Overview
- President Trump’s executive order instructs the Corporation for Public Broadcasting to cease federal funding for NPR and PBS, citing alleged partisan bias and outdated subsidies.
- NPR CEO Katherine Maher and PBS CEO Paula Kerger announced plans to explore legal challenges, invoking the Public Broadcasting Act and First Amendment protections.
- Federal funding accounts for less than 1% of NPR’s budget and 15% of PBS’s, but smaller and rural stations, some of which depend on federal funds for up to 50% of their budgets, face existential threats.
- Leaders warn that funding cuts could exacerbate news deserts in rural areas, where 20% of Americans lack alternative local news sources, and halt the development of educational children’s programming.
- Critics of the executive order question the president’s authority to unilaterally defund public broadcasters, emphasizing that funding decisions are typically the purview of Congress.