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Court reaffirms CPB's independence

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K.M. Richards

K.M. Richards

Program Director, The Eighties Channel™
K.M. Richards said:
Presented without comment as the article speaks for itself.
www.insideradio.com

Court Recognizes Independence Of CPB, Fired Board Members Reinstated.

While a U.S. District Court Judge has declined to block President Trump’s removal of three board members of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, the judge’s ruling does recognize the CPB’s
www.insideradio.com www.insideradio.com
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The article doesn't say it, but I bet that the current federal administration will try to appeal this decision, possibly directly to the U.S. Supreme Court. The only thing that may slow this administration down is some of its actions in non-related areas.
 
ted chittenden said:
The article doesn't say it, but I bet that the current federal administration will try to appeal this decision, possibly directly to the U.S. Supreme Court. The only thing that may slow this administration down is some of its actions in non-related areas.
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Once again, the ruling was for the government. They can't appeal if they won.

A federal judge on Sunday declined to block President Trump’s removal of three board members of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB), ruling the plaintiffs failed to demonstrate a strong likelihood the firings were unlawful or that they would suffer irreparable harm.
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This thread isn't about the ruling. It's about CPB spin. You can't appeal spin.
 
Y2kTheNewOldies said:
current.org

Members of Congress push back on proposed CPB rescission

“It is our responsibility to protect the lifeline public media plays in the day-to-day lives of our constituents,” wrote co-chairs of the bipartisan Public Broadcasting Caucus.
current.org current.org

Here are certain members of congress coming forward against the proposed revision directed at CPB.
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I can tell you now that the White House isn't going to reconsider this recision. For this to work, Congressman Nevada has to find at least four additional moderate Republicans who are willing to buck the wishes of Mr. Trump on this matter. Also, I'm concerned that we haven't heard any Senate Republicans willing to oppose this recision, including the two from Alaska which, above all other states, has the most to lose if this recision goes forward.
 
The House, by a narrow margin, voted to pass the rescission package that will cut funding for CPB. Here is a quote from NBC News

Four House Republicans — Reps. Mark Amodei of Nevada, Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania, Nicole Malliotakis of New York and Mike Turner of Ohio — voted with 208 Democrats to reject the measure. Some GOP members flipped their votes from “no” to “yes” toward the end after realizing it wouldn’t pass otherwise.
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The bill now moves to the senate. The fact of the matter is that the CPB money isn't under the executive branch. So the president has no jurisdiction over the money, and can't request that it be rescinded. That will likely come out when a state sues over the matter.

The measure makes the false statement that the money "funds NPR and PBS." The money actually funds local stations, and they decide how its spent.
 
Here is an update on the clawback affecting CPB and local affiliates of NPR and PBS.

www.wgbh.org

House votes to claw back $1.1 billion from public media

The U.S. House voted Thursday on a rescission bill to claw back money for foreign aid programs, along with two years of funding for the public media system. The measure now goes to the Senate.
www.wgbh.org www.wgbh.org

The legislation is the first request by the Trump administration for Congress to rescind money for programs that were already approved in annual spending bills. The bill, which reflects a list of cuts requested by the Office of Management and Budget, includes a total of $9.4 billion in cuts. The bulk of the cuts — $8.3 billion — are to foreign aid programs, most specifically overseen by the US Agency for International Development (USAID) addressing global public health, international disaster assistance and hunger relief.

The remainder would slash $1.1 billion for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting for the next two fiscal years. By law, money is supposed to be approved in advance as part of an effort to insulate public broadcasting from political influence over fleeting issues.House Majority Leader Steve Scalise formally introduced the legislation last week. He said it “codifies President Trump’s cuts to wasteful foreign aid initiatives within the State Department and USAID, as well as woke public broadcasting, including NPR and PBS, at the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which is a business the federal government shouldn’t even be in.”
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starting to look more and more likely the future of PBS/NPR will be one where commercials will be how they are funded as in they may end up having no choice but to go to a ad supported model where they take big money deals from companies to advertise their products on PBS/NRP to replace the money they will lose from the Government defunding them.
 
TheBigA said:
Can't happen. They're all non-profits, and they're operating in the NCE area of the FM band.
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Correct. What is more likely to happen are the following:

1) more sponsorships for NPR stations and programs;
2) more mini-networks of NPR affiliates being formed (think of the network stations sponsored by individual states but sponsored by big city NPR outlets instead);
3) the sale or donation of some NPR satellite stations that cannot carry their own funding weight (I know this is in conflict with 2) but I think both will happen.)
4) In tandem with 3), the complete silencing of some NPR outlets in remote areas of Alaska; and
5) the growth of religious broadcasters, particularly white fundamentalist religious broadcasters, in the non-commercial sector of the FM band.

My guess is that this is going to be a very close vote in the Senate.
 
CPB responds to the House vote that removes all CPB funding:

cpb.org

CPB Statement on House Approval of Rescissions Package

WASHINGTON, D.C. (June 12, 2025) -- Patricia Harrison, President and CEO of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB), issued the following statement today on the U.S. House of Representatives’ approval of the rescissions package to claw back $1.1 billion of already appropriated funding for...
cpb.org cpb.org

The bill now goes to the senate. If they don't act on the bill by July 18, the bill will die.
 

Local Public Television Stations at Risk of Closing After U.S. House of Representatives Votes to Rescind Essential Funding | APTS

apts.org apts.org

Here is a statement from American Public Television Stations the representative for the local PBS affiliates. Yes we have to wait and see how the PBS and NPR Lawsuits is going to play out and now this one heading to the Senate.

America’s Public Television Stations are deeply disappointed that the House voted to completely defund the local public television stations throughout this country that provide exceptional lifesaving public safety services, proven educational services and community connections to their communities every day for free. The vast majority of these devastating cuts will be borne by local public media stations and the communities that rely on them -- many of which have no other access to locally controlled media.

“Federal funding is essential to ensuring that all Americans have universal access to the exceptional public services that local stations provide regardless of zip code or income level. This includes the over 160 locally operated and controlled public television stations that serve communities small and large throughout this country. All of this will be in jeopardy if the rescissions package passes the Senate.

“This destructive rescission of Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) funding – the substantial majority of which goes to local stations – will result in immediate and serious cuts of stations’ local services and in some cases the total closure of stations, particularly in rural communities. Public broadcasting is a lifeline in hundreds of communities where there is no other source of local media.
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ted chittenden said:
Correct. What is more likely to happen are the following:

1) more sponsorships for NPR stations and programs;
2) more mini-networks of NPR affiliates being formed (think of the network stations sponsored by individual states but sponsored by big city NPR outlets instead);
3) the sale or donation of some NPR satellite stations that cannot carry their own funding weight (I know this is in conflict with 2) but I think both will happen.)
4) In tandem with 3), the complete silencing of some NPR outlets in remote areas of Alaska; and
5) the growth of religious broadcasters, particularly white fundamentalist religious broadcasters, in the non-commercial sector of the FM band.

My guess is that this is going to be a very close vote in the Senate.
Click to expand...
'White Fundamentalist Religious Broadcasters'? A lot of stations being bought these days are Catholic operations, and a lot of those Catholic operations have a lot of Latinos, both on air and otherwise. There's nothing keeping them from buying failed public stations.

If CPB funding is cut, NPR and other public stations will have to depend more on state and maybe local government funding, and donations from listeners. NPR stations will probably be fine. It's the smaller public stations that will be more in trouble.
 
boombox4 said:
'White Fundamentalist Religious Broadcasters'? A lot of stations being bought these days are Catholic operations, and a lot of those Catholic operations have a lot of Latinos, both on air and otherwise. There's nothing keeping them from buying failed public stations.

If CPB funding is cut, NPR and other public stations will have to depend more on state and maybe local government funding, and donations from listeners. NPR stations will probably be fine. It's the smaller public stations that will be more in trouble.
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Correction. Many of the Spanish Christian stations now on the air and coming on the air are non-Catholic Protestant fundamentalist Christian outfits. As to the growth of white fundamentalist Christian radio stations, I can tell you that groups such as the Bott Radio Network, the Calvary Satellite Network (CSN), the Educational Media Foundation, and the American Family Association (AFA) are chomping at the bit to take over frequencies formerly held by NPR outlets.
 
CPB funding to stations is about what sales tax is as a percentage of the budget. Would stations go under losing 6-7% of their revenue? Nobody is going under unless you are a station in Alaska serving so few people they could never be self-funding. And I suspect the State of Alaska might chip in that money lost if (and a big if) the funding is stopped.

Actual: Minnesota Public Radio/American Public Media
Total Income: $117,826,000 $7,288,000 of that amount comes from CPB
You think they'll go under if revenue drops to $110,000,000?
 
b-turner said:
I suspect the State of Alaska might chip in that money lost if (and a big if) the funding is stopped.
Click to expand...

I'm not so sure. The states are going to be stuck making up for a lot of federal aide that's being cut.

When you say "a big if," I agree. There are a lot of steps to go through before the money actually gets cut.
 
b-turner said:
CPB funding to stations is about what sales tax is as a percentage of the budget. Would stations go under losing 6-7% of their revenue? Nobody is going under unless you are a station in Alaska serving so few people they could never be self-funding. And I suspect the State of Alaska might chip in that money lost if (and a big if) the funding is stopped.

Actual: Minnesota Public Radio/American Public Media
Total Income: $117,826,000 $7,288,000 of that amount comes from CPB
You think they'll go under if revenue drops to $110,000,000?
Click to expand...

Actually, Alaska is one of two states that completely stopped state funding of its public radio and TV system within the last ten years. The other is New Jersey.

Let's take the case of New Jersey first. The state had a statewide public radio network in 2012. When state funding for the network was abandoned, WNYC-FM took over the running of the public radio stations in northern New Jersey with Philadelphia's WHYY-FM taking over the stations in the southern part of the state. WHYY-FM recently sold two of its southern New Jersey affiliates to religious outfits (one was in Bridgeton, and I do not now recall where the other one was.) While the stations in the north have continued with some separate programming from that of WNYC-FM, the latter has dropped webcasting of that northern New Jersey programming. There was a third station that got New Jersey state funding in the Asbury Park area that was not part of the state's public radio network. When the state funding was halted, that station dropped all NPR network programming and is today a 24-hour aday adult album alternative station.

Alaska, unlike New Jersey, never had a statewide public radio network. Someradioguy will probably correct me here, but I believe the only program that was being carried statewide by all Alaska public radio affiliates produced insite the state was "Alaska News Nightly,", a news program dedicated to the state of Alaska. As of this riting, that program is still being aired. What the three biggest Alaska radio stations (in Anchorage, Fairbanks, and Juneau respectively) have dropped because of state funds no longer being available are their HD channels.

IF CPB funding is fully cut, I do not expect the state of Alaska to pick up the slack. The state's reasoning for getting out of supporting public radio outlets is the same as the reason at the national level.

New Jersey may or may not prove to be a different story. The state is currently being governed by the minority party in Washington, D.C. and may, if budgets allow, provide some support to its remaining public radio outlets, but it probably will not be enough to offset what those stations will lose in CPB funding. Put another way, if the CPB funding is cut, both WHYY and WNYC-FM will be selling more of the stations in their respective networks.
 
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