Corporation for Public Broadcasting fires back at Trump order to end NPR, PBS funding

The Corporation for Public Broadcasting dismissed President Trump’s executive order to ax taxpayer funding for National Public Radio (NPR) and the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) — arguing they aren’t under the White House’s thumb.“CPB is not a federal executive agency subject to the President’s authority,” the corporation’s president, Patricia Harrison, said in a statement Friday.“Congress directly authorized and funded CPB to be a private nonprofit corporation wholly independent of the federal government.”“In creating CPB, Congress expressly forbade ‘any department, agency, officer, or employee of the United States to exercise any direction, supervision, or control over educational television or radio broadcasting, or over [CPB] or any of its grantees or contractors…’ 47 U.S.C.§ 398(c),” she added.

Trump signed an executive order late Thursday that aims to slash public subsidies to PBS and NPR, alleging “bias” in the broadcasters’ reporting.The White House, in a social media post announcing the order, said the outlets “receive millions from taxpayers to spread radical, woke propaganda disguised as ‘news’.”PBS and NPR both receive partial funding via CPB, which Trump has argued is unnecessary in the current media environment.“Government funding of news media in this environment is not only outdated and unnecessary but corrosive to the appearance of journalistic independence,” Trump wrote in the sweeping order.“The CPB Board shall cease direct funding to NPR and PBS, consistent with my Administration’s policy to ensure that Federal funding does not support biased and partisan news coverage,” he continued.“The CPB Board shall cancel existing direct funding to the maximum extent allowed by law and shall decline to provide future funding.”The order also aims to suspend indirect government funding of NPR and PBS by asking the CPB to ensure “that licensees and permittees of public radio and television sta...