Bye Bye, Big Bird? Corporation For Public Broadcasting Votes To Dissolve After Trump Cuts Funding

The Corporation for Public Broadcasting voted Monday to dissolve itself after Republicans in Congress rescinded $1.1 billion in federal funding, cutting off the primary government revenue stream that has long sustained NPR and PBS.

The CPB began winding down operations in August, notifying 100 employees that most staff positions would be eliminated by the end of the fiscal year on September 30, with Monday’s vote making the closure official.

In a press release, the CPB said the decision resulted directly from “Congress’s rescission of all of CPB’s federal funding and comes after sustained political attacks that made it impossible for CPB to continue operating as the Public Broadcasting Act intended.”

President Donald Trump formally called on Congress to cancel public broadcaster funding over the next two years via a rescission request after the 2024 election. Congress approved that plan in mid-July, taking back $1.1 billion earmarked for public broadcasters over the next two years.

“It is very important that all Republicans adhere to my Recissions [sic] Bill and, in particular, DEFUND THE CORPORATION FOR PUBLIC BROADCASTING (PBS and NPR), which is worse than CNN & MSDNC put together,” Trump said in a post on Truth Social in mid-July.

The Corporation for Public Broadcasting was created in 1967 to support radio stations in underserved areas. In recent years, conservatives have criticized the agency for funneling millions of dollars annually to NPR and PBS.

As The Daily Wire previously reported, a Media Research Center (MRC) study found the taxpayer-funded PBS program “Washington Week with The Atlantic” consistently exhibited a staggering 93% negative bias against Republicans and the Trump administration over three months, despite claiming to provide “objective” political coverage.

“The panelists spent 83 minutes opining on Republicans, focusing on Trump and his administration, in 93% negative fashion (77 minutes negative, six minutes positive),” the MRC report reads.

House Republicans grilled NPR chief executive Katherine Maher in July on the organization’s bias against conservatives, focusing in particular on the cover-up of the Hunter Biden laptop story during the 2020 election — claims Maher attempted to walk back.

Former NPR senior business editor Uri Berliner, who resigned after publishing an essay critical of the network’s leftward shift, was referenced by Republican lawmakers as further evidence of the outlet’s bias, The Daily Wire previously reported.

In a text message to The New York Times, Berliner wrote that he believes the organization should “openly acknowledge and embrace its progressive orientation” and decline federal support, contradicting Maher’s claims of NPR’s supposed objectivity.