A press release from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting said it is beginning an “orderly wind-down of its operations” and informed its employees most jobs will end when the current fiscal year ends September 30. A "transition team" will remain through the end of the year.
The announcement cites passage of a congressional rescissions package, which are bills that take back appropriated funds. CPB also blames its demise on a Senate Appropriations Committee bill that excludes funding for the CPB in the new fiscal year.
Fox News was among the first news outlets to report the CPB announcement.
CPB traces its beginnings to 1967 and the Public Broadcasting Act. Congress at the time wanted to promote educational and cultural programming that was not being done by the three broadcast networks.
Americans are unlikely to see a dramatic change in the number of public radio and television stations. They'll hardly notice a difference, says Tim Graham of Media Research Center.
"The CPB is the money that goes from the federal government to PBS and NPR. The stations are fine, they just have less money. I think most PBS and NPR stations are going to be fine. I think that there's going to be a slight reduction in their budget. That's not fun for any TV station or radio station, but this is actually subjecting these stations to the same things that private radio stations have to face," he said.
With a current half-billion dollar annual budget, CPB is now most known for overseeing liberal news outlet NPR and liberal network PBS. Their blatant bias has made them a target of conservatives and Republican lawmakers for decades but, like abortion giant Planned Parenthood, they remained untouched in Washington until this year.
An early attack happened in March when Republican lawmakers held a congressional hearing called "Anti-American Airwaves."
During that hearing, NPR CEO Katherine Maher was cross-examined about her radical left-wing views.
“Do you believe America believes in black plunder and white democracy?” Rep. Brandon Gill (R-TX), asked the PBS boss during his time.
“I…don’t…believe that…sir,” Maher, shaking her head but looking guilty, answered.
“You tweeted that in reference to a book you were reading at the time called The Case for Reparations,” Gill, holding a copy of Maher’s tweet, reminded her.
“I don’t think I’ve ever read that book, sir,” Maher, her eyes now closed, said.
“You tweeted about it,” Gill, holding the copy higher for Maher, and for everyone else, to see.
Like a closing argument in front of a jury, Heritage Foundation senior fellow Michael Gonzalez urged Congress to end the flow of taxpayers' money to public broadcasting. A nation that is $36 trillion in debt, he testified, should not be paying for news coverage that tells half the country to "get lost" because of its political beliefs.
"With their egregious bias, NPR and PBS have violated the public trust," he said. "Public media needs to be defunded and the CPB needs to be dissolved."
In related AFN op-ed about that bias, columnist Robert Knight quoted Thomas Jefferson in his Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom: "To compel a man to furnish contributions of money for the propagation of opinions which he disbelieves and abhors, is sinful and tyrannical."
Back in May, President Trump signed an executive order to stop that flow of federal funds. Republican-hating NPR sued to challenge that order and told the court any decision to cut off funding must come from Congress.
With that challenge in the courts, the White House sent a rescissions package to Congress in late May. The GOP-led House passed the measure 214-212. In the U.S. Senate, Vice President J.D. Vance cast a tie vote for passage.
