The End of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting Must Be the Start of Rebuilding America's Public-Media System from the Ground Up

WASHINGTON — On Monday, the board of directors of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting voted to dissolve the organization, which for more than 50 years provided federal support for the operations and programming at hundreds of NPR and PBS affiliates across the country. 

The move follows Congress’ 2025 vote — in response to pressure from the Trump administration — to claw back all of the CPB’s federal funding for fiscal years 2025 and 2026. The party-line decision ignored widespread public opposition. Since the vote, several stations — some of which received more than 50 percent of their budgets from the CPB — have announced plans to shutter their broadcast operations. 

Free Press Co-CEO Craig Aaron said:

“This is a sad day for public broadcasting, but it’s also a call to action. The deepening crisis in journalism and the ongoing dismantling of our democracy call for a fundamental rethinking of what public media can be. Those of us who understand how essential public media is to a healthy democracy must begin reimagining what’s possible — and start organizing to achieve it. 

“The fight for public media’s future can’t be about piecing back together what we used to have. This new fight must focus on mobilizing a broader community of public-media makers and allies, planting deeper local roots, and never abandoning diversity and equity when they’re under attack. For too long, many in power have weakened and watered down public media in response to relentless threats from the far right. The only way forward is to present a new vision focused on local needs and make the system more accountable and responsive to the public that has willfully funded public media in the past.

“Noncommercial media worthy of broad public support — and billions of dollars — must focus on civic media, community engagement and accountability journalism. Investing in local perspectives and giving people the tools to tell and amplify their own stories is the answer to the journalism crisis and the antidote to disinformation. We also need public media to fund independent film, support the arts and give space to voices we never hear in our increasingly consolidated commercial-media system. We must protect the public airwaves while finding new ways to distribute content and reach audiences that don’t rely on secret algorithms and the whims of tech billionaires.

“Most of all, we must recognize that the fight for public media’s future is a fight for democracy and against authoritarianism. It may take years of organizing to rebuild what the Trump regime has demolished. But it’s never been clearer why we need public media freed from the whims of Washington and Wall Street. We can and must begin building something better.”