President Trump signed an executive order ending taxpayer subsidization of National Public Radio and the Public Broadcasting Service.
The executive order, signed Thursday night, requires the Corporation for Public Broadcasting to revise its 2025 General Provisions to explicitly prohibit direct or indirect funding to NPR and PBS.
The order ceases federal funding to NPR and PBS to the maximum extent of the law and ceases indirect funding to PBS and NPR by restricting local public radio, television stations and any other recipients of CPB funds from using taxpayer dollars to support these organizations.
It also instructs all federal agencies to end any direct or indirect funding to NPR and PBS and review existing grants and contracts for compliance.
Additionally, the order directs the FCC and relevant agencies to investigate whether NPR and PBS have engaged in unlawful discrimination.
“Unlike in 1967, when the CPB was established, today the media landscape is filled with abundant, diverse, and innovative news options. Government funding of news media in this environment is not only outdated and unnecessary but corrosive to the appearance of journalistic independence,” the order states.
“At the very least, Americans have the right to expect that if their tax dollars fund public broadcasting at all, they fund only fair, accurate, unbiased, and nonpartisan news coverage. No media outlet has a constitutional right to taxpayer subsidies, and the Government is entitled to determine which categories of activities to subsidize.”
The order cites CPB’s governing statute of principles of impartiality under 47 U.S.C. 396(f)(3), where it states CPB may not “contribute to or otherwise support any political party.”
The White House says that CPB fails to “abide by these principles to the extent it subsidizes NPR and PBS.”
The action to defund NPR and PBS comes two weeks after the White House said it would request Congress to pull back funding for the CPB as part of a $9.1 billion package of cuts.
The public broadcasters receive about half a billion dollars in taxpayer money through the CPB, and have been readying for the potential budget cuts since Mr. Trump’s election, as Republicans over the years have long fought for their defunding.
Paula Kerger, PBS’ CEO and president, said in a statement last month that the Trump administration’s push to roll back funding for public media would “disrupt the essential service PBS and local member stations provide to the American people.”
“There’s nothing more American than PBS, and our work is only possible because of the bipartisan support we have always received from Congress,” she said.
“This public-private partnership allows us to help prepare millions of children for success in school and in life and also supports enriching and inspiring programs of the highest quality.”
• Wire reports contributed to this article.
