The Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB), a nonprofit company, has decided to shut down. Reporting on itself, from PBS,
CPB says it is shutting down after being defunded by Congress, targeted by Trump.
The recission of its current appropriation by an act of Congress was the death blow. The refusal of the Senate to provide new funding was the final insult. From The Hill newspaper,
Senators forgo Corporation for Public Broadcasting funds in spending bill.
As a result, PBS reports,
CPB said it informed employees Friday that most staff positions will end with the fiscal year on Sept. 30. It said a small transition team will stay in place until January to finish any remaining work.
NPR and PBS will soldier on as independent entities.
Growing up in semi-rural Virginia, we were fortunate enough to receive all three of the then-existing commercial networks, plus the local public-TV outlet (Blue Ridge PBS). We had an antenna on the roof of our house.
A half-century later, there is effectively infinite amounts of programming available via the internet, which is available, effectively, on every square inch of the planet.
With the national debt now over $37 trillion, public broadcasting can sink or swim on its own.
