Jessica Mathews / news@whmi.com


Following news this week that the Corporation for Public Broadcasting would be dissolving due to Congressional defunding, PBS and NPR stations are not expected to be shutting down.

CPB - the private, non-profit corporation created by Congress to steward the federal government’s investment in public broadcasting - announced this week that its Board of Directors voted to dissolve the organization after 58 years of service to the American public.

The agency has steered federal funding to PBS, NPR and hundreds of public television and radio stations in Michigan and across the country. It’s expected that public television programming and operations will continue for the time being but lost funding will need to be made up – and some local stations could be forced to close depending on the impact.

CPB said its decision follows Congress’s rescission of all of its federal funding and comes after sustained political attacks that made it impossible for CPB to continue operating as the Public Broadcasting Act intended.

CPB had been winding down since Congress acted last summer to defund its operations at the encouragement of President Donald Trump. Its board of directors chose Monday to shutter CPB completely instead of keeping it in existence as a shell.

Many Republicans have long accused public broadcasting, particularly its news programming, of being biased toward liberals but it wasn’t until the second Trump administration —- with full GOP control of Congress — that those criticisms were turned into action.

CPB President/CEO Patricia Harrison said “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. When the Administration and Congress rescinded federal funding, our Board faced a profound responsibility: CPB’s final act would be to protect the integrity of the public media system and the democratic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’s Board of Directors Chair Ruby Calvert commented “What has happened to public media is 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. 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.”

First authorized by Congress under the Public Broadcasting Act of 1967, CPB helped build and sustain a nationwide public media system of more than 1,500 locally owned and operated public radio and television stations.

Through CPB’s stewardship, public media became a trusted civic resource—delivering educational programming like Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood and Sesame Street that helped generations of children learn and grow, providing lifesaving emergency alerts during natural disasters and crises, and supporting rigorous, fact-based journalism that uncovers issues impacting people’s daily lives, connects neighbors to one another, and strengthens civic participation.

CPB’s Board determined that without the resources to fulfill its congressionally mandated responsibilities, maintaining the corporation as a nonfunctional entity would not serve the public interest or advance the goals of public media. A dormant and defunded CPB could have become vulnerable to future political manipulation or misuse, threatening the independence of public media and the trust audiences place in it, and potentially subjecting staff and board members to legal exposure from bad-faith actors.

The Detroit Free Press reported “In Michigan, the cuts represent $24 million in public media funding ‘that will not be put into our economy’ over the next two years, says Molly Motherwell, president of the Michigan Association of Public Broadcasters. Motherwell notes that Michigan has rural areas that are not reached by broadband or digital and satellite services. In those cases, NPR stations can be the ‘only source for not only news and information, but emergency alerts”.

While CPB’s chapter is ending, it says the mission of public media endures. “Local stations, producers, journalists, and educators across the country will continue serving their communities, informing the public, and elevating local voices”.


About CPB: The Corporation for Public Broadcasting is a private, non-profit corporation created by Congress in 1967. It has helped support the operations of more than 1,500 locally managed and operated public television and radio stations nationwide. CPB is the largest single source of funding for public radio, television, and related online and mobile services. With the rescission of federal funds for FY 2026 and FY 2027, CPB is in the process of winding down operations. For more information, visit www.cpb.org.

Photos: PBS