Latest news with #PublicBroadcasting
Daily Mail
a day ago
- Business
- Daily Mail
Trump moves to officially strip $1BN from NPR and PBS
President Donald Trump 's demand to strip $1.1 billion in federal funding from National Public Radio and the Public Broadcasting Service came one step closer to reality. Tuesday night House Speaker Mike Johnson said that he had officially received the rescissions request from the White House to extinguish a total of $9.4 billion in funding from NPR, PBS, the State Department and the United States Agency for International Development, the latter of which the administration has disassembled. The $1.1 billion was Congressional funding for the public broadcasters for the next two years. Only about 1 percent of NPR's budget comes from the federal government, but the heads of NPR and PBS have both warned that local TV and radio stations could be impacted by this move. Johnson said he would put the rescission bill on the floor next week. 'Now that this wasteful spending by the federal government has been identified by DOGE, quantified by the Administration, and sent to Congress , House Republicans will fulfill our mandate and continue codifying into law a more efficient federal government,' Johnson said. 'This is exactly what the American people deserve.' For months Trump has demanded that NPR and PBS lose their federal dollars. 'REPUBLICANS MUST DEFUND AND TOTALLY DISASSOCIATE THEMSELVES FROM NPR & PBS, THE RADICAL LEFT "MONSTERS" THAT SO BADLY HURT OUR COUNTRY!' the president wrote in an April Fool's Day Truth Social post. But he wasn't joking. On May 1, Trump signed an executive order to strip the two taxpayer subsidized entities of their federal dollars. PBS should be defunded, the White House argued, because it produced a documentary that argued the case for reparations - payments made to descendents of enslaved Americans. The White House also expressed dissatisfaction that PBS had aired a documentary of a transgender teenage boy and that Sesame Street had partnered with CNN and held a town hall amid the 'Black Lives Matter' protests in June 2020 to address racism. The administration complained that the program showcased a 'one-sided narrative.' The White House also blasted NPR and PBS for liberal bias and for having 'zero tolerance for non-leftist viewpoints.' In late May, NPR and three Colorado NPR stations sued the administration over Trump's executive order claiming that it 'violates the expressed will of Congress.' That could change, however, if the rescission request goes through. It only needs a simple majority in the House and Senate to pass - and Republicans have a narrow majority in both chambers. There has been some GOP resistance on this vote because the broader package also includes funding for PEPFAR, the successful HIV/AIDs prevention started under the White House of Republican President George W. Bush. 'I will not support a cut in PEPFAR, which is a program that has saved literally millions of lives and has been extremely effective and well run,' Republican Sen. Susan Collins told reporters, according to NPR . Collins then sidestepped a question about cutting NPR and PBS' funding. Spokespeople for NPR and PBS did not immediately respond to the Daily Mail's requests for comment.
Daily Mail
a day ago
- Business
- Daily Mail
Trump moves to officially strip $1 BILLION from 'radical left monsters' NPR and PBS
President Donald Trump 's demand to strip $1.1 billion in federal funding from National Public Radio and the Public Broadcasting Service came one step closer to reality. Tuesday night House Speaker Mike Johnson said that he had officially received the rescissions request from the White House to extinguish a total of $9.4 billion in funding from NPR, PBS, the State Department and the United States Agency for International Development, the latter of which the administration has disassembled. The $1.1 billion was Congressional funding for the public broadcasters for the next two years. Only about 1 percent of NPR's budget comes from the federal government, but the heads of NPR and PBS have both warned that local TV and radio stations could be impacted by this move. Johnson said he would put the rescission bill on the floor next week. 'Now that this wasteful spending by the federal government has been identified by DOGE, quantified by the Administration, and sent to Congress, House Republicans will fulfill our mandate and continue codifying into law a more efficient federal government,' Johnson said. 'This is exactly what the American people deserve.' For months Trump has demanded that NPR and PBS lose their federal funding. 'REPUBLICANS MUST DEFUND AND TOTALLY DISASSOCIATE THEMSELVES FROM NPR & PBS, THE RADICAL LEFT "MONSTERS" THAT SO BADLY HURT OUR COUNTRY!' the president wrote in an April Fool's Day Truth Social post. But he wasn't joking. For months Trump has demanded that NPR and PBS lose their federal funding. He sent out this Truth Social post on April Fool's Day but the president wasn't joking On May 1, Trump signed an executive order to strip the two taxpayer subsidized entities of their federal dollars. The White House claimed that NPR and PBS 'spread radical, woke propaganda disguised as "news."' A press release listed a number of stories the administration found objectionable. Among them - a 2015 report on the annual 'furry' festival in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; a 2017 report on a book about cannibalism, and a 2024 Valentine's Day report on ' queer animals.' PBS should be defunded, the White House argued, because it produced a documentary that argued the case for reparations - payments made to descendents of enslaved Americans. The White House also expressed dissatisfaction that PBS had aired a documentary of a transgender teenage boy and that Sesame Street had partnered with CNN and held a town hall amid the 'Black Lives Matter' protests in June 2020 to address racism. The administration complained that the program showcased a 'one-sided narrative.' The White House also blasted NPR and PBS for liberal bias and for having 'zero tolerance for non-leftist viewpoints.' In late May, NPR and three Colorado NPR stations sued the administration over Trump's executive order claiming that it 'violates the expressed will of Congress.' That could change, however, if the rescission request goes through. It only needs a simple majority in the House and Senate to pass - and Republicans have a narrow majority in both chambers. There has been some GOP resistance on this vote because the broader package also includes funding for PEPFAR, the successful HIV/AIDs prevention started under the White House of Republican President George W. Bush. 'I will not support a cut in PEPFAR, which is a program that has saved literally millions of lives and has been extremely effective and well run,' Republican Sen. Susan Collins told reporters, according to NPR. Collins then sidestepped a question about cutting NPR and PBS' funding.
Washington Post
2 days ago
- Business
- Washington Post
Trump asks Congress to defund PBS and NPR
The Trump administration formally requested Tuesday that Congress claw back money for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which funds PBS and NPR. CPB received $525 million in federal funding in 2024 and $535 million in 2025. But under the new plan, if passed into law, it would see its federal budget completely slashed for 2026 and 2027.
The Independent
6 days ago
- Business
- The Independent
PBS accuses Trump of ‘blatant viewpoint discrimination' in lawsuit over funding cut
Weeks after Donald Trump declared that he was cutting federal funding for public broadcasters, PBS followed in NPR's footsteps and sued the president to block his executive order, calling it unconstitutional and 'blatant viewpoint discrimination.' In the complaint that was filed in the US District Court of Washington on Friday, the network – which was joined by member station Northern Minnesota Public Television – accused the administration of violating the broadcaster's First Amendment rights. The lawsuit also claimed that the executive order broke the laws that 'forbid the President from serving as the arbiter of the content of PBS's programming, including by attempting to defund PBS.' 'After careful deliberation, PBS reached the conclusion that it was necessary to take legal action to safeguard public television's editorial independence, and to protect the autonomy of PBS member stations,' a PBS spokesperson said in a statement. The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment. 'The executive order makes no attempt to hide the fact that it is cutting off the flow of funds to PBS because of the content of PBS programming and out of a desire to alter the content of speech,' the lawsuit stated. 'That is blatant viewpoint discrimination.' The complaint added: 'And the EO smacks of retaliation for, among other things, perceived political slights in news coverage. That all transgresses the First Amendment's protection of both speech and freedom of the press.' The public broadcaster's lawsuit comes days after NPR filed a similar complaint against the president. NPR, which gets roughly two percent of its annual budget from the federal government, argued that Trump overstepped his powers by trying to strip funding that had been Congressionally appropriated. 'The president has no authority under the Constitution to take such actions,' alleges the NPR lawsuit, which was filed on Tuesday. 'On the contrary, the power of the purse is reserved to Congress.' '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 NPR complaint added. 'The Order targets NPR and PBS expressly because, in the President's view, their news and other content is not 'fair, accurate, or unbiased.' In his executive order earlier this month, Trump accused the public broadcasters of 'biased' coverage and said that federal funds should instead go to 'fair, accurate, unbiased and nonpartisan news coverage.' The order came after he had repeatedly threatened to claw back the funding allocated to NPR and PBS. Trump has also attempted to fire members of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting's board of directors, resulting in another lawsuit to block those terminations. 'The Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) is creating media to support a particular political party on the taxpayers' dime,' White House principal deputy press secretary Harrison Fields told The Washington Post earlier this week. 'Therefore, the President is exercising his lawful authority to limit funding to NPR and PBS. 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.' PBS relies more heavily on government funds than NPR, with nearly 16 percent of its $373 million annual budget coming directly from grants provided to it by the CPB. The network's lawsuit also claims that Trump's order could potentially harm the large portion of its funding that comes from local station dues.
CBS News
6 days ago
- Business
- CBS News
PBS sues Trump administration over funding cuts, alleging they violate First Amendment
PBS CEO says "we have never seen a circumstance like this" after Trump targets funding PBS on Friday sued President Trump and his administration over an executive order signed earlier this month that seeks to cut funding to the public TV network and NPR. The suit was filed in the U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., and comes days after NPR and three Colorado-based public radio stations separately sued the Trump administration over the same executive order. Both PBS headquarters and a northern Minnesota PBS station are plaintiffs in Friday's case. Lawyers for PBS said the executive order is "blatant viewpoint discrimination and an infringement of PBS and PBS Member Stations' private editorial discretion," and is a violation of the First Amendment and parts of the Public Broadcasting Act, which was passed in 1967. The suit argues that Mr. Trump does not have the authority to block federal funding to the public TV stations over their news coverage. "The EO makes no attempt to hide the fact that it is cutting off the flow of funds to PBS because of the content of PBS programming and out of a desire to alter the content of speech," the complaint says. "The EO smacks of retaliation for, among other things, perceived political slights in news coverage." Mr. Trump's executive order instructed the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, the private nonprofit that serves as the steward of government funding to public media, to cease federal funding for PBS and NPR. The executive order dictates that the government "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." The order also says indirect government funding should be cut off, including funding to local stations that later reaches the national networks. If the executive order is allowed to stand, the PBS complaint says, "it would have profound impacts on the ability of PBS and PBS Member Stations to provide a rich tapestry of programming to all Americans." In a statement to CBS News, White House spokesperson Harrison Fields said: "The Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) is creating media to support a particular political party on the taxpayers' dime. Therefore, the President is exercising his lawful authority to limit funding to NPR and PBS." The Corporation for Public Broadcasting also sued Mr. Trump recently over his attempts to fire three members of its five-member board, arguing that the president was exceeding his authority. PBS CEO Paula Kerger said on "Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan" earlier this month that public broadcasters had "never seen a circumstance like this" and said the Trump administration was "coming after us on many different ways." Kerger said the executive order was just one way the administration was targeting public media. She said a possible rescission of already appropriated funds, and an effort to challenge sponsorships from corporations through the Federal Communications Commission, among other things, were possible. "Obviously we're going to be pushing back very hard, because what's at risk are our stations, our public television, our public radio stations, across the country," Kerger said. She added that PBS only gets 15% of its funding from the federal government, but that some smaller stations receive up to 50% of their funding from federal sources and added the risks to the smaller stations are "existential" if the funding is cut. and contributed to this report.
