Trump, With New Executive Order, Strips Funding for PBS, NPR

President Trump is executing his long foretold plan to ax federal funding to PBS and National Public Radio with a sweeping executive order announced Thursday night.The new ruling has instructed the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, the publicly funded nonprofit company that distributes funding and programming to more than 1,400 locally owned PBS-TV and NPR stations across the country, to terminate all direct funding to both entities. The move comes after Mr. Trump has campaigned against the pair of broadcasters, alleging biased reporting.“At the very least, Americans have the right to expect that if their tax dollars fund public broadcasting at all, they fund only fair, accurate, unbiased, and nonpartisan news coverage,” the executive order reads. “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.” “I therefore instruct the CPB Board of Directors (CPB Board) and all executive departments and agencies (agencies) to cease Federal funding for NPR and PBS.”In addition, the order tasks the health and human services secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., to launch an investigation into both NPR and PBS for possible employment discrimination, and for other federal agencies to “identify and terminate” any direct or indirect funding to the media outlets.White House officials have said that they will soon ask Congress to claw back the next two years of funding already earmarked for CPB, according to a report from CNN.Since being back in the White House, Mr. Trump has called for an end to taxpayer funding for all government-funded press outlets. In March he fired hundreds of employees at another public broadcaster, the Voice of America, a move later challenged in court.Last week, a federal judge found Mr. Trump’s actions against the VOA to be unlawful, and indefinitely paused any shuttering of the outlet.In the wake of his attempted dismantling of VOA, Mr. Trump said during remarks at the White House that he would not hesitate to cut off federal funding of both NPR and PBS. “I would love to do that,” he said. “I think it’s very unfair. It’s been very biased the whole group.”His sentiments echo those of many conservative leaders, who claimed that PBS and NPR are purveyors of “woke” programming and that there is less need for taxpayer-funded news in the current media landscape. “For far too long, federal taxpayers have been forced to fund biased news. This needs to come to an end, and now,” Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene said.On Tuesday, as reports circulated that the order would finally be executed, three top CPB officials, all appointed by President Biden, filed a lawsuit with the U.S. District Court, claiming they were removed from their positions without notice and illegally.The ousted officials — Tom Rothman, Diane Kaplan, and Laura Ross — claimed there was no reason given for their ouster in an email received from the deputy director of presidential personnel for the Executive Office of the President, Trent Morse.“The Correspondence stated, in full: On behalf of President Donald J. Trump, I am writing to inform you that your position on the Corporation for Public Broadcasting is terminated effective immediately,” the email said, according to the complaint. “Thank you for your service.”

Trump, With New Executive Order, Strips Funding for PBS, NPR

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