The Corporation for Public Broadcasting's directors voted the organization out of business Monday. The private agency, which has distributed federal funding to PBS, NPR and hundreds of local television and radio stations across the country for more than a half-century, saw its appropriations from Co

Leaders of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, a private agency that has steered federal funding to PBS, NPR and hundreds of public television and radio stations across the country, voted Monday to dissolve the organization that was created in 1967.

CPB had been winding down since Congress acted last summer to defund its operations at the encouragement of President Donald Trump. Its board of directors chose Monday to shutter CPB completely instead of keeping it in existence as a shell.

“CPB’s final act would be to protect the integrity of the public media system and the democratic values by dissolving, rather than allowing the organization to remain defunded and vulnerable to additional attacks,” said Patricia Harrison, the organization’s president and CEO.

Ruby Calvert, head of CPB’s board of directors, said the federal defunding of public media has been devastating.

CPB said it was financially supporting the American Archive of Public Broadcasting in its effort to preserve historic content, and is working with the University of Maryland to maintain its own records.

  • HorikBrun@kbin.earth
    126·
    3 days ago

    In archaeology, you can peg the beginning of an empire’s end when it stops building public architecture, whether it’s art or infrastructure (equal to spending on the public). Once the government stops giving back to the populace, it’s over.

    Separate and complex discussion defining “empire” in archaeology without written records, so I am just referring to a particular geographic center exerting cultural and economic influence on its neighbors.

    Stop public spending. People move out. Economy declines. Some other political center rises to prominence.

    Obviously there are a ton of other factors affecting this, but it’s a broad-brush pattern seen repeated over thousands of years.

    • RustyShackleford@piefed.socialEnglish
      46·
      3 days ago

      Trump, a moron and huckster, continues to employ the old mob tactic of attempting to profit from everything, oblivious to even the simplest things.

      He believes he’ll be remembered fondly like Reagan by his cult, but history has proven otherwise. He’ll be remembered as the biggest fool for attempting to accomplish something seemingly insurmountable by listening to today’s trust fund kids.

      The only thing he’ll be remembered for is being one of the primary causes of the American Revolution. There’s a reason kings and queens these days position themselves in a Mickey Mouse like position, less heat. Rocking the boat tends to end with your ass in the waters.

    • gustofwind@lemmy.worldEnglish
      201·
      3 days ago

      But also remember

      This can all be reversed just as quickly so don’t forget to vote

      • UnspecificGravity@piefed.socialEnglish
        14·
        3 days ago

        Only if we find opposition that actually wants to do that. Best we can do so far is people that want to pretend it’s the 90s and that they need compromise and approval from Republicans.

        • Cocodapuf@lemmy.world
          3·
          3 days ago

          Only if we find opposition that actually wants to do that.

          Well, we’ve had that for quite some time really… the sad thing is, that’s not really a winning strategy.

          We have g had candidates like that, Bernie and Warren come to mind right away. But the last time they ran, they couldn’t even win a primary, let alone the general election.

          I agree that actual progressive policies could solve a lot, but much of the country does not seem to agree with that, so here we are.

          For better or worse, you need the approval of more than one group of people to win an election.

    • DahGangalang@infosec.pub
      4·
      3 days ago

      I’d be curious to read more about this effect (something I don’t think I’ve heard of before). Can you point me resources / examples of this?