The Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) is pushing back on President Donald Trump‘s executive order to no longer provide federal funding for NPR and PBS.
For more than 50 years, the federal government has provided some funding to National Public Radio (NPR) and the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS), both of which provide free, educational content for Americans.
“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,” CPB President and CEO Patricia Harrison said in a statement Friday.
Harrison explained that when Congress established CPB in 1967 it forbade a federal department, agency, employee or officer from exercising “any direction, supervision or control over educational television or radio broadcasting, or over [CPB] or any of its grantees or contractors.”
Trump’s executive order on May 1 instructs the CPB to cease all federal funding for PBS and NPR.
According to PBS President and CEO Paula Kerger, who spoke with ABC News, the loss of funding will affect rural communities, whose access has been dependent on government funding.
“They formed PBS as a way that we could bring the dollars together from around the country from all of our stations That would help us create the kids content that people have loved for many decades and that have really raised generations of children,” Kerger said.
Smaller stations could be challenged to stay in operation without federal funding, Kerger said.
“I hear, respect and understand your concerns regarding bias and whether public media is relevant in a commercial landscape. It is critical for NPR’s newsroom to operate with the highest journalistic standards. That means they do their jobs independently, and as CEO I have no editorial role at NPR,” NPR President and CEO Katherine Maher said at a U.S. House hearing in March focused on NPR funding.
A petition by MoveOn calls on Congress to protect PBS’s funding and has gathered more than 36,000 signatures.
The executive order threatens the ability of more than 160 local public TV stations, many serving rural areas, to deliver essential news and information to communities that often lack any other local media.
“From the beginning of his term, the Trump Administration has repeatedly targeted the press, from restricting reporters’ access to the Oval Office to removing journalists from Pentagon workspaces,” a spokesperson for MoveOn said.
The petition highlights that millions of Americans rely on public broadcasting for trusted news, educational programming, emergency alerts and public safety information.
“Congress has a clear responsibility to protect public media and ensure that all Americans, regardless of income, geography or political views, maintain access to this vital public resource.”
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Trump signs executive order to cease federal funding for NPR, PBS
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Rebecca Barnabi
