The Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) announced on Friday its closure, a few weeks after Congress canceled previously approved funding for this national organization responsible for access to public media, writes NBC News. Currently, the corporation helps support more than 1500 local public radio stations and television channels.
The announcement came less than a month after the US Congress approved a spending cut package requested by President Donald Trump. In particular, the package included a reduction in CPB funding by $1.1 billion.
«Despite the extraordinary efforts of millions of Americans who called, wrote, and appealed to Congress to preserve federal funding for CPB, we now face the harsh reality of closing our operations», said the statement from the corporation's president and CEO Patricia Harrison.
Some of the most revered national programs of PBS and NPR are expected to remain on air thanks to other sources of funding.
The Trump administration has repeatedly accused public radio stations and television channels of liberal bias, while NPR President and CEO Katherine Maher called the Corporation for Public Broadcasting «a bastion of independent journalism».