Page Reader AI | Trump Orders to Cut Federal Funding for NPR and PBS, Citing Biased Reporting

Trump Orders to Cut Federal Funding for NPR and PBS, Citing Biased Reporting | The Epoch Times

AI Summary Hide AI Generated Summary

Key Actions

President Trump signed an executive order to end federal funding for NPR and PBS, citing biased and partisan news coverage. The order directs the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) to cease all direct funding and instructs other federal agencies to terminate existing funding agreements.

Arguments for Defunding

The order claims that government funding of news media is outdated, unnecessary, and harms journalistic independence. It asserts that NPR and PBS do not provide fair, accurate, or unbiased reporting, thus violating CPB's principle of impartiality.

Responses from NPR and PBS

NPR and PBS have previously warned that funding cuts would disrupt operations and impact communities relying on public radio for news. Their CEOs responded to allegations of bias during a House hearing, maintaining their commitment to fair and comprehensive reporting, while acknowledging past mistakes.

Related Actions

This action follows a prior Truth Social post by Trump calling for defunding. It's also part of a broader Trump administration push to eliminate non-statutory components of the U.S. Agency for Global Media (USAGM), which has faced legal challenges, including a temporary restraining order requiring funding disbursement to Radio Free Europe.

We located an Open Access version of this article, legally shared by the author or publisher. Open It

The president said that providing funding to NPR and PBS runs counter to the ‘principle of impartiality.’

President Donald Trump signed an executive order on May 1 seeking to end federal funding for National Public Radio (NPR) and the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) over what he called “biased and partisan news coverage” from the news outlets.

The order directs the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) to end all direct funding for the news outlets and ensure that “licensees and permittees of public radio and television stations, as well as any other recipients of CPB funds, do not use federal funds for NPR and PBS.”

The CPB board of directors was urged to “cancel existing direct funding to the maximum extent allowed by law” and “decline to provide future funding” for the news outlets.

The order also instructs other federal agencies to terminate funding and identify “any remaining grants, contracts, or other funding instruments” entered into with NPR and PBS that are noncompliant with the administration’s policy.

“Government funding of news media in this environment is not only outdated and unnecessary but corrosive to the appearance of journalistic independence,” Trump stated in his order.

Trump said that providing funding to NPR and PBS runs counter to CPB’s principle of impartiality, which states that it must not contribute to or support any political party.

“Which viewpoints NPR and PBS promote does not matter,” he stated. “What does matter is that neither entity presents a fair, accurate, or unbiased portrayal of current events to taxpaying citizens.”

Neither NPR nor PBS responded to a request for comment from The Epoch Times by publication time.

NPR and PBS have previously said that cutting the funding would disrupt their operations and affect American communities that rely on public radio stations for news and public safety information.

The news outlets had anticipated the funding cuts after Trump, in a Truth Social post last month, called for defunding NPR and PBS.

The White House issued a statement on April 14 citing several examples of content from NPR and PBS that it deemed promoting “woke propaganda,” including NPR’s 2024 Valentine’s Day report that featured “queer animals.”

The presidents of both news outlets responded to allegations of liberal bias during a March 26 hearing by the House Subcommittee on Delivering on Government Efficiency.

During the hearing, PBS CEO and President Paula Kerger said that her station looks to appeal to all Americans, although she did not go into depth about allegations of bias.

NPR CEO and President Katherine Maher told the hearing that NPR has processes to ensure that its content is “fair and comprehensive” and that diverse issues and viewpoints are aired.

“We have a responsibility to serve Americans across the full political spectrum in a trustworthy, nonpartisan fashion,” she said.

Several Republicans confronted Maher about NPR’s coverage of the 2020 story of the laptop of former President Joe Biden’s son, Hunter Biden. The laptop consisted of information related to Hunter Biden’s business dealings that have included work in China and Ukraine, where he was on the board of energy company Burisma. Maher said that NPR’s attitude over the laptop story was a “mistake.”

The move to terminate the news outlets’ funding comes amid the Trump administration’s push to eliminate non-statutory components of the U.S. Agency for Global Media (USAGM).

The funding cuts affected organizations under USAGM’s umbrella, including Voice of America, the Office of Cuba Broadcasting, and Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty.

U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth issued a temporary restraining order on April 29, directing USAGM to immediately disburse more than $12 million in funding for the month of April to Radio Free Europe.

The judge said Radio Free Europe had shown it would suffer irreparable harm absent a restraining order, noting that USAGM’s actions to terminate the grants “threaten the very existence” of the news group.

Jackson Richman contributed to this report.