CPB to cease operations

[TheBigA]

Direct government funding was provided because public broadcasting is still the most cost-effective way to provide service to underserved areas that have been abandoned by commercial broadcasters due to low population density, and have no cellphone coverage for the same reason.

You're exactly right. Every year CPB produces a report listing hundreds of specific examples of what you're talking about. The members of congress get this report. It is used to justify the federal appropriation. They all know what they did was wrong. They all know what they did will hurt their home states and their constituents. They voted for it anyway. They will face the voters next year about that.

The fact of the matter is that the situation that led to the public broadcasting act of 1967 still exists. It exists in broadcasting. It exists in cable. It exists in digital media. Having lots of other media doesn't mean that any of it will benefit the people when they need help.

 

[The New Chico]

I don't think anyone cares what NPR reports.

I suspect you may be just slightly mistaken on that one. Just slightly.

 

[SomeRadioGuy]

I don't think anyone cares what NPR reports.

Not even close to true. Its just that the right is way louder than the left and the right is in charge now.

 

[TheBigA]

The fact is that if people didn't care, the federal appropriation would still be intact.

One person in particular DID care, and he's the reason why the funding was cut. He said so.

 

[umfan]

The fact is that if people didn't care, the federal appropriation would still be intact.

One person in particular DID care, and he's the reason why the funding was cut. He said so.

They cared only because the appropriation was intact and were against that. Now that the goal has been achieved, it's no longer an issue worth attention.

 

[umfan]

Not even close to true. Its just that the right is way louder than the left and the right is in charge now.

I didn't mean that as if those that consume the programming don't value it, rather that even those who disagree with, or don't like the programming are now indifferent because any federal funding NPR was getting is now gone.

 

[kevtronics]

I didn't mean that as if those that consume the programming don't value it, rather that even those who disagree with, or don't like the programming are now indifferent because any federal funding NPR was getting is now gone.

They only "disagree with" and "don't like" NPR because they've been told to do so, not because they actually tried listening to it.

Just like all the right-wing politicians who complain about NPR never having any conservative voices in their programming... while they turn down repeated requests from NPR to provide their commentary and have their own voices in the network's programming.

 

[TheBigA]

They cared only because the appropriation was intact and were against that. Now that the goal has been achieved, it's no longer an issue worth attention.

The rescission only covers two years. The next congress can come in and appropriate funds for 2027.

I didn't mean that as if those that consume the programming don't value it, rather that even those who disagree with, or don't like the programming are now indifferent because any federal funding NPR was getting is now gone.

The funding never went to news programming so it never was an issue in the first place. It was a made-up issue. Instead the congress took money away from the states, and stations in those states are all cutting local staff. It will hurt local news coverage, not NPR.

 

[vchimpanzee]

The rescission only covers two years. The next congress can come in and appropriate funds for 2027.



The funding never went to news programming so it never was an issue in the first place. It was a made-up issue. Instead the congress took money away from the states, and stations in those states are all cutting local staff. It will hurt local news coverage, not NPR.

WFAE was having a fund raiser and reminded people they needed to make up for the lost federal funding.

 

[b-turner]

kevronics, talk about speaking truth, you are very much correct that many people don't like NPR because they have been told not to. The same goes with any talk programming that gets the political label that is either real or imagined. They don't listen and even worse are comfortable letting someone else do their thinking for them.

Public Radio is very rural areas will be severely affected but elsewhere, radio seems to be losing about what sales tax would be. That is a substantial hit but not the doom and gloom, our world has ended garbage that has spewed about the lack of funding. Educational TV is severely hurting because they need funding to keep going. I just wish both sides would give an honest appraisal, not a cherry picking a fact or two and warp into a story that serves their end goal. When your headline is XXXX to cut 35 jobs and the article starts with Classical Music fans will have to make up for lost funding from the Corporation of Public Broadcasting. The true facts: 35 were cut from XXXX that is actually a TV station and an FM. 34 jobs were TV jobs. 1 was from the FM. The article implies by omission all 35 jobs lost were from a classical FM station.

 

[umfan]

The next congress can come in and appropriate funds for 2027.

If they do, then that would be grounds to care again. Until then, it's not worthy of attention from those that feel the defunding was the correct move. This won't even be a Top 20 issue in the 2026 Congressional elections.

Now that any federal funding stream to NPR is now excised, no matter how indirect, they, too, are off the radar of those that prevailed in excising CPB funding.

 

[TheBigA]

Now that any federal funding stream to NPR is now excised, no matter how indirect, they, too, are off the radar of those that prevailed in excising CPB funding.

Once again, it only matters to one person, and it only appears on his radar when one of their reporters asks him a question. It's often humorous when it happens, because he thought he had shut them down. He didn't.

 

[vchimpanzee]

Don't know if this is related, but the host of WFAE's Saturday morning programming spent so much time listing companies and organizations providing support that Giles Snyder had to be joined in progress.

 

[bmasters1981]

They only "disagree with" and "don't like" NPR because they've been told to do so, not because they actually tried listening to it.

Just like all the right-wing politicians who complain about NPR never having any conservative voices in their programming... while they turn down repeated requests from NPR to provide their commentary and have their own voices in the network's programming.

So they won't let NPR have conservative voices, then blame them for not having conservative voices-- boy, that's rich.

 

[ted chittenden]

So they won't let NPR have conservative voices, then blame them for not having conservative voices-- boy, that's rich.

Not true. NPR has had several conservative commentators on its airwaves since its founding. They have included Jack Brooks, Bill Crystal, and others. What NPR doesn't like (and what I don't like either) is when commentators of whatever persuasion use fictions to argue their viewpoints.

 

[TheBigA]

Not true. NPR has had several conservative commentators on its airwaves since its founding. They have included Jack Brooks, Bill Crystal, and others.

What the poster was referring to was current politicians, who refuse to speak to NPR or refuse to respond for comment from NPR. That's different from commentators, who are usually paid for their services. Baxter Black and Tom Bodette are two familiar commentators. The current administration doesn't consider Bill Kristol or other traditional conservatives as applicable, because they're critical of the president.

He's been very clear that he feels any reporting that is critical of him shouldn't be covered under the first amendment. What he doesn't understand is that if he takes action on that, he is violating the first amendment.

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/19/us/politics/trump-media-news-free-speech.html

 

[TheBigA]

Here's an article covering some recent activities at CPB as it prepares to cease operations:

With Federal Funding Gone, CPB’s Last Acts Aim To Keep Stations On The Air.

Four months after Congress cut its funding, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting is now in “the final phase of wind-down,” Chair Ruby Calvert said Monday. With most staff gone, a

www.insideradio.com

 

[TheBigA]

Another independent radio program affected by the defunding of CPB:

Oregon Public Broadcasting Fights To Keep ‘Live Wire’ On Air, Post-Defunding.

“Live Wire,” the comedy/variety show that’s currently the only nationally distributed public radio program from the Pacific Northwest, is fighting to avoid becoming a victim of public media defunding after

www.insideradio.com

 

[rparky54]

John Oliver sums up Public Media well:

 

[umfan]

CPB, NPR Settle Interconnection Dispute; PMI Grant Moves Forward.

NPR and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting have reached a settlement resolving NPR’s legal challenge to CPB’s interconnection grant to Public Media Infrastructure (PMI) and reaffirming funding for NPR’s Public

www.insideradio.com

PRSS will be handled by PMI, which was judged to have provided the superior proposal to do so as compared to NPR. CPB and NPR reached an agreement on this matter.