For many ideologically conservative Americans who vote Republican, the news and politically-focused news coverage heard on such NPR programs as “Morning Edition” and “All Things Considered” is vilified as biased, skewing toward liberal beliefs. Similar comments have been made about PBS‘s news programming.
Now, the White House has trumped Congressional Republicans who have sought a cessation of federal funding for the noncommercial educational organizations that are not FCC licensees but provide programming to broadcast stations across the U.S. and its territories.
President Trump late Thursday signed an Executive Order directing the Corporation for Public Broadcasting‘s Board of Directors to “cease federal funding for NPR and PBS.” The reason? The bias in each organization’s news coverage, the president contends. He seeks the end of direct and indirect funding of the organizations. “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.
As NPR noted it its news coverage of the Executive Order, federal funding for NPR and PBS is appropriated by Congress. As such, the Executive Order could be challenged in court, on the grounds that the executive branch does not have the authority to block the funding, with Congress charged with handling that task.
Don’t tell that to the president. “Which viewpoints NPR and PBS promote does not matter,” the Executive Order says. “What does matter is that neither entity presents a fair, accurate or unbiased portrayal of current events to tax-paying citizens.”
President Trump has been vocal in his disdain toward the news coverage of NPR and PBS. At the same time, Katherine Maher, NPR’s President/CEO, has remained steadfast in defending the organization’s news coverage.
Congress allocated $535 million for the CPB for the current fiscal year. This was affirmed in Congressionally passed legislation. CPB is fully funded through the end of the third quarter of 2027.
NPR receives roughly 1% of its funding directly from the federal government, and a slightly greater amount indirectly, it reports; NPR’s 246 member institutions, operating more than 1,300 stations, receive on average 8% to 10% of their funds from CPB.
PBS is impacted at a greater level, as it and its stations receive about 15% of their revenues from CPB’s federal funds, NPR reported.
In a statement released early Friday, CPB President/CEO Patricia Harrison commented, “CPB is not a federal executive agency subject to the President’s authority. Congress directly authorized and funded CPB to be a private nonprofit corporation wholly independent of the federal government. In creating CPB, Congress expressly forbade ‘any department, agency, officer, or employee of the United States to exercise any direction, supervision, or control over educational television or radio broadcasting, or over [CPB] or any of its grantees or contractors…’ 47 U.S.C. § 398(c).”
Also chiming in: Energy and Commerce Committee Ranking Member Frank Pallone Jr. (D-N.J.). “The President’s attacks on CPB, NPR, and PBS are yet another illegal attempt to consolidate power in the White House, erode the Constitution’s freedom of the press, and censor any viewpoints he deems inconsistent with his own,” Pallone said. “A healthy democracy should celebrate and support free and independent public media. Instead, it’s clear President Trump would prefer a state propaganda system like those in Russia and China … Make no mistake, without federal funding, many of these stations will disappear. If the President had paid closer attention to Sesame Street, he’d know: Congress has the power of the purse. I expect this illegal power grab will be appropriately struck down in court.”
