Dear Editor:

In a stunning and somber announcement, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) said Friday it will begin the process of shutting down, an outcome that once seemed unthinkable in a country that has long relied on public media for education, culture, and trusted news.

CPB President Patricia Harrison delivered the news with a tone of sorrow and defiance. “Despite the extraordinary efforts of millions of Americans who called, wrote, and petitioned Congress to preserve federal funding for CPB, we now face the difficult reality of closing our operations,” she said.

The trigger? Republican-led legislation—backed by President Trump—clawed back more than $1 billion in previously approved funding for fiscal years 2026 and 2027. This unprecedented move, combined with the Senate Appropriations Committee’s decision last week to exclude CPB funding from its annual budget bill for the first time in over 50 years, effectively pulled the plug.

This isn’t just a budgetary line item disappearing—it’s the end of a national trust. CPB has served as the quiet engine behind NPR, PBS, and hundreds of local public media stations that reach into classrooms, living rooms, and rural communities with no other local news outlets.

The impact will be swift. Most CPB employees will lose their jobs by September 30, the end of the fiscal year. A small transition team will carry on through January, tasked with tying up legal and financial obligations, including ensuring music rights and royalties remain intact for public stations.

CPB emphasized its commitment to handling the shutdown with transparency and care, but there’s no softening the blow. The dismantling of this vital institution not only cuts a lifeline to thoughtful media, it leaves a cultural vacuum.

For decades, CPB-funded programming offered Americans everything from “Sesame Street” to “Frontline,” from local investigative reporting to community storytelling. It was a source of learning and dialogue, not division. And now, it’s being stripped away, not by popular demand, but by political decree.

Public media has never been about profit. It’s been about the public good. Its quiet voice may soon be silent, but it will not be forgotten.

Cliff Thaell

Boothbay Harbor