STATEMENT

PMA extends support to US public media 

3 June 2025
Both NPR and PBS have taken legal action, claiming the executive order that directs the end of all federal funding breaches the First Amendment. 
PBS Headquarters.
PBS Headquarters, Crystal City. Image: melanie.phung/Creative Commons

The Public Media Alliance extends its support to NPR and PBS, who have taken legal action against the Trump White House to overturn an executive order which ended all federal funding for the two public media entities.  

The executive order, given on 1 May, directed the Corporation for Public Broadcasting – an independent non-profit and non-partisan organisation, tasked with distributing federal funds for public media nationwide – and other federal agencies to “cease Federal funding for NPR and PBS.”  

Nearly a month later, NPR and three Colorado public radio stations launched legal action. Several days later, PBS and Lakeland PBS (a Minnesota-based public television station) followed suit. Both cases are taking place in a district court in the District of Columbia. 

In both lawsuits, the arguments centred on arguing that the order breached the US Constitution’s First Amendment, in particular, freedom of speech or of the press. 

In NPR’s preliminary statement, it was pointed out that normally, “It is not always obvious when the government has acted with a retaliatory purpose in violation of the First Amendment.” However, in this instance, it was more than obvious, or as quoted in the statement, “This wolf comes as a wolf. … The Order targets NPR and PBS expressly because, in the President’s view, their news and other content is not “fair, accurate, or unbiased.”  Order § 1.  And the “Fact Sheet” and press release accompanying the Order, which echo prior statements by President Trump and members of his Administration, only drive home the Order’s overt retaliatory purpose.”  

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In the accompanying fact sheet, published by the White House on the same day as the executive order, it was claimed that “NPR and PBS have fuelled partisanship and left-wing propaganda with taxpayer dollars.” In a statement, NPR’s CEO, Katherine Maher said the order “aims to punish NPR for the content of news and other programming the President dislikes.” 

The lawsuit from PBS similarly argued that the executive order breached the First Amendment. “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.  That is blatant viewpoint discrimination and an infringement of PBS and PBS Member Stations’ private editorial discretion.”  

Additionally, in their preliminary statement, PBS and Lakeland PBS argued that the executive order unlawfully interferes with CPB’s independence. According to a federal telecommunications law, “No ‘department, agency, officer, or employee of the United States’ may ‘exercise any direction, supervision, or control over public telecommunications, or over [CPB] or any of its grantees’”, the lawyers wrote.  

The Public Media Alliance offers its support to both NPR and our member, PBS. Amid a wider onslaught on public media in the US, including against the country’s international media services and the independence of the CPB, it is essential that domestic public broadcasters defend themselves against such egregious efforts to defund independent public service media.  

As noted in the NPR lawsuit, “the Order aims to punish NPR for the content of news and other programming the President dislikes and chill the free exercise of First Amendment rights by NPR and individual public radio stations across the country.” Editorial independence underpins the impartiality of public service media. Attempts to interfere with the editorial independence of NPR and PBS must be resisted and must stop.  

Featured Image: The headquarters of NPR public radio in downtown Washington DC, USA. Credit: Ahmed_Janabi / Shutterstock.com

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