If you’re like me, you probably heard of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting before you were old enough to understand what it even was, because your favorite PBS show was bookended with “Funding for this program was made possible by The Corporation for Public Broadcasting and by annual financial support from Viewers Like You.” Formally established by Congress in 1967, the CPB is a nonprofit independent of the government. That’s by design. Congress is in charge of funding CPB (which it does two years in advance), and the President may appoint (but not remove) board members; but no part of the federal government has jurisdiction over how CPB metes out its, on average, $500 million a year to local public broadcasters. So naturally, last month Trump tried firing three of CPB’s five board members, CPB sued in return, and days later Trump sharpied one of his executive orders barring CPB from distributing Congressionally appropriated funds to NPR and PBS. Now NPR is joining the fray, and are suing (along with three Colorado radio stations) Trump and the White House over the illegal funding ban:
“It is not always obvious when the government has acted with a retaliatory purpose in violation of the First Amendment. ‘But this wolf comes as a wolf,’” the legal filing for the public broadcasters states. “The Order targets NPR and PBS expressly because, in the President’s view, their news and other content is not ‘fair, accurate, or unbiased.’”
The line about the “wolf” was drawn from a 1988 dissent by the late U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia.
The lawsuit says the administration is usurping Congress’ power to direct how federal money will be spent and to pass laws. It names President Trump, White House budget director Russell Vought, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Maria Rosario Jackson, the chair of the National Endowment for the Arts, as defendants. … “The Executive Order is a clear violation of the Constitution and the First Amendment’s protections for freedom of speech and association, and freedom of the press,” NPR President and CEO Katherine Maher said in a statement.
…Trump cited his authority as president under the Constitution and federal laws in making the order and said that neither NPR nor PBS “presents a fair, accurate, or unbiased portrayal of current events to taxpaying citizens.” In other public statements, Trump and his allies have called the public broadcasters “left-wing propaganda” and made similarly disparaging remarks. An accompanying fact sheet put out by the White House cited the claim that NPR published articles “insist[ing] that COVID-19 did not originate in a lab” and “refused to cover the Hunter Biden laptop story.”
“The Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) is creating media to support a political party on the taxpayers’ dime. Therefore, the President is exercising his lawful authority to limit funding to NPR and PBS,” said Harrison Fields, a White House spokesperson, in a statement on Tuesday. “The President was elected with a mandate to ensure efficient use of taxpayer dollars, and he will continue to use his lawful authority to achieve that objective.”
NPR’s Maher rejected such ideological characterizations, pointing to such statements by Trump to argue he was seeking to exact illegal retribution for their news coverage.
“This is retaliatory, viewpoint-based discrimination in violation of the First Amendment. The Supreme Court has ruled numerous times over the past 80 years that the government does not have the right to determine what counts as ‘biased,’” Maher said in her statement Tuesday. “NPR will never agree to this infringement of our constitutional rights, or the constitutional rights of our Member stations, and NPR will not compromise our commitment to an independent free press and journalistic integrity.”
Trump, the boy who cried “But Hunter Biden’s laptop!” Not to suggest that journalists shouldn’t shine a light on possible corruption, which is why Trump should be pleased by the plentiful reporting NPR has been running on a very recent, blatant case of ethics violations coming out of DC. Merde. I can’t say this development of NPR suing over Trump’s retaliatory actions is surprising, coming on the heels of Trump attacking/decimating the NEA, NEH, Smithsonian, and all who refuse to kowtow to a clown. But it’s still all so surreal and more than a tad soul-crushing. Big applause goes to institutions like AP News, Harvard University, and now NPR, that are fighting back with lawsuits. The law is on our side! And for what it’s worth, the Congressionally appointed funds Trump wants to block CPB from distributing account for 15% of PBS’s total funds, 10% for NPR stations, and 1% for NPR itself directly. Not nothing, but not everything, either. So while CPB is working to retain its right to make funding possible for our public stations, now’s the time for Viewers Like Us to step in and contribute, where we can.
Photos via YouTube/Ted, Instagram and credit Getty
