US President Donald Trump has taken notice. This executive order would effectively cut off all federal funding to the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) and National Public Radio (NPR). On Thursday night, we learned that order would be lifted. It comes at a time when, ironically, Trump is claiming that both organizations have conducted unfair and partisan press coverage.
The executive order marks a remarkable change in the level of federal support for public broadcasting, which serves the needs of 330 million Americans. Over 40 million Americans listen to NPR public radio each week. Furthermore, 36 million Americans tune in to their local television stations that are part of the PBS network every month.
In reaction to the order, Paula Kerger, President and CEO of PBS, called the move “staggeringly illegal.” At the core of her testimony was the threat these cuts posed to PBS’s capacity to create educational programming. That determination to serve the American public has remained strong for over 50 years.
Bay Fang, the new CEO of NPR, denounced that funding cut. She explained that these cuts were the result of the Trump administration holding back money that Congress had already appropriated. Last week, a federal judge sided with NPR in the bitter legal battle that continues. Whether to fund public broadcasting has long been a contentious issue, one which this decision highlights.
The executive order claims PBS and NPR do not provide a balanced and impartial perspective on domestic and international issues. It seeks to expose how this misrepresentation harms the taxpaying citizens. It asserts that “neither entity presents a fair, accurate, or unbiased portrayal of current events to taxpaying citizens.” This statement has since ignited a firestorm of discussion on the purpose of public broadcasting and how we should present the full range of perspectives.
Katherine Maher, CEO of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB), defended the independence of public broadcasting, stating, “Congress directly authorized and funded CPB to be a private nonprofit corporation wholly independent of the federal government.” She did mention the fact that federal funding only provides for less than 5% of PBS’s budget.
Such provisions would pose a serious threat to press freedom and could lead to censorship by the backdoor. Commenting on the broader implications of such actions, Michael Stipe stated, “Whether it’s music or a free press – censorship anywhere is a threat to the truth everywhere.”
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