The following is the opinion and analysis of the writer:
Bohdan Zachary
As 2026 unfolds, those of us dedicated to public media stand at a watershed moment. The Corporation for Public Broadcasting, our unifying force and guiding institution for more than half a century, is no more. We now find ourselves navigating uncharted territory — without the framework that for decades advanced, sustained, and protected the mission of public media in the United States.
The magnitude of this loss cannot be overstated. Gone are national initiatives that rallied local stations around a shared purpose. Gone are the Community Service Grants that formed the financial foundation for so many local operations. Perhaps most poignant of all is the absence of Patricia de Stacy Harrison, CPB’s president for 20 years, whose leadership defined a golden era of advocacy, innovation and vision.
This mission has always distinguished public media from commercial entities motivated by profit or political influence. It is the covenant that anchors our work and justifies our existence.
I speak from experience on both sides of the media divide. The first half of my career unfolded in the heyday of network news at CBS, ABC, and NBC — institutions that once embodied the highest standards of American journalism. Today, those same brands, casualties of consolidation and cost-cutting, struggle to maintain the public trust that once defined them. Public media, in contrast, has remained steadfast in its service to truth, education and community.
Pat Harrison exemplified this service. Her visionary addresses at national public media conferences inspired and fortified our collective faith in public media’s transformative power.
I experienced this firsthand while leading Milwaukee PBS. Our station collaborated with the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel and USA Today Network on Kids in Crisis: You’re Not Alone, a documentary examining Wisconsin’s alarming rise in teen suicide. On a whim, I shared the program with Pat Harrison. Within 45 minutes, she responded — not only commending the effort but sharing it with her senior staff and urging them to watch.
She instantly recognized what we had created: Journalism that illuminated a national crisis too often ignored. The film’s impact validated everything CPB represented. Days later, CPB invited our producers and those same participants to present at a national conference of public media leaders, amplifying our approach to stations across the country.
That was Pat Harrison’s gift — identifying consequential work, elevating it immediately, and leveraging CPB’s national reach to strengthen local journalism everywhere. She was not merely an administrator; she was an unflinching advocate for public broadcasting’s democratic purpose—a presence both formidable and deeply human.
The decision to dissolve CPB followed actions by the current administration and Congress’s rescission of previously appropriated funds, effectively ending federal support for public broadcasting.
For nearly sixty years, CPB had fortified democratic discourse and enriched American culture. Its abrupt closure underscores the fragility of public-serving institutions in today’s political climate.
Yet even as we mourn, gratitude is imperative. Under Harrison’s leadership, CPB and its dedicated staff fought tirelessly for hundreds of public radio and television stations and for millions of Americans who depended on them for education, civic engagement and community connection. Their efforts elevated local voices, expanded access and upheld diversity in an increasingly homogenized media landscape.
As we enter a new era devoid of CPB’s structure, guidance, or funding, we do so not in despair but with renewed resolve. CPB’s legacy was never confined to its bureaucracy; it endures in the people and institutions it strengthened. Its greatest achievement was cultivating a resilient public media community equipped to serve regardless of circumstance.
Now it falls to us to innovate boldly, to forge new alliances, and to earn the public’s trust anew. CPB may be gone, but the mission it championed, and the principles Patricia de Stacy Harrison embodied, remain our compass.
Public media lives on in every newsroom, studio, and classroom dedicated to building a more informed and empathetic nation. The mission is not diminished — it is evolving. In its final act, CPB reminded us what has always been true: That public media is not defined by funding or policy, but by a spirit of public service. And that spirit endures.
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