Donald Trump signed an executive order that aims to cut funding to news outlets NPR and PBS, the White House said, marking the US president’s latest attempt to use federal funding as leverage against institutions he does not view favorably.
The order instructs the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which distributes funding to PBS and NPR stations, to “cease direct funding” to them, according to the order’s text released by the White House late on Thursday. It labeled the news outlets as partisan and biased.
“The CPB Board shall cancel existing direct funding to the maximum extent allowed by law and shall decline to provide future funding,” the order says.
Both NPR and PBS have previously said that Trump’s effort to cut their funding would disrupt essential media service and have a “devastating impact” on Americans who rely on them for credible local and national news, including during emergency situations.
This comes after Republican members of Congress grilled the heads of the broadcasting networks in March in a hearing titled “Anti-American Airwaves,” led by Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Georgia).
NPR, PBS push back against Trump administration
The Trump administration has labeled multiple institutions in academia and the media industry – from Harvard and Columbia universities to NPR and PBS – as being leftist, Marxist, biased, and woke, and threatened funding cuts. Human rights advocates have raised concerns over free speech and academic freedom.
In a statement seen by the Washington Post, NPR said that its “editorial practices and decision-making are independent and free from outside influence.
“For more than 50 years, NPR has collaborated with local nonprofit public media organizations to fill critical needs for news and information in America’s communities,” the statement continued. “Millions of Americans depend on NPR Member stations for rigorous, fact-based, public service journalism.”
The statement added that “federal funding is essential to the work of public media and all public media stations.”
PBS CEO and President Paula Kerger emphasized in a letter last month after the Trump administration’s threats to cut funding that “there’s nothing more American than PBS, and our work is only possible because of the bipartisan support we have always received from Congress.”
Since taking office in January, Trump and his billionaire ally Elon Musk have gone on a cost-cutting drive that has resulted in the gutting and attempted dismantling of various agencies and the layoffs of over 200,000 federal workers.
The Trump administration also sought to shut down Voice of America, Radio Free Asia, and Middle East Broadcasting Networks, whose news broadcasts are funded by the government. A federal judge ordered the Trump administration in late April to halt those efforts.
Thursday’s order by Trump also aims to suspend indirect funding for NPR and PBS by asking the CPB to ensure “that licensees and permittees of public radio and television stations, as well as any other recipients of CPB funds, do not use federal funds for NPR and PBS.”
The CPB sued the White House on Monday after Trump sought to fire three of its five board members. The nonprofit corporation was created by Congress in 1967 and provides funding for more than 1,500 locally managed public radio and TV stations.
Several media outlets have reported that the White House plans to ask Congress to rescind $1.1 billion in funding for the CPB, with the amount being two years’ worth of funding.
NPR has more than 900 employees, according to its website. The exact employee count at PBS was not immediately clear, though a media report said it had over 550 staffers at the end of 2022.
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