ASPEN, COLORADO — PBS CEO Paula Kerger recounted the "extraordinary" year her organization has had after President Donald Trump and congressional Republicans revoked its federal funding.Appearing Sunday at the Aspen Institute's Ideas Festival, Kerger was asked to summarize the dramatic saga PBS underwent, which she referred to as a "year of letters," the first in January 2025 from Federal Communications Committee (FCC) Chair Brendan Carr, who was probing PBS' corporate partnerships, followed by a letter that March from then-Rep.Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., who summoned her and NPR CEO Katherine Maher to testify before the DOGE Committee's hearing, which she noted was titled "Anti-American Airwaves.""I repeat this all the time because of all the things in the last year, that was the most offensive," Kerger told the Aspen audience.PBS AFFILIATE BOARD CHAIRMAN UNDER FIRE AFTER SAYING HE HOPES TRUMP SUFFERS STROKEPBS CEO Paula Kerger speaks at the Aspen Institute's Ideas Festival in Aspen, Colorado on Sunday, June 28, 2026.
(Joseph A.Wulfsohn/Fox News Digital)She then noted the letter she received from Trump on his executive order withholding federal funding from PBS and NPR."The most sobering moment of the year, maybe even my life, was signing the lawsuit against the president," Kerger said.
"I did feel the gravity of the moment.I mean, never in my life did I think that I would be signing a lawsuit against the President of the United States."FEDERAL JUDGE BLOCKS TRUMP EXECUTIVE ORDER TO CEASE FUNDING FOR NPR AND PBS, CITES FIRST AMENDMENTThe effects of the pulled funding were immediate, pointing to the scrambled effort to fund its new PBS Kids show "Phoebe and Jay" and cancelling an initiative to provide American Sign Language for children's programming."Our stations were counting on that money.
Eighty percent of the money that comes from the federal government actually doesn't go to me or to NPR, it goes to the stations.That's where that money goes," Kerger sa...