The current Whit House administration has been slashing funding all through the budget, no matter whether it has already been appropriated or not. One of the organizations that has seen their funding slashed is the Corporation for Public Broadcasting which provides the funding for NPR – National Public Radio – and PBS – the Public Broadcasting Service.
With the loss of $1.1 billion in funding over the next two years, CPB has announced that it will begin the process of shutting down.
The Corporation for Public Broadcasting has been a part of American culture since it was created by President Lyndon B. Johnson in 1968. CPB provided the funding for PBS and NPR programming; offering commercial free cultural and educational programming for millions of American homes that otherwise would not have access to television or radio.
CPB routinely provided a portion of the funding used for the operation of over 1,500 local public television and radio stations in the U.S.
Some of the programs that benefited from CPB funding included NPR’s “All Things Considered”, the children’s series “Sesame Street” and “Mister Rogers”, “Great Performances”, live concerts, and documentaries by Ken Burns.
Award winning entertainer Carol Burnett appeared on the first “Sesame Street” episode in 1969 and spoke on the program saying, “I would have done anything they wanted me to do. I loved being exposed to all that goodness and humor.”
CPB president and CEO Patricia Harrison spoke on the impending shutdown saying, “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.”
It is anticipated that rural areas will be the hardest hit by the shuttering of CPB with dozens of local radio stations expected to go off the air.
The Mississippi Public Broadcasting has already decided to eliminate a streaming channel that provides children’s programming. In Maine, many rural residents depend on NPR for weather alerts and natural disaster updates. Mosty rural Alaska also depends on local NPR stations for various disaster and weather alerts.
Most of the employees have been notified that their jobs would end on September 30 – the end of the federal budget year – with a small transition team staying on to finish any remaining work including, “ensuring continuity for music rights and royalties that remain essential to the public media system.”
Patricia Harrison added, “public media has been one of the most trusted institutions in American life, providing educational opportunity, emergency alerts, civil discourse, and cultural connection to every corner of the country. We are deeply grateful to our partners across the system for their resilience, leadership, and unwavering dedication to serving the American people.”
Part of the White House’s reasoning behind eliminating CPB funding had to do with point of view and perceived political coercion; however, a perceived programming slant is far from all that PBS and NPR had to offer.
NPR spends millions of dollars each year in music licensing fees; ensuring musicians and composers are paid. NPR President and CEO Katherine Maher has estimated that 96% of all Classical music broadcasting in the United States was provided by NPR.
The Corporation for Public Broadcasting is not the only media outlet that has been a target of the White House; funding for the Voice of America radio network, CBS, and the Associated Press have also felt the wrath of the current administration.
feature photo courtesy of the Associated Press.