Public broadcasting board votes to shut itself down after 59 years

The Corporation for Public Broadcasting voted on January 5 to dissolve itself, ending a federally backed media institution created in 1967. The private nonprofit has long distributed federal funding to PBS, NPR, and hundreds of local radio and television stations across the United States. The decision followed a move by Congress last summer to eliminate CPB funding, urged by President Donald Trump, who has accused public media of liberal bias. Rather than remain as an unfunded shell, the board voted to shut down completely. President and CEO Patricia Harrison said dissolving would protect public media from further political attacks. “CPB's final act would be to protect the integrity of the public media system and the democratic values by dissolving,” Harrison said in a statement. Board chair Ruby Calvert called the funding loss devastating but said public media would survive, adding that children, culture, and democracy still depend on it.