Particle.news
Download on the App Store
60 ARTICLES
·
3mo ago

NPR and Colorado Broadcasters File Suit Challenging Trump’s Public Media Funding Cuts

President Trump’s May 1 order is challenged for violating free speech protections, bypassing Congress’s spending authority, with PBS considering its own legal action.

Image
The headquarters for National Public Radio (NPR) in Washington, DC, March 26, 2025. (Photo by SAUL LOEB / AFP) (Photo by SAUL LOEB/AFP via Getty Images)
FILE - The headquarters for National Public Radio (NPR) is seen in Washington, April 15, 2013. AP Photo/Charles Dharapak, File)
Image

Overview

  • On May 27, NPR joined Colorado Public Radio, Aspen Public Radio and KSUT in filing a lawsuit in federal court in Washington, D.C., seeking to block Executive Order 14290.
  • The complaint alleges the order unlawfully targets NPR and PBS for content deemed “biased,” constituting retaliatory, viewpoint-based discrimination in violation of the First Amendment.
  • Plaintiffs contend the president lacks authority to rescind funding expressly appropriated by Congress, arguing the order usurps the legislative branch’s exclusive power of the purse.
  • The suit highlights that NPR receives about 1% of its revenue directly from federal sources and that local stations depend on 8–10% of their budgets from the congressionally authorized, independent Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
  • PBS has not joined the lawsuit but is weighing its own legal response to protect roughly 15% of its funding that flows through the CPB to member stations nationwide.