The order is the latest step by the Trump administration in the President’s feud with mainstream media.
President Trump signed an executive order targeting funding for public media channels, including National Public Radio and Public Broadcasting Service. Trump, a longtime critic of both outlets and several other mainstream media organizations, said public media no longer presents “a fair, accurate or unbiased portrayal of current events.” The Corporation for Public Broadcasting dismissed the order, arguing that CPB was independent of the federal government.
“CPB is not a federal executive agency subject to the President’s authority,” Patricia Harrison, president of CPB said in a Friday statement after the order was signed. “Congress directly authorized and funded CPB to be a private nonprofit corporation wholly independent of the federal government.” In a social media post late Thursday evening, the White House blasted PBS and NPR for spreading “radical, woke propaganda disguised as news.” Both channels receive funding through CPB’s agreement with congress. President Trump has previously argued that the structure of the agreement is not necessary with the current media landscape.
“Government funding of news media in this environment is not only outdated and unnecessary but corrosive to the appearance of journalistic independence,” wrote Trump in the order. “The CPB Board shall cease direct funding to NPR and PBS, consistent with my Administration’s policy to ensure that Federal funding does not support biased and partisan news coverage.” The order continues by saying that “unlike in 1967, when the CPB was established, today the media landscape is filled with abundant, diverse, and innovative news options.”
Publicly available data shows that both PBS and NPR have received nearly half a billion dollars in federal funding each, in addition to earned money from sponsorships. NPR has stated that less than 1% of its funds comes from taxpayer-supported sources. Trump also argued that CPB failed to uphold unbiased and impartial principles, which the President said was an underpinning of CPB’s agreement to receive funding. The White House pointed out several alleged examples of coverage from CPB affiliates that it called “trash that passes for news”, including critical reporting of President Trump’s executive order to ban men from competing in women’s sports, as well as an apology made by NPR after a reporter referred to migrants as “illegal.”
In her first official response to Trump’s executive order, Public Broadcasting Service CEO Paula Kerger accused the President of “threatening our ability to serve the American public with educational programming as we have for the past 50-plus years.” Kerger continued, “we are currently exploring all options to allow PBS to continue to serve our member stations and all Americans.”
Kerger argued that a vast majority of the funding PBS receives goes to supporting hundreds of its local stations, which also operate on philanthropic grants and public donations. Other CPB affiliates have reportedly been preparing for the possibility of cuts to its services since Trump’s sweeping November election. NPR previously accused Trump of threatening to silence their channel if he were elected, although the President did not state so publicly.
