Politics
Trump Defunds NPR and PBS: Federal Funding Ordered to End
Trump Defunds NPR and PBS
The two largest public broadcasters in America have been the target of several assaults by the White House and Republican politicians who have accused them of biased reporting. On Thursday, President Donald Trump issued an executive order ordering the Corporation for Public Broadcasting to stop providing government financing to them.
The directive directs the board of the CPB to stop direct financing for the Public Broadcasting Service and National Public Radio to the “maximum extent permitted by law and shall decline to provide future funding.” Along with that, it directs the board to “minimize or eliminate” indirect financing to PBS and NPR.
In addition, the executive order instructs the heads of all other federal agencies to “identify and terminate” any direct or indirect funding of NPR and PBS, as permitted by law, and directs Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to look into the media organizations for potential employment discrimination.
The move comes after the Trump administration and well-known Republicans attacked public broadcasting in the past.
Public radio and television stations around the country get $535 million in taxpayer subsidies annually from the CPB. These stations offer free and universal access to a variety of news and cultural material, emergency warnings, and educational programs.
This covers several lesser-known public media entities as well as PBS and NPR stations. According to the White House, it will shortly request that Congress return the funds that have already been allotted for CPB over the next two years.
Some local stations may be driven off the air without the government assistance, particularly in Republican-leaning rural areas. Ed Ulman, the CEO of Alaska Public Media, told CNN last month that “these are often the last locally owned broadcasters in these communities.”
The CPB sued the Trump administration earlier this week after three of its five board members were fired by email. The emails were sent to three board members who were selected by then-President Joe Biden in 2022: Laura G. Ross, Thomas E. Rothman, and Diane Kaplan. Ross was first appointed by Trump in 2018 and then reappointed by Biden.
According to a 1967 legislation, Congress expressly established the business as a private company “to afford maximum protection from extraneous interference and control.” Government “any direction, supervision, or control over educational television or radio broadcasting” is specifically prohibited under the law.