Corporation for Public Broadcasting

Corporation for Public Broadcasting
Company type	Private, non-profit
Industry	Television; Radio;
Founded	November 7, 1967; 56 years ago
Headquarters	Washington, D.C., U.S.
Area served	United States
Key people	Patricia Harrison (president & CEO)
Number of employees	100
Website	cpb.org

The Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) is an American publicly funded non-profit corporation, created in 1967 to promote and help support public broadcasting.^[3] The corporation's mission is to ensure universal access to non-commercial, high-quality content and telecommunications services. It does so by distributing more than 70 percent of its funding to more than 1,400 locally owned public radio and television stations.^[4]

History

The Corporation for Public Broadcasting was created on November 7, 1967, when U.S. president Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Public Broadcasting Act of 1967. The new organization initially collaborated with the National Educational Television network—which would be replaced by the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS). Ward Chamberlin Jr. was the first operating officer.^[5] On March 27, 1968, it was registered as a nonprofit corporation in the District of Columbia.^[6] In 1969, the CPB talked to private groups to start PBS, an entity intended by the CPB to circumvent controversies engendered by certain NET public affairs programs that aired in the late 1960s and engendered opposition by politically conservative public figures, potentially threatening the medium's future viability.^[7]

On February 26, 1970, the CPB formed National Public Radio (NPR), a network of public-radio stations that began operating the following year. Unlike PBS, NPR produces and distributes programming.^[6] On May 31, 2002, the CPB, through special appropriation funding, helped public television stations making the transition to digital broadcasting; this was complete by 2009.^[6]

Funding of and by the corporation

The CPB's annual budget is composed almost entirely of an annual appropriation from Congress plus interest on those funds. CPB has claimed that 95% of its appropriation goes directly to content development, community services, and other local station and system needs.^[4]

For fiscal year 2014, its appropriation was US$445.5 million, including $500,000 in interest earned. The distribution of these funds was as follows:^[8]

$222.78M for direct grants to local public television stations;
$74.63M for television programming grants;
$69.31M for direct grants to local public radio stations;
$26.67M for PBS support;
$22.84M for grants for radio programming and national program production and acquisition;
$22.25M for CPB administrative costs;
$7.00M for the Radio Program Fund.

Public broadcasting stations are funded by a combination of private donations from listeners and viewers, foundations and corporations. Funding for public television comes in roughly equal parts from government (at all levels) and the private sector.^[9]

Stations that receive CPB funds must meet certain requirements,^[10] such as the maintenance or provision of open meetings, open financial records, a community advisory board, equal employment opportunity, and lists of donors and political activities.

Efforts to defund CPB in the US Congress

The CPB has had its congressional funding threatened a number of times, mostly by Republicans who think PBS had a left-wing bias. President Nixon was well known for his dislike of PBS and the CPB and wanted to kill the congressional funding for it.^[11] In July 2023, the appropriations bill for FY 2024 included zero money for CPB when it passed out of the US House Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies^[12]^[13] However, the corresponding bill considered by the Senate Appropriations Committee plans to continue funding for the CPB, though at 7 percent less than what President Biden requested.^[14]

Board composition

The CPB is governed by a nine-member board of directors selected by the president of the United States and confirmed by the Senate; they serve six-year terms, and are allowed to continue serving until the end of the calendar year that their term ends or until their successor is seated on the board.^[15] As of December 2022^[update], the board has nine members, with Laura Ross as the chair.^[16]^[17] Under the terms of the Public Broadcasting Act of 1967, the president cannot appoint persons of the same political party to more than five of the nine CPB board seats.^[15]

CPB Board of Directors
Name	Title	Appointed by (year of confirmation)	Party	Term expires
Laura G. Ross	Chair	Donald Trump (2018), Joe Biden (2022)	Democratic	January 31, 2028
Rubydee Calvert	Vice Chair	Donald Trump (2018), Joe Biden (2022)		January 31, 2028
Bruce Ramer	Member	George W. Bush (2008), Barack Obama (2013), Donald Trump (2019)	Republican	January 31, 2024
Elizabeth Sembler	Member	George W. Bush (2008), Barack Obama (2014), Joe Biden (2022)	Republican	January 31, 2026
Miriam Hellreich	Member	Donald Trump (2019)	Republican	January 31, 2024
Tom Rothman	Member	Joe Biden (2022)	Democratic	January 31, 2026
Kathy Im	Member	Joe Biden (2022)		January 31, 2024
Diane Kaplan	Member	Joe Biden (2022)		January 31, 2026
1 seat vacant

The Board of Directors governs CPB, sets policy, and establishes programming priorities. The Board appoints the president and chief executive officer, who then names the other corporate officers.

Political concerns

In 2004 and 2005, people from PBS and NPR complained that the CPB was starting to push a conservative agenda.^[18]^[19] Board members replied that they were merely seeking balance.

The charge of a conservative agenda came to a head in 2005. Kenneth Tomlinson, chair of the CPB board from September 2003 until September 2005, angered PBS and NPR supporters by unilaterally commissioning a conservative colleague to conduct a study of alleged bias in the PBS show NOW with Bill Moyers, and by appointing two conservatives as CPB Ombudsmen.^[20] On November 3, 2005, Tomlinson resigned from the board, prompted by a report of his tenure by the CPB Inspector General, Kenneth Konz, requested by Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives. The report was made public on November 15. It states:

We found evidence that the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) former Chairman violated statutory provisions and the Director's Code of Ethics by dealing directly with one of the creators of a new public affairs program during negotiations with the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) and the CPB over creating the show. Our review also found evidence that suggests "political tests" were a major criteria [sic] used by the former Chairman in recruiting a President/Chief Executive Officer (CEO) for CPB, which violated statutory prohibitions against such practices.^[21]

Objectivity and balance requirements

The Public Broadcasting Act of 1967 requires the CPB to operate with a "strict adherence to objectivity and balance in all programs or series of programs of a controversial nature".^[15] It also requires it to regularly review national programming for objectivity and balance, and to report on "its efforts to address concerns about objectivity and balance".