President Donald J. Trump issued a new Executive Order late Thursday that ceases federal funding for National Public Radio (NPR) and the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS). The order directs the government-funded Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) to halt all direct and indirect support for the two public broadcasters, contending they are “entities that receive tens of millions of dollars in taxpayer funds each year to spread radical, woke propaganda disguised as ‘news.'”
“No media outlet has a constitutional right to taxpayer subsidies, and the Government is entitled to determine which categories of activities to subsidize. The CPB’s governing statute reflects principles of impartiality: the CPB may not ‘contribute to or otherwise support any political party,'” the Executive Order states, arguing: “The CPB fails to abide by these principles to the extent it subsidizes NPR and PBS. Which viewpoints NPR and PBS promote does not matter. What does matter is that neither entity presents a fair, accurate, or unbiased portrayal of current events to taxpaying citizens.”
The presidential directive instructs “the CPB Board of Directors (CPB Board) and all executive departments and agencies (agencies) to cease Federal funding for NPR and PBS.” Specifically, the CPB has been told to halt all indirect federal funding for public broadcasters, including ancillary funding for “licensees and permittees of public radio and television stations.” Additionally, the executive order directs the heads of other federal agencies to “identify and terminate, to the maximum extent consistent with applicable law, any direct or indirect funding of NPR and PBS.”
