse gases that are warming the planet. This is a truth established in 2009 and never questioned until Zeldin said it’s a lie. In effect, the E.P.A. will eliminate its own authority to combat climate change as Zeldin is murdering his own authority, as granted, by law, since the 2009 finding. Without the 2009 endangerment finding, the E.P.A. has zero authority under the Clean Air Act to regulate greenhouse gas emissions from the burning of fossil fuels. Do you think the effect of this is cleaner air and water?
Mr. Zeldin pounds his chest in triumph stating he’s killed more regulation that anyone.
In associated news, Mr. Zeldin declared God is dead because there is no physical evidence that he is alive. He also erased all crime laws instantly lowering the US crime rate to zero by having removed all laws defining criminality. Next, he plans to improve the nation’s health by erasing all diagnostic tests meaning no one can ever prove they are sick again. It’s a MAGA miracle.
Sound far fetched and impossible: just breathe in the truth. No proof of endangerment from bad air means there is no bad air and no way to stop pollution via the law. It’s the 1960’s all over again!
NPR and PBS lean left of center, they are not “left wing” as you indict them. I use Media Bias and Fact Check where PBS rates “slightly left of center,” and NPR rates slight to moderate left bias. Get a grip man, your world was not crumbling, your claims are unproven, silly and outlandish.
Three points I was trying to make:
1. PBS and NPR basically untouched by the Trump moves. Mostly will close some rural stations, probably mostly in red areas. I think it’s a loss, but a lose that will never affect me and mine.
2. You guys are killing our good propaganda by killing the Voice of America in many places. I think that’s a loss and for what, a few bucks?
3. You guys are killing our protections for clean air and water because we have too many regulations? That does not even make common sense. And so, our air and water will kill us again as your murderous policies bear results.
Last time I checked, removing information means less information. PBS and NPR were never propaganda. We did have US propaganda delivered in our enemy’s regions, but you killed that over a few pennies. And now you are killing our clean air and water protections which, ultimately will kill us as pollution becomes legal again. You can’t remove laws protecting us from physical endangerment and expect less danger. And I am frank about that danger.
Hope that clarifies and please don’t lower yourself again with the personal attacks.
Dunger you should write fiction stories Global Warming is normal.
Too much silliness from a silly man to bother reading.
That’s our Frank Dunger.
“Global Warming is normal.” Uh……even if it’s “natural,” it’s sure as fucking not normal. How many 100-, 200-year events have we had. THIS YEAR. Normal?
Asswipes think they can pollute with no downside. Idiots.
HINT: what is better, polluting more or polluting less? I mean that’s pretty tough to answer for folks who take shits in the Capitol, but give it a shot. You people literally shit where you eat, shit where you live.
I love my carbon footprint. May it grow.