President Trump has issued an executive order aimed at ending taxpayer funding for National Public Radio (NPR) and the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS), which currently receive roughly half a billion dollars in public money.
The presidential order contends that taxpayer funding for the two outlets isn’t needed since news consumers now have such a wide variety of options for coverage in the Information Age:
“Unlike in 1967, when the CPB [Corporation for Public Broadcasting] was established, today the media landscape is filled with abundant, diverse, and innovative news options. Government funding of news media in this environment is not only outdated and unnecessary but corrosive to the appearance of journalistic independence.”
The head of PBS says President Trump’s executive order is unlawful.
PBS CEO Paula Kerger said Friday, “We are currently exploring all options to allow PBS to continue to serve our member stations and all Americans.”
Trump’s order states that another goal is “to ensure that Federal funding does not support biased and partisan news coverage.”
The White House alleged on social media that NPR and PBS have used taxpayers’ dollars “to spread radical, woke propaganda disguised as ‘news.’”
“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. No media outlet has a constitutional right to taxpayer subsidies, and the Government is entitled to determine which categories of activities to subsidize,” Trump stated.
The executive order instructs federal agencies to work to root out indirect sources of public financing for the news organizations as well.
The White House had announced two weeks ago that it would be asking Congress to rescind funding for the CPB as part of a $9.1 billion package of cuts.
