by James Bonnett
On October 1st, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting will close its doors. The corporation was created by the United States Congress as part of the Public Broadcasting Act of 1967 with the goal to promote public welfare and education. Since 1967, the CPB has supported the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) and National Public Radio (NPR) along with countless local television and radio stations. Public radio and television are a democratizing service that allow communities to promote relevant educational content and provide access to information to a broad audience.
NPR provides millions of Americans with journalistic reporting as one of the only not-for-profit news organizations with household recognition to compete with the Corporate Media. PBS and its affiliates have provided critical educational programming for generations of children, airing grounded and informative content that sought to uplift and inform the next generation with messages of emotional intelligence and healthy lifestyle choices. When Mr. Rogers testified to Congress in 1969 on PBS Funding, he outlined the stark contrast in the message being delivered between publicly funded and privately funded children’s content:
“I’m very much concerned, as I know you are, about what’s being delivered to our children in this country. And I’ve worked in the field of child development for six years now, trying to understand the inner needs of children. We deal with such things as — as the inner drama of childhood. We don’t have to bop somebody over the head to…make drama on the screen. We deal with such things as getting a haircut, or the feelings about brothers and sisters, and the kind of anger that arises in simple family situations. And we speak to it constructively.”
In spite of the proud legacy of public broadcasting in America, Congress approved a disastrous Trump administration-led policy to rescind previously allocated Federal funds from public services in July. As part of these cuts, $1.1 billion dollars that were previously allocated to the CPB were rescinded. This means public broadcasting services will receive no funding under the current legislation. As the logistics of this policy have played out, PBS has announced staff cuts of 100 employees or 15% of its workforce, the CPB is shuttering all operations on October 1st except a small workforce to manage long-term obligations, and countless state and local NPR and PBS stations have announced additional cuts and reorganization amid the loss of federal funding.
The broader impacts of these changes are yet to be seen, but it will doubtlessly lead to further erosion of the few meager public services that remain for the American workforce. The Trump administration aims to sow further doubt and mistrust of public institutions to promote the influence of privately owned, billionaire-minded, and profit-driven media networks. All Americans must rally in support of our public institutions to ensure we do not lose access to critical informative and educational content for ourselves and our children.
