Corporation for Public Broadcasting, an enemy of Republicans and conservatives for decades, announced last Thursday that it is shuttering its doors.
A press release from the CPB said it is beginning an “orderly wind-down of its operations” and informed its employees that most jobs will end when the current fiscal year ends September 30. A "transition team" will remain through the end of the year.
Be informed, not misled.
The announcement cites the passage of a congressional rescissions package, which is a bill that takes back appropriated funds. CPB also blames its demise on a Senate Appropriations Committee bill that excludes funding for the CPB in the new fiscal year.
CPB traces its beginnings to 1967 and the Public Broadcasting Act. Congress at the time wanted to promote educational and cultural programming that was not being done by the three broadcast networks.
With a current half-billion-dollar annual budget, CPB is now most known for overseeing liberal news outlet NPR and liberal network PBS. Their blatant bias has made them a target of conservatives and Republican lawmakers for decades, but, like abortion giant Planned Parenthood, they remained untouched in Washington... until now.
CPB President and CEO Patricia Harrison said in their announcement, "We now face the difficult reality of closing our operations, despite efforts to salvage funding for public media."
For the past several years, CPB has been telling taxpayers that only 1% of its budget comes from taxpayers, without explaining that billions of taxpayer dollars flow to PBS and NPR, then back to CPB through the local purchase of programming.
CPB employees were informed that most of their positions will conclude at the close of the fiscal year at the end of September.
"Public media has been one of the most trusted institutions in American life, providing educational opportunity, emergency alerts, civil discourse, and cultural connection to every corner of the country," Harrison said in her statement. "We are deeply grateful to our partners across the system for their resilience, leadership, and unwavering dedication to serving the American people."
Nothing could be further from the truth. Public broadcasting has become nothing more than an echo chamber for the far Left political movement.
Fox News was among the first to report on the demise of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
Fox says, "For decades, Republicans campaigned on ending federal funding for public media, which had been allocated from the CPB to NPR and PBS."
As you know, in recent years, NPR and PBS have been in the crosshairs of Trump and GOP lawmakers over allegations of political bias, which NPR and PBS leadership have vehemently denied.
NPR CEO Katherine Maher and PBS CEO Paula Kerger staunchly defended their media organizations while testifying on Capitol Hill in March. Both faced tough questions from Republicans over past allegations of bias and promoting far-left ideologies.
During that hearing, NPR CEO Katherine Maher was cross-examined about her radical left-wing views.
“Do you believe America believes in black plunder and white democracy?” Rep. Brandon Gill (R-TX) asked the PBS boss.
“I…don’t…believe that…sir,” Maher, shaking her head but looking guilty, answered.
“You tweeted that in reference to a book you were reading at the time called The Case for Reparations,” Gill, holding a copy of Maher’s tweet, reminded her.
“I don’t think I’ve ever read that book, sir,” Maher, her eyes now closed, said.
“You tweeted about it,” Gill, holding the copy higher for Maher, and for everyone else, to see.
Like a closing argument in front of a jury, Heritage Foundation senior fellow Michael Gonzalez urged Congress to end the flow of taxpayers' money to public broadcasting. A nation that is $36 trillion in debt, he testified, should not be paying for news coverage that tells half the country to "get lost" because of its political beliefs.
"With their egregious bias, NPR and PBS have violated the public trust," he said. "Public media needs to be defunded and the CPB needs to be dissolved."
Robert Knight weighs in on public broadcasting.
In a related AFN op-ed about that bias, columnist Robert Knight quoted Thomas Jefferson in his Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom: "To compel a man to furnish contributions of money for the propagation of opinions which he disbelieves and abhors, is sinful and tyrannical."
Knight said, "There has been good and even excellent programming, such as PBS’s 'Rick Steves’ Europe' and 'Great Performances' or National Public Radio’s 'All Things Considered.” But these should have no trouble attracting support from the claimed millions of viewers and listeners.
Back in May, President Trump signed an executive order to stop that flow of federal funds. Republican-hating NPR sued to challenge that order and told the court any decision to cut off funding must come from Congress.
With that challenge in the courts, the White House sent a rescissions package to Congress in late May. The GOP-led House passed the measure 214-212. In the U.S. Senate, Vice President J.D. Vance cast a tie vote for passage.
Well done.
Knight has further noted that the "public" broadcasting folks have attacked not only political conservatives, but have targeted normal moral values as well.
Marjorie Taylor Greene, Georgia Republican, opened the hearing of the Subcommittee on Delivering on Government Efficiency by showing images from PBS of a drag queen shimmying for children. Democrats weren’t impressed.
Rep. Stephen Lynch, Massachusetts Democrat, accused Ms. Greene of “political theater to hold a hearing to go after the likes of Elmo and Cookie Monster and Arthur the Aardvark.”
Ridiculing opponents by linking them to cartoon characters can be quite effective. I call this the “Tinky Winky” ploy. It makes any critic sound like a monster.
Decades ago, the Washington Post reported that a creator of PBS’s animated toddler show “Teletubbies” admitted that Tinky Winky, a purple boy with an upside-down triangle on his head and a purse, was deliberately cast as gay.
The Post story was excerpted by a newsletter from an organization founded by the late Rev. Jerry Falwell. Right on cue, the liberal media began portraying Mr. Falwell as an unbalanced obsessive who “even went after Tinky Winky.”
Takeaway
Knight reminded Ms. Maher of the number of Leftist messages she has posted on social media.
Ms. Maher said she regretted making several social media posts before her NPR tenure began in March 2024. One tweet from May 2020 claimed that America was “addicted to white supremacy.”
Another said, “I mean, sure, looting is counterproductive. But it’s hard to be mad about protests not prioritizing the private property of a system of oppression.”
Another called President Donald Trump a “deranged racist sociopath.”
Knight says, "It’s hard to crawl back into the Good Ship Fairness after a deep dive like that."
He says, "As Ms. Maher sinks in Washington’s swamp, maybe Kermit the Frog can throw her a lifejacket, all the while singing, 'Why are there so many songs about rainbows? '”
1 Corinthians 15:33 says, "Be not deceived: evil communications corrupt good manners."
This verse warns that associating with corrupt individuals can negatively impact one's own character and behavior.
Taxpayers should never have been forced to pay for our children to be exposed to the Leftist views of Public television and radio.
Thank you, President Trump.
Be Informed. Be Discerning. Be Vigilant. Be Bold. Be Engaged. Be Prayerful.