It is official. The Corporation for Public Broadcasting finally accepted death over balance.
This week, the CPB announced that, with the withdrawal of federal funding, it would cease operations by September 30, 2025: “Despite the extraordinary efforts of millions of Americans who called, wrote, and petitioned Congress to preserve federal funding for CPB, we now face the difficult reality of closing our operations.”
The autopsy for the CPB, however, will put this cause of death as a self-inflicted blow.
For almost 60 years, Republican Presidents and conservative politicians have complained about the overwhelming liberal bias at the CPB and its supported programs, particularly National Public Radio (NPR). For most of those years, the CPB could shrug off the complaints. The Democrats controlled one or both houses (or at least the White House). With the political left solidly behind the CPB, the corporation refused to carry out even modest reforms. It simply gave the stiff arm to every conservative effort to bring its programming back to the middle of the political spectrum.
Even in the face of a GOP-controlled Congress and a Republican president, the CPB was defiant in denying any bias. It suggested that decades of complaints from the right were nothing more than the fevered imagination of far-right activists.
For the record, I was not calling for the termination of funding of the CPB, which I thought could still be forced to reform itself. What I opposed was the continuation of funding for NPR as a state-subsidized media outlet. It was not the pronounced bias of NPR that I felt justified termination. This country should preserve a wall of separation between the government and the media, a view that even a former NPR CEO acknowledged recently as legitimate.
CPB is different. It funded a broader array of programming and could easily correct its course. For decades, all the CPB had to do is refocus on programming to appeal to the greatest cross section of the population and to decline to fund media programs like NPR that became more strident and partisan by the year. It seemed that the CPB was trapped within its own echo chambered existence.
On the left, the CPB was the hero institution standing up to social and political reactionaries. That is what CPB officials heard at cocktail parties and conferences. They heard little from the public outside of their core, narrow constituency. For individual administrators and board members, their status and success were tied to the very bias that was alienating most of America.
For them, the choice was clear between neutrality and nonexistence: they grabbed a hemlock-filled, NPR pledge mug and drank deeply.
They are not the only figures choosing death over social dishonor. Efforts to restore balance and neutrality at the Washington Post has led to a virtual revolt. Even after CEO William Lewis told staff that the newspaper was gushing readers and revenue, the staff refused to yield. He could not have put it more bluntly, telling them, “People are not reading your stuff.” In other words, they were writing for each other as readers were fleeing to other sources of news.
You would think that Washington Post writers would recognize that, if they wanted to be journalists, they would have to return to more neutral and objective reporting. It does not work that way. Many of these editors and writers had secured their very positions in rejecting neutrality and embracing advocacy journalism. By their own previously stated standards, a return to traditional journalism would be capitulation and cowardice. Thus, they would rather see the Post go insolvent than independent.
That takes us back to the CPB. The announcement of cessation was met with a chorus of wails and laments on the left. Yet, these are the same people who preferred this option to reforming the CPB to serve the greatest number of Americans.
NPR made the same choice. A few years ago, it was given the opportunity to select a new CEO who would represent a serious, centrist leadership for the failing news organization. Instead, the board doubled down on that very bias and selected Katherine Maher, who had a long history of inflammatory political attacks on conservatives and was the very embodiment of activism.
As late as a few months ago, CPB could have come forward with real reforms. Instead, PBS President Paula Kerger threatened legal action if Congress had the temerity to refuse to fund her organization. At the same time, she did nothing to distance herself from NPR, which was dragging down CPB like an anchor. Even as NPR’s Katherine Maher imploded before Congress, Kerger refused to budge.
The irony is that NPR is likely to survive in reduced form, appealing to a shrinking audience of predominantly white, affluent, liberal listeners in major cities.
Conversely, CPB is laying off its entire staff in a righteous, indignant huff. None of these people needed to lose their jobs if their leadership served their organization by listening to views beyond their own insular circle of enablers. The demise of the CPB now stands as the most impressive and unnecessary act of self-termination since the appearance of Judean People’s Front Crack Suicide Squad:
Thanks for this summary. It’s spot on!
I stopped watching and listening about ten years so. It is really sad it was infiltrated by a radicalized left wing faction that couldn’t help themselves.
Where will the staff go? The main network and cable TV audiences are dwindling. Newspapers are also dying on the vine. There are great opportunities in industrial construction jobs.
What was once a good thing about PBS is that it was a good place for shows to incubate that would likely never have a chance in the cutthroat commercial venues, such as Mister Rogers, Masterpiece Theater and the Prairie Home Companion.
It is truly sad to watch the mass hypnosis (mass formation) so many people who have become irrational and narrow minded.
I used to enjoy shows like Carl Sagan and Cosmos. Then he died and all the astronomy and physics on PBS came to be about dark matter and dark energy.
The domino effect of eliminating State funding of Media is a tsunami toward the ABC, CBS, NBC, MSNBC, CNN, FOX. All those Billions that found its way into the pockets of these Media Giants……………Just who thought of that pay for play scheme?
“The domino effect of eliminating State funding of Media is a tsunami toward the ABC, CBS, NBC, MSNBC, CNN, FOX. All those Billions that found its way into the pockets of these Media Giants”
Only if you think that the tax dollars that went to PBS, NPR, PBS will now be going towards the corporations. Your fear makes no sense. You can just not spend the tax dollars. Crazy idea, I know.
What a concept! Not to spend what could be saved.
“What a concept! Not to spend what could be saved.”
To a leftist, that idea is heretical. Government must always spend, and that spending must always grow.
Looking back, I see an inflection point in media occurred when Trump questioned Obama’s birth status as a natural born American. Anybody with a preference for neutral facts over malicious falsehoods was shocked at the birther spectacle picking up adherents (being repeated, instead of dismissed). Trump was demonstrating how deceitful infowarfare could work even amongst an “educated” population — based on tapping into what people “want to believe”.
These manipulative techniques had been used successfully before to nudge public opinion into going to war (Cuba, Vietnam, Iraq), but in those cases, the infowarfare thrived on lack of information. Obama’s birthplace, birthdate and parentage were easily obtainable facts.
My birth certificate has the street address and the hour & minute. Try figuring those out from Obama’s “birth record”. Even Obama and his sister don’t agree about what hospital he was born at. Also, mine has two signatures: the obstetrician’s and my mother’s. Obama’s is a printout from a database.
All that said, I think Obama’s mother’s birth certificate is more relevant to his qualifications. If she was an American citizen, then he is, too, regardless of where he was born. Remember John McCain was born in the Panama Canal Zone.
*. It’s really that simple.
Next BAN Public Unions…the Democrats’ political army!
Tell us how you think that should happen?
“Tell us how you think that should happen?”
Wasn’t there some PBS show about years ago? Something about Congress passing a law, and the President signs that law? There was some singing piece of parchment, if I recall correctly.
I’m just a Bill
Schoolhouse Rocks
!
No, no, no, when there’s an existential threat, the President can suspend habeas corpus, intern Japanese-Americans, suspend deportations, order an eviction moratorium, and force vaccinations. History teaches us.
I guess they decided that martyrs are better fundraisers than losers.
Is this really a surprise when even Journalism schools teach to use feelings and bias. As such, these reporters are not seeing they are doing anything wrong.
Excellent observation. True that.
“Is this really a surprise when even Journalism schools teach to use feelings and bias.”
Journalism and education schools should be shut down, their buildings should be razed, and the earth underneath salted. Neither should be regarded as separate academic fields. When you elevate parasitical disciplines like them above their level, they inevitably become detached and cultish.
I think that we overlook the fact that liberalism for many has today become a secular religion as strictly observed by its believers as any non-secular religion. The CPB and NPR people, that is, most of them, believe strongly in what they think is or should be a national religion. More people on this planet have died in the cause of religion than for any other cause, including politics, geography, and economics.
When your religion prevails in your life over everything else, you cannot be expected to toss it aside because someone else tells you to do that. Likewise, the strength of one’s faith is in the willingness to endure sacrifice, torture, and even death, if necessary, to preserve it. Thus, when all is said and done, trying to talk someone, that is, a devout liberal, out of their religion is futile.
Religion is a motivating factor for good in most people’s lives. For liberals, it’s their anchor to strong beliefs that are based on anti-culturalism. It is not a religion based on goodness or the victory of good over evil, but, instead, is based on envy, hatred, and entitlement, and must be fed a steady diet of these elements to survive. All non-believers are fair game for destruction and annihilation. It is, after all, what they deserve. The CPB and NPR employees will be seen as martyrs, having died for their sincere religious beliefs. The rest of us will know them simply as fools.
JJC,
Well said. Yes, fools they are.
Secular religiosity is a real thing. The cultism which propelled Obama, HRC, and KamaLaLa shows the natural drift from bad to worse to openly repugnant.
Monte Python was so excellent in pointing out the stupidity of some areas in politics and the Life of Brian was a great vehicle to carry that message. I would have to disagree with one small aspect in this particular act. It was truly a pointless death and therefore totally without honor. Death before dishonor usually is an attempt to achieve a goal although it often reeks of desperation. This pointless death is a farce. It is so dishonorable that no one else sought to save them, and no 2nd stepped forth to ease their “suffering”. Best for them to just writhe on the ground and kick us some dust while the people move on to more important things.
You equate a Monty Python movie to CPB? Good Lord we’re doomed.
“You equate a Monty Python movie to CPB? Good Lord we’re doomed.”
Yes, taxpayer funded left-wing media certainly is doomed. And it’s about time.
*. I grew up watching PBS when it wasn’t biased at all. Many enjoyed the programming. It was a time when the British were thought of as fine people before the Hindus hated them and the Moslems of course. Now the Japanese hate them, too.
Who knew!
PBS wanted to die because it hated all that programming of the past. How they arrived at suicide doesn’t matter? PBS failed to hate enough, presumably.
Movies such as The Remains of the Day have been rewritten, edited, dubbed, cinematography changes, colors and set changed until its nonsense. All things old have been systematically altered until it’s all ruin.
What horrible people. Goodbye pbs in lower case.
^^^^*. Honorable mention of the hate category goes to Harry and Meghan. That Royal cancer cluster can’t be overlooked either.
“You equate a Monty Python movie to CPB? Good Lord we’re doomed.”
Correct, Monty Python provided more meritorious content than CPB ever did, or could. Or isn’t that what you meant ;?>
Today in 1987, the Federal Communications Commission voted 4-0 to abolish the Fairness Doctrine, which required radio and television stations to present balanced coverage of controversial issues.
There you have it.
While abolishing the Fairness Doctrine was a terribly bad idea. If a news organization need a decree from the federal government to be impartial, you shouldn’t be in the news organization business to begin with. 🤦♂️ It should be in your best interest to be impartial as best as you could be, if you want the audience numbers. Because that would translate into higher ad revenue, IMO.
“This country should preserve a wall of separation between the government and the media,…” Unfortunately there is not a country on the planet in which its media is not government controlled.
Good riddance to bad rubbish! One small step (of many, many needed) for the Constitution. Hip Hip Hooray! Hip Hip Hooray! Hip Hip Hooray!
Do note that NPR and CBP were/are run by women. The Karen syndrome.
Long live the CPB! Thank you President Trump!
I would not call NPR a “treasured institution”. It has always been a propaganda organ with some classical music thrown in.
So true.
This monster should have never been funded by the tax-payers.
It was politics in a different time when the CPB was established. Then Americans worked together. Now they want to kill each other.
“It was politics in a different time when the CPB was established. Then Americans worked together. Now they want to kill each other.”
And ironically, it was CPB, PBS, and NPR that did much of the poisoning of that well.
Whoa. You nailed it. This ain’t gonna end pretty. The division grows by the day. Kurt Schlichter’s novel “The People’s Republic” is becoming fact. As someone said recently, I long for the days when Orwell’s work was fiction.
Ano
Now they want to kill each other.
Just the dems. Just look at the blue run cities.
@Anonymous
Sorry, but only one side in 2025 wants to harm others and resorts to violence and persecution, and it ain’t the right or the center. Our modern left has become a totalitarian monstrosity. The various religious metaphors in the comments are also apt for them, IMO.
James,
You are correct in your assessment, especially the religious metaphors apt to the leftists.
Just read there apparently was another anti-Trump protest this past weekend. Apparently they had “smash” rooms where people could smash a watermelon or a old TV to vent their hate and rage. It was a few dozen old white liberals who were the only attendees and a few independent journalists, covering how few there were. Dennis used to claim how millions of Americans were protesting against Trump as if that was a sure sign of discontent with Trump’s policies. Now those protests have dwindled down to dozens, and media coverage is slim. They probably dont want to embarrass themselves of the low turn out. I also wonder if it has to do with all the great work DOGE is doing ending all those unaccountable NGOs.
“It was politics in a different time when the CPB was established.”
It was a time when the majority of the American people were benighted, and completely naive, believing that the Government was the ultimate Provider of Good Things, and Could Do No Wrong, without exception. That attitude resulted primarily from the nexus of the effect of two Marxist organizations on our society: the teachers’ unions, and the entrenched Fedgov bureaucracy subsequent to FDR. Many of us (sadly, not all) have learned better. Unfortunately, what we did learn, we learned the hard way, by watching the most advanced civilization in the history of the world begin to crumble under those nefarious influences.
Wiseoldlawyer,
There was a time when you could dismiss their obvious bias and still get the news, interesting articles, even driveway moments.
Then they went all in advocacy journalism. 2016 was bad enough with their lame attempts to attach anything bad to Trump and there were some gold worthy mental gymnastics, then they went all in with everything was about race, gender, DEI. They were promoting a article about exercise, so I tuned in out in the field, I was that interested. Turned out they were claiming exercise was a gateway to white supremacy. Yes. That is right. Exercise was a gateway to white supremacy. Here in our country we have a obesity problem, heart disease, diabetes problem and they dont want people to exercise? Since then I have switched them off. No loss.
“they were claiming exercise was a gateway to white supremacy.”
I actually have no problem with that. If their devoted followers bought that BS and acted accordingly, there would be that many fewer thugs, lunatics, and parasites that the rest of us (taxpayers) would be required to subsidize.
A selfie-abortion. Ironic. Karmic. A fetus… feature, perhaps.
Perhaps Colbert can take his program to PBS and help with fundraising there. If he is so popular he will have no problem.
“Perhaps Colbert can take his program to PBS and help with fundraising there. If he is so popular he will have no problem.”
Given that his current “show” loses millions of dollars per year, Colbert would probably wind up sending PBS a bill 🤣
There is no dignity in quitting and killing your organization rather than compromising to serve more of the country with fair and balanced programming.
I agree with your statements here. Indeed, the commitment of these left leaning and downright leftist media to activism is something bordering on religious fever. In another age, this same cadre of reporters would very likely been religious fanatics, denying any other beliefs but their own.
In the middle of the 20th century and earlier, we saw the same style of debate between the Catholics and Protestants, where the one would hardly befriend the other, let alone agree with one another. Interreligious marriage was almost forbidden. Politicians would often give their religion in campaign ads.
Analogous demands for purity of beliefs fits CPB perfectly.
Wow… you pinned it. We watched (in virtual horror) year after year, with the misguided liberal advances stunning us with each new season. Rational, logical minds were thinking “HOW could this possibly be? That NPR is so very biased when they were held up as a leader in journalistic objectivity for our entire Country for so long?” This reset is not only a Natural Consequence but it is a long anticipated one. When a nonprofit organization like NPR became a political tool and sought only to produce outrage, instead of reasonable, rational debate, the Federal Government SHOULD HAVE been asked to step in and correct the infraction through basic legal proceedings. A lawsuit, early on, could have helped to save this treasured organization. Because that never happened, both sides have never been adequately represented. 🙏🏼
Ano
helped to save this treasured organization.
LOL, treasured my tail. It was the DNC mouth and nothing more.
*. It became that and they knew it meant shutting it down. Bill Moyers interviews with Joseph Campbell had no other venue. Thanks, Bill Moyers. Charlie Rose had a some interest but he walked around nude apparently. The beast!
*. Yes, people really don’t defend the robber. He robbed them. Make your case for robbery.
Look at the beatings in Cincinnati and the councilwoman’s opinion they were begging for a beat down? The most horrible mob violence was defended. Surely she’s broken a law, Certainly a civil law.