The White House on Thursday, May 1, said US President Donald Trump had signed an executive order seeking to cut funding for the public news outlets NPR and PBS.
The order tells the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which distributes funding to the stations, to “cease direct funding” to the public news outlets.
A White House statement on the order 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.
A statement from the White House said the order ended all direct funding, plus indirect payments from other public media organizations.
“NPR and PBS have fueled partisanship and left-wing propaganda with taxpayer dollars, which is highly inappropriate and an improper use of taxpayers’ money, as President Trump has stated.”
The Trump administration has labeled numerous institutions in academia and the media — from Harvard and Columbia universities to NPR and PBS — as left-wing and biased. It has threatened funding cuts as a result. Human rights advocates have raised concerns over free speech as well as academic and press freedom.
The Trump administration has also tried to close Voice of America, Radio Free Asia and Middle East Broadcasting Networks, whose news broadcasts are funded by the US government. In late April, a federal judge ordered the Trump administration to stop those efforts.
NPR and PBS have previously said Trump’s effort to cut their funding would have a “devastating impact” on US citizens who rely on them for reliable local and national news — including during emergency situations.
In a statement last month, Paula Kerger, president and chief executive of PBS, said the Trump administration’s effort to rescind funding for public media would “disrupt the essential service PBS and local member stations provide to the American people.”
“There’s nothing more American than PBS, and our work is only possible because of the bipartisan support we have always received from Congress,” she said. “This public-private partnership allows us to help prepare millions of children for success in school and in life, and also supports enriching and inspiring programs of the highest quality.”
The CPB on Monday sued the White House after Trump sought to fire three of its five board members. Congress created the nonprofit corporation, which provides funding for more than 1,500 locally managed public radio and TV stations, in 1967.
