Corporation for Public Broadcasting to close after US funding cut
The closure follows the Republican-controlled House's decision last month to eliminate $1.1bn in CPB funding over two years, part of a $9bn reduction to public media and foreign aid programs.
'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,' said Patricia Harrison, the corporation's president and chief executive.
The 57-year-old corporation distributed more than $500m annually to PBS, NPR and 1,500 local stations nationwide. Despite the federal support, stations mostly rely on viewer donations, corporate sponsorships and local government support for the remainder.
Rural communities face the biggest impact, as 245 of the 544 grantee organizations are considered rural and many may close without federal support which could impact educational programming, children's shows and local news coverage. These rural stations also employ nearly 6,000 people, according to the CPB.
Public broadcasting has historically served areas underserved by commercial media, providing emergency information during disasters and cultural programming not available elsewhere.
Rural communities are already hard hit by a lack of community journalism, as one in three US counties don't have a full-time local journalist, according to a July report from Muck Rack and Rebuild Local News.
Most CPB staff will be terminated by September's end, with a small transition team remaining through January 2026 to wind down operations.
Donald Trump and Republican allies have long argued that taxpayer funding for public media represents unnecessary government spending, while claiming that PBS and NPR programming exhibits anti-conservative bias.
The Trump administration has also filed a lawsuit against three CPB board members who refused to leave their positions despite the president's attempts to remove them.
The closure ends nearly six decades of federal commitment to public broadcasting. The corporation was established by Congress in 1967 to ensure educational and cultural programming remained accessible to all Americans.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Reuters
5 minutes ago
- Reuters
Oil rebounds on Trump threats on Russian crude buyers
SINGAPORE, Aug 6 (Reuters) - Oil prices climbed on Wednesday, rebounding from a five-week low in the previous day, on concerns of supply disruptions after U.S. President Donald Trump's threats of tariffs on India over its Russian crude purchases. Brent crude futures gained 43 cents, or 0.6%, to $68.07 a barrel by 0330 GMT, while U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude was up 40 cents, or 0.6%, at $65.56 a barrel. "There's still plenty of uncertainty over the U.S. imposing secondary tariffs on buyers of Russian oil ... market chatter is growing that China's purchases of Russian oil may come into focus next," ING commodity strategists said on Thursday. "If India were to stop buying Russian oil amid tariff threats, we believe the market would be able to cope with the loss of this supply," they said, adding that the bigger risk was if other buyers also started to shun Russian oil. Both oil contracts fell by more than $1 on Tuesday to settle at their lowest in five weeks, marking a fourth session of losses, on oversupply concerns from OPEC+'s planned September output hike. "Investors are assessing whether India will reduce its Russian crude purchases in response to Trump's threats, which could tighten supply, but it remains to be seen if that will actually happen," said Yuki Takashima, economist at Nomura Securities. "If India's imports remain steady, WTI is likely to stay within the $60-$70 range for the rest of the month," he said. The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and its allies, together known as OPEC+, agreed on Sunday to raise oil production by 547,000 barrels per day for September, a move that will end its most recent output cut earlier than planned. The OPEC+ pumps about half of the world's oil and had been curtailing production for several years to support the market, but the group introduced a series of accelerated output hikes this year to regain market share. At the same time, U.S. demands for India to stop buying Russian oil as Washington seeks ways to push Moscow for a peace deal with Ukraine could upset supply flows as Indian refiners seek alternatives and Russian crude is redirected to other buyers. Trump on Tuesday again threatened higher tariffs on Indian goods over the country's Russian oil purchases over the next 24 hours. Trump also said declining energy prices could pressure Russian President Vladimir Putin to halt the war in Ukraine. New Delhi called Trump's threat "unjustified" and vowed to protect its economic interests, deepening a trade rift between the two countries. Nomura's Takashima also pointed to industry data showing crude inventories in the U.S., the world's biggest oil consumer, as supportive for the oil market. U.S. crude inventories fell by 4.2 million barrels last week, sources citing American Petroleum Institute figures said on Tuesday. That compares with a Reuters poll estimate of a 600,000 barrels draw for the week to August 1. The U.S. Energy Information Administration is due to release its weekly inventory data on Wednesday.
Reuters
7 minutes ago
- Reuters
South Korea says timing of U.S. tariff cut on autos not decided
SEOUL, Aug 6 (Reuters) - South Korea's Industry Minister Kim Jung-kwan said on Wednesday that Seoul needs to hold further discussions with Washington on the timing of the promised tariff cuts on the country's car exports to the U.S. from the current level of 25%. President Donald Trump said last week the U.S. will charge a 15% tariff on imports from South Korea, including autos, as part of a deal that eases tensions with a top-10 trading partner and key Asian ally. The 15% U.S. tariffs on most items coming from South Korea are due to take effect starting from Thursday. South Korean auto makers such as Hyundai Motor ( opens new tab and Kia ( opens new tab want the tariff cut brought in swiftly to create a level playing field with Japanese and European rivals. Separately, Japan's top tariff negotiator Ryosei Akazawa said he would head to Washington this week to press Trump to sign an executive order to bring the cut to tariffs on Japanese auto imports into effect. In the technology sector, Kim said the countries had agreed to continue talks on online platform legislation to make sure U.S. tech companies were not unfairly treated compared with domestic firms. "Although the digital issue was not included in the latest agreement, there are major concerns about it among the U.S. government, parliament and businesses," he said at a parliamentary session. The minister reiterated that there had been no agreement on the opening of the agriculture market, including beef, rice, fruit and other farm goods as part of the deal. But he said the countries will increase cooperation in the quarantine process for fruit and vegetables, which has been cited by Washington as one of the non-tariff barriers that U.S. farmers face. South Korean Finance Minister Koo Yun-cheol said at a separate parliamentary session that the U.S. viewed the quarantine process for fruit and vegetables as too slow and asked Seoul to introduce a rational and scientific process.
Reuters
an hour ago
- Reuters
OpenAI eyes $500 billion valuation in potential employee share sale, source says
Aug 5 (Reuters) - ChatGPT maker OpenAI is in early talks for a potential secondary stock sale that would allow current and former employees to sell shares, valuing the company at around $500 billion, a source familiar with the matter told Reuters on Tuesday. Bloomberg was first to report the news. The Microsoft (MSFT.O), opens new tab-backed company aims to raise billions through the sale, with existing investors, including Thrive Capital, expressing interest in buying some of the employee shares, the source said. Thrive Capital declined to comment on a Reuters request. Separately, OpenAI is still in the process of raising $40 billion in a new funding round led by SoftBank Group (9984.T), opens new tab at a $300 billion valuation to advance AI research, expand computational infrastructure and enhance its tools.
