Corporation for Public Broadcasting, with deep links with Big Bird and Mister Rogers, disappears

The disappearance of the company, known as the CPB, is the direct result of the targeting of public media by President Donald Trump, who, according to him, said on several occasions political and cultural opinions contrary to those that the United States should adopt. The closure should have a deep impact on the journalistic and cultural landscape – in particular public radio and television stations in small communities across the United States.

CPB helps finance PBS and NPR, but most of its funding is distributed to more than 1,500 local public radio stations across the country.

The company also has deep links with a large part of the country’s most familiar program, of “all things considered to be NPR”, historically, “Sesame Street”, “Mister Rogers’ Quartier” and the documentaries of Ken Burns.

The company said that its end, 58 years after being promulgated by President Lyndon B. Johnson, would come in “ordered liquidation”. In a statement, he said that the decision came after the congress of a package which recovered its funding for the next two budgetary years – around 1.1 billion dollars. Then, the Senate credits committee strengthened this policy change Thursday by excluding the financing of the company for the first time in more than 50 years within the framework of a broader expenditure bill.

“Despite the extraordinary efforts of millions of Americans who called, written and asked the Congress to preserve Federal Funding of CPB, we are now faced with the difficult reality of the closure of our operations,” said Patricia Harrison, president and chief executive officer.

A final attempt at funding fails

Democratic members of the Senate credit committee made a last effort this week to save funding from the CBP.

As part of the Deliberations of the Committee on Thursday, Senator Tammy Baldwin, D-Wis., Is written, but then withdrawn an amendment to restore the financing of the CPB for the upcoming budget year. She said that she always believed that there was a path to follow “to solve this problem before there were devastating consequences for public radio and television stations across the country.”

“It is difficult to believe that we found ourselves in the situation in which we are,” she said. “And I will continue to work with my colleagues to remedy it.”

But senator Shelley Moore Capito, RW.VA., had a less optimistic tone.

“I understand your concerns, but we all know that we pleaded two weeks ago,” said Capito. “The adoption of this amendment would have been contrary to what we have already voted.”

CPB said employees informed on Friday that most of the personnel positions will end with the fiscal year on September 30. He said that a small transitional team will remain in place until January to finish any remaining work – including, he said: “Ensure the continuity of musical rights and royalties that remain essential to the public media system.”

“Public media were one of the most reliable institutions in American life, offering educational opportunities, emergency alerts, civilian discourse and a cultural link with all the country,” said Harrison. “We are deeply grateful to our system partners for their resilience, their leadership and their unshakable dedication to serve the American people.”

The impact will be widespread

NPR stations use millions of dollars in federal money to pay for music license costs. Now many will have to renegotiate these transactions. This could have an impact, in particular, points of sale that build their programming around the discovery of music. The president and chief executive officer of NPR, Katherine Maher, recently estimated, for example, that some 96% of all the classic musical difficulties in the United States are on public radio stations.

Federal money for public radio and television has traditionally been appropriate to the public broadcasting company, which distributes it to NPR and PBS. About 70% of money goes directly to 330 pbs and 246 NPR stations across the country, although it is only a release to describe its potential impact.

Trump, who described the CPB as “monstrosity”, said public broadcasting has long posted an extreme liberal bias, has helped to create momentum in recent months for a wave of anti-public broadcasting among his supporters in Congress and throughout the country. This is part of a broader initiative in which he has targeted institutions – in particular cultural institutions – which produce content or marry attitudes which he considers as “non -American”. The disappearance of the CPB represents a political victory for these efforts.

Its impact on the media landscape was deep. He also followed the American government media who had independence charters, including the venerable voice of America, ending the operations of this media after several decades.

Trump also dismissed three members of the company’s board of directors in April. In a legal action at the time, licensed administrators declared that their dismissal was government surpassing aimed at an entity whose charter guarantees independence.