President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Thursday to cease federal funding for public broadcasters National Public Radio (NPR) and Public Broadcasting Service (PBS), calling such funding “not only outdated and unnecessary but corrosive to the appearance of journalistic independence.”
NPR and PBS receive their funding through the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB), established in 1967. Stating that “[n]o media outlet has a constitutional right to taxpayer subsidies,” the order accused CPB of failing in its mandate to not “contribute to or otherwise support any political party.” The order, titled “Ending Taxpayer Subsidization of Biased Media,” specifically alleges that neither NPR nor PBS present a “fair, accurate, or unbiased portrayal of current events to taxpaying citizens.”
The order directs the CPB board to cease all direct and indirect funding to NPR and PBS “to the maximum extent allowed by law.” It also instructs the board to decline to provide any future funding. The order also instructs CPB to revise its radio and television grant eligibility criteria and prohibit any parties subject to those criteria from funding NPR and CBS indirectly.
Finally, the order directs the Secretary of Health and Human Services to determine whether NPR and PBS employment practices are discriminating on the basis of race, color, religion, national origin or sex. This latter directive is thought to target diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives that may have been implemented by NPR and PBS.
While announcing the order on social media, the Trump administration further accused NPR and PBS of receiving “millions from taxpayers to spread radical, woke propaganda disguised as ‘news.'”
NPR president and CEO, Katherine Maher, responded to the order the next day, stating the organization’s “unwavering commitment to integrity [and] editorial independence,” and vowing to “vigorously defend our right to provide essential news, information and life-saving services to the American public.” Maher also ridiculed the president’s attempt to cast this matter as an effort to balance the budget, stressing that appropriations for public broadcasting represent less than 0.0001% of the federal budget. Maher added:
The President’s order is an affront to the First Amendment rights of NPR and locally owned and operated stations throughout America to produce and air programming that meets the needs of their communities. It is also an affront to the First Amendment rights of station listeners and donors who support independent news and information…
NPR programming is essential to the economic viability of its 246 Member organizations, generating on average 50% of all public radio listening, despite only accounting for roughly 25% of station programming. Every $1 of federal funding generates $7 from local sources, enabling stations to produce local journalism, support local and regional music and arts, and develop creative, informative, and entertaining programming for distribution across the nation.
We will strongly defend our work and our editorial independence and will continue to tell the stories of our country and the world with accuracy, objectivity, and fairness.
NPR said that it will challenge the executive order using all available means. PBS CEO Paula Kerger also slammed the president’s order as “blatantly unlawful” threatening its “ability to serve the American public with educational programming.” Kerger said that PBS is exploring all options “to continue to serve our member stations and all Americans.”
This order comes against the backdrop of the Trump administration’s widespread cuts to federal agencies and federally funded institutions. International organizations have raised alarms and condemned Trump’s previous orders as fostering future human rights violations and / or letting them go unchecked. Concerns have risen about the breakdown of the rule of law in America and beyond, while attacks on press freedom in the US is being seen as an early warning sign of democratic collapse.
