CPB is the non-profit corporation which funds NPR and PBS.
“CPB is not a federal executive agency subject to the President’s authority,” Patricia Harrison, president and CEO of the CPB, said in a statement Friday. “Congress directly authorized and funded CPB to be a private nonprofit corporation wholly independent of the federal government.”
She continued, “In creating CPB, Congress expressly forbade ‘any department, agency, officer, or employee of the United States to exercise any direction, supervision, or control over educational television or radio broadcasting, or over [CPB] or any of its grantees or contractors.’”
Another classic “you can’t do that” vs “you can’t stop me” moment
Immovable congress meets an unstoppable farce
Underrated comment of the decade
11/10 (giving it the recognition it deserves 🫡)
Trump’s gonna have to tell the weapons manufacturers and oil companies to stop funding PBS then.
Feel like the title should be edited to better reflect that Trump literally can’t cut funding since they don’t give it in the first place
Correct-ish?
Remembering seeing the DoEd tree seal after Arthur? Or the NSF logo after NOVA?
These were indicators that a non-zero dollar number of federal funds from those agencies went towards production of that show. According to the US government, about 5-15% on average of any given station’s funding comes from either CPB or a federal source. Obviously this is a really sneaky, shitty way of representing this because 98-99% of CPB’s funds do not come from the government and it also doesn’t break down which percentage of that 5-15% comes from CPB or which percentage comes from a federal agency.
A very small amount of CPB’s total funding does actually come from the federal government. The federal allocation to CPB for 2025 was $530 million. The combined direct and indirect federal funds make up between 1% and 2% of CPB’s total funding, and are non-discretionary meaning that every cent is earmarked for a specific use.
Most of that funding goes to keeping the lights on at affiliate stations based on need or to create very specific pieces of PBS programming produced by individual stations such as WGBH-TV in Boston or WQED in Philadelphia.
NOVA, Frontline, Masterpiece (Theater), This Old House, American Experience, Victory Garden, Julia Child’s cooking shows, Zoom, and Arthur are all WGBH shows that were/are at least partially funded in this way. Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood was produced similarly by WQED. Magic School Bus was produced by the South Carolina PBS affiliates, through SCETV.
TLDR:
PBS didn’t lie: This program was made possible by contributions from Viewers Like You. Those contributions didn’t come from tax dollars, they came from people like you and me calling into PBS telethons and making donations. Older folks leaving funds in their will to their beloved local stations. PMC weirdos who had a crisis of conscience and decided to throw a shitload of money into a trust fund that can only be used to pay for traditionally animated children’s educational programming for some reason.
The title is based on the wording of the executive order that Trump signed. The title says “Trump signed executive order to cut funding from NPR and PBS”. The executive order says “I therefore instruct the CPB Board of Directors (CPB Board) and all executive departments and agencies (agencies) to cease Federal funding for NPR and PBS.”
Whether the executive order is legally valid does not change what the executive order says. Many of the other executive orders that Trump have signed are also not legally valid. The title accurately reflects what Trump signed.
Also we don’t know what happens next or whether PBS and NPR will have their funding cut. The administration which has deported legal US residents without due process isn’t operating within what is legal.
None of the people involved in drafting this order knew any of this lmao? I don’t but I’m just some idiot that works wholly outside of government
Or did someone know and they just went along with it
In general the Trump admin doesn’t know how any of it works, there’s no actual people with experience with government just yes men and opportunists
It’s just hilarious how openly stupid or craven they all are
I disagree with that assessment. Is it craven? Absolutely. But the entire empire is craven, it only acts when it thinks it is in complete control.
However, this kind of stuff is only stupid if they are going to face any consequences for it personally. They will not, and they will be rewarded for pulling out the copper wiring of government control.
Does it matter? If there’s anything the US government is number one in, it’s not honoring the deals that it makes.
They’re just trying whatever they can and seeing if they can get away with it.
This may be my Hitler shaking hands with Stalin moment, someone has to pay for airing the Arthur episode where DW breaks his model plane and Arthur gets in trouble anyway.
Thanks I am going to forward this article to my local NPR station and ask them to stop saying “Donald Trump’s budget cuts are looking like they will impact us this year so your support is greatly needed” during the pledge drive they’ve been running the past 2 weeks.
I WILL NEVER BECOME A MONTHLY CONTRIBUTOR, YOU CANNOT TEMPT ME WITH SHITTY TOTEBAGS FOR PLEDGES OF $20/MO (THAT’S LIKE 240/YEAR FOR A FUCKING NPR BRANDED COFFEE MUG, YOU’RE SHITTING ME JUST OPEN A MERCH STORE DIPSHITS) OR ‘FREE VACATIONS’ TO SOME EUROPEAN COUNTRY. MY LOCAL STATION IS SHIT THEY ONLY HAVE ONE LOCAL SHOW AND IT IS 2 HOURS OF MUSIC AT THE END OF THE WEEK??? WHERE IS THE MONEY GOING!!!Here’s the news article from the White House saying that Trump is ending NPR and PBS because they’re “woke”
Another whitehouse gov page listing reason why NPR and PBS are woke.
Here’s the whitehouse page for the executive order.
wait, wait. Don’t tell Carl
