The Death of the CPB Will Affect Us All!

How President Trump's Decision to Withhold Federal Funding to the CPB Will Leave Millions of Americans Uniformed and Uneducated 

By: Jalen Carpenter

On January 5, 2026 (coincidentally one day before the 5 year anniversary of the January 6 insurrection), the Corporation for Public Broadcast (CPB) closed its doors after 58 years of service. The CPB was founded in 1967 by Congress to help more Americans gain access to free public broadcast television. The CPB is responsible for funding stations such as PBS which provides free educational and news broadcasts to millions of Americans across the country. To the average American today, this doesn't sound like such a big deal since according to the Pew Research Center, 55% of Americans as of 2025 use streaming services exclusively as opposed to traditional broadcast television. Broadcast overall has taken sort of the backseat in the eyes of the American people, which simply comes with progression. But that doesnt mean there is not an inherent importance to broadcast television. President Donald Trump and his administration feel otherwise though, as they are directly at fault for the closure of the CPB after cutting over $1 Billion in federal funding to the private, non profit organization. 

The question is though, why was this funding cut? It's no secret that President Trump is trying to manage funds in Washington better. I mean, that was one of his various campaign promises; to cut non essential programs, and save the American people money. You have to be blind to not see that prices for the vast majority of Americans are not going down (I mean, I paid $4.02 per gallon of gas just yesterday), but the effort was still there for lack of better terms. This decision to cut funding for the CPB is moreso aligned with his strategy of maintaining and gaining voters, as well as sowing the seeds of distrust throughout the nation. This strategy is called “Flooding the Zone”. Originally used during his campaign in 2016, the overall strategy is to bombard people with so much information and nonsense that you can't discern what is fact from fiction. It also serves to help confuse the media, because as soon as journalists or analysts start researching one issue of his, he floods the zone with 2 more (sort of like the mythical monster known as the Hydra). This strategy has worked overall, as distrust in the media is at an all time high, and is not showing signs of slowing down. But how does this relate to cutting funding for CPB and effectively PBS as well?

It all comes down to education, and media literacy. The Carnegie Corporation of New York discussed this in an article detailing the importance of education and media literacy. “Media literacy education teaches students to routinely apply critical inquiry, reading, and reflection skills to all forms of media that they encounter”. These skills of applying critical thinking and reflection are all things taught at all levels K-12 across the country. However, education (and education that teaches media literacy) vary greatly nationwide. A child in the suburbs of Boston is not receiving the same education as a child in the countryside of Montana, or has the same access to resources as children in the Mississipi Delta. This is why stations such as PBS are so important. 

According to a fact sheet made by PBS themselves, “PBS is viewed in 87% of non-internet homes and 56% of low-income homes”. In an age where a majority of Americans have made the switch from broadcast to streaming services, PBS still has a large presence in homes that simply cannot access such services. This is a clear sign that President Trump simply does not care about these Americans. If they are uneducated and uniformed, his strategy of targeting those with low media literacy skills is only amplified. This not only affects those in low income or non-internet homes, but also rural communities as well. “60% of our audience lives in rural communities”. With a majority of PBS’ audience hailing from rural communities (the same ones that he earned a whopping 93% of the vote in in 2024 according to The Economic Innovation Group), it's apparent that he's targeting those in the very demographic that voted for him. 

This is not only a political move to keep his voters unedcuated, but also one made out of pure ignorance to sow distrust with the PBS. President Trump has gone as far as claiming that PBS has not provided “fair, accurate or unbiased portrayal of current events to taxpaying citizens”. Like most of President Trump's claims, one simple google search can disprove it. In the aforementioned fact sheet made by PBS, they listed many names of politicians that made guest appearances on the show Firing Line. This show serves as a public forum of sorts for politicians on both sides of the aisle including many staunch Republicans and Trump supporters such as political analyst Bill O’Reilly, Senator Tim Scott (R-S.D), and politician Vivek Ramaswamy. So for Presdient Trump to claim that PBS provides one sided or biased news is simply untrue. But for those who aren't media trained or lack internet access (like many PBS viewers and Trump voters), they simply take this as gospel. 

This is all setting a far greater precident though for news stations across America. According to a study conducted by The Local News Initiative, since 2005 “Almost 40% of all local U.S. newspapers have vanished, leaving 50 million Americans with limited or no access to a reliable source of local news”. With more and more local news sources fading into the ether, Americans now more than ever need reliable news to inform themselves, however this very news seemingly becoming harder and harder to come by. And now, simply because President Trump dislikes a certain organization, he himself can pull the plug on news. He is controlling the very media millions of Americans receive every day. Weve seen examples of this already through late night talk show hosts such as Steven Colbert and Jimmy Kimmel, but this is by far the most egregious abuse of power we've seen hit American journalism yet, and it is not showing signs of slowing down. 

The move to end funding to the CPB greatly affected millions of Americans. This move puts thousands of local stations at risk of shutting down, effectively leaving their communities both uneducated and uniformed. Will this trend continue on for the rest of Trump's Presidency? I cannot answer that question. But I pray for the sake of our nation that it doesnt.