The Corporation for Public Broadcasting has formally dissolved after nearly 60 years. This comes after a formal vote in January, after the corporation was stripped of federal funding.
In a statement posted to social media Saturday, the corporation calls the decision "heart-wrenching, but necessary."
"As a whole, public media provided such value, at so little cost to the taxpayer, that it received bipartisan support for decades and few thought it would be defunded," the statement reads in part. "However, throughout 2025, CPB and public media became the target of heightened, relentless partisan attacks with the goal of defunding CPB."
As Scripps News Group previously reported, Congress passed the Recission Act of 2025, which cut off funding to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. Historically, the nonprofit received approximately $525 million annually from the federal government, with 70% of the funds going to support nearly 1,500 public television and radio stations across the U.S.
Without that funding, those stations will now need to rely on donations to continue running. In their statement, the CPB says they considered trying to rely on donations to keep going, but says the logistical hurdles would have put those public television and radio stations at risk of further harm, and accelerate the erosion of public trust.
"The longer CPB tried to exist without funding, the greater the probability that our remaining funds would never reach the public media system," the statement reads. "Moreover, we grew increasingly concerned that funding directed to public media could become subject to new content restrictions, and that compliance would further harm stations and erode the trust we worked decades to build. These risks were real and dangerous, and we would not allow them to take shape."
You can read the full statement below:
