The Corporation for Public Broadcasting's directors voted the organization out of business Monday. The private agency, which has distributed federal funding to PBS, NPR and hundreds of local television and radio stations across the country for more than a half-century, saw its appropriations from Co

Leaders of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, a private agency that has steered federal funding to PBS, NPR and hundreds of public television and radio stations across the country, voted Monday to dissolve the organization that was created in 1967.

CPB had been winding down since Congress acted last summer to defund its operations at the encouragement of President Donald Trump. Its board of directors chose Monday to shutter CPB completely instead of keeping it in existence as a shell.

“CPB’s final act would be to protect the integrity of the public media system and the democratic values by dissolving, rather than allowing the organization to remain defunded and vulnerable to additional attacks,” said Patricia Harrison, the organization’s president and CEO.

Ruby Calvert, head of CPB’s board of directors, said the federal defunding of public media has been devastating.

CPB said it was financially supporting the American Archive of Public Broadcasting in its effort to preserve historic content, and is working with the University of Maryland to maintain its own records.

    • panda_abyss@lemmy.ca
      1·
      10 days ago

      We were always part of history.

      This is a stupid attitude.

      You don’t get to choose your time, you get to choose what you do with it.

      Start punching the fascists in the dick

            • village604@adultswim.fanEnglish
              1·
              9 days ago

              A hobby farm actually makes it worse. The work is more difficult since you’re likely not buying the extremely expensive equipment that for profit farms use. Or you’re buying it used and have to sink time and/or money into repairing and maintaining it.

              I lived and worked on a hobby farm throughout high school (<2 acres), and I can guarantee you that the romanticized vision of life on a farm isn’t very accurate.

              Same with having farm animals. Baby animals are cute until their mom decides to not let them nurse and you have to bottle feed them every 2-4 hours.

  • Gorgritch_Umie_Killa@aussie.zone
    6·
    9 days ago

    So does this mean NPR and PBS are going to shutter? Or significantly reduce their operations? Or have they still got enough private benefactors to carry on?

    Side note: I wonder if they still have any of that Ray Croc money left in some random fund?

    • booly@sh.itjust.works
      9·
      9 days ago

      The CPB exists to allocate government funding to nonprofit public stations (the individual broadcasters in each city) and networks (NPR and PBS). Without government funding, the CPB has no reason to exist.

      The public stations and NPR and PBS still exist. They are the ones that actually produce and distribute content. And they’ve always relied some on donations.

      PBS and its stations have been roughly 15% funded through the CPB. The rest relies on donations and other income.

      NPR doesn’t receive much money directly from the CPB (less than 1% of its budget), but its member stations do, around 13% on average.

      So it’s not the end of the world for these stations, but it does represent a reduction in funding that is pretty serious.

      • Gorgritch_Umie_Killa@aussie.zone
        2·
        9 days ago

        Yeah okay, those hit with a 13% reduction have a large hole to fill. Hopefully other donors will come to the party, but in a cost of living crisis, well theres a lot of other pressures.

  • HorikBrun@kbin.earth
    6·
    10 days ago

    In archaeology, you can peg the beginning of an empire’s end when it stops building public architecture, whether it’s art or infrastructure (equal to spending on the public). Once the government stops giving back to the populace, it’s over.

    Separate and complex discussion defining “empire” in archaeology without written records, so I am just referring to a particular geographic center exerting cultural and economic influence on its neighbors.

    Stop public spending. People move out. Economy declines. Some other political center rises to prominence.

    Obviously there are a ton of other factors affecting this, but it’s a broad-brush pattern seen repeated over thousands of years.

    • RustyShackleford@piefed.socialEnglish
      1·
      10 days ago

      Trump, a moron and huckster, continues to employ the old mob tactic of attempting to profit from everything, oblivious to even the simplest things.

      He believes he’ll be remembered fondly like Reagan by his cult, but history has proven otherwise. He’ll be remembered as the biggest fool for attempting to accomplish something seemingly insurmountable by listening to today’s trust fund kids.

      The only thing he’ll be remembered for is being one of the primary causes of the American Revolution. There’s a reason kings and queens these days position themselves in a Mickey Mouse like position, less heat. Rocking the boat tends to end with your ass in the waters.

  • muxika@lemmy.world
    2·
    9 days ago

    The article’s comments section is disheartening, but predictable. It’s the same “Don’t use my tax dollars for your liberal agenda” bullshit. No critical thinking. Just parroting propaganda.

  • Boiglenoight@lemmy.worldEnglish
    1·
    10 days ago

    Look on the bright side. Chilling events like this are not boring. I am definitely not bored right now.

  • NauticalNoodle@lemmy.ml
    0·
    9 days ago

    So it sounds like CPB was the lobbying arm of NPR/PBS. -I’m not sure it’s wise to shutter the lobbying agency that get’s them federal funds but on the other hand they were clearly not having the desired effect on congress.

    • Insekticus@aussie.zone
      1·
      9 days ago

      It’s wise when the board has probably been taken over by Trump stooges, and they want to destroy whats left of the golden age of America.