During his second campaign trail, Donald Trump threatened to continue his war against the media (or, as he fondly calls us, “the enemy of the American people”). Although Trump is barely over 100 days into his second term, he’s fulfilled those promises. Now, Trump is attacking public media by eliminating federal funding for NPR and PBS, which will impact hundreds of local stations across the country.
On Thursday, Trump signed an executive order directing the Corporation for Public Broadcasting to cease funding for NPR and PBS, whom he previously described as “radical left ‘monsters’”. According to the order, “Government funding of news media in this environment is not only outdated and unnecessary but corrosive to the appearance of journalistic independence.”
Naturally, the White House was much less delicate in its messaging. In a Friday statement, the White House claimed that both organizations “receive tens of millions of dollars in taxpayer funds each year to spread radical, woke propaganda disguised as ‘news’.” The White House’s examples included NPR’s apology for describing people as “illegal”, a PBS documentary on reparations, and both organizations’ content on transgender communities.
The CPB is a private, nonprofit corporation that was authorized by Congress in 1967 with the Public Broadcasting Act. Under this law, CPB is not to be “an agency or establishment of the United States Government” and is meant to protect the “maximum freedom” of public media from “extraneous interference and control.”
In a statement, Paula Kerger, president and CEO of PBS, said that Trump’s “blatantly unlawful” order “threatens our ability to serve the American public with educational programming.” Similarly, Kate Riley, president and CEO of America’s Public Television Stations, said that Trump’s order “would devastate the public safety, educational, and local service missions of public media”.
Per the Washington Post, the CPB receives about $535 million per fiscal year. It distributes funding through grants to over 1,500 locally owned public radio and television stations with a focus on funding content for underserved audiences. When it comes to CPB-funded programming, you may first think of iconic shows like Sesame Street or Between the Lions. But as Riley outlined, CPB funding also allows for public safety services like the PBS Warn System. She warned, “These restrictions would be particularly damaging to local stations serving smaller, more rural communities.”
In its first 100 days, the Trump administration has utilized a range of tactics to target and suppress the media. For example, the administration is currently engaged in a legal battle with Associated Press reporters after blocking them from covering White House events. Why? Because the AP wouldn’t call the Gulf of Mexico by the administration’s preferred name: “Gulf of America”. Per NBC News, the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression condemned it as a clear attack on press freedom, writing, “The role of the press is to hold those in power accountable, not to act as their mouthpiece.” Earlier this week, the Committee to Protect Journalists released a report on how the Trump administration is “chipping away” at press freedom. Although CPJ usually waits a year to evaluate an administration’s impact on the press, Trump’s actions warranted an exception.
Along with trying to exercise control over CPB’s funding, Trump tried removing three of its board members, including two Biden appointees, this week. Under law, the president has the power to appoint board members in consultation with Senate leaders from both parties. However, he doesn’t have the authority to remove them. The CPB sued in response, and, similarly, it will likely oppose Trump’s executive order.
“CPB is not a federal executive agency subject to the President’s authority,” President and CEO Patricia Harrison said in a statement. “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.”
The order can be challenged in court. But as Georgetown law professor Stephen Vladeck warned, winning these lawsuits isn’t the point. And, obviously, neither is creating legislation within the scope of the law. Instead, Vladeck said the Trump administration’s actions are “designed to intimidate, to chill, to shift the conversation, to consume the oxygen.”
Trump’s attacks on journalism can’t be read separately from other attempts to expand his administration’s power. From DOGE’s plans to silo data from various federal agencies into a master database to Trump bringing independent agencies further under control, it ties together. If you control the total production, flow, and dissemination of information, then you can really do whatever the hell you want.
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