May 2 (UPI) — President Donald Trump has signed an executive order to halt federal funding to PBS and NPR, calling the public news organizations “biased.”
Trump, who has long criticized the two news organizations for alleged bias, signed the executive order Thursday, directing the Corporation for Public Broadcasting to cease direct funding to NPR and PBS to the maximum extent allowed by law.
To stem indirect public funding to NPR and PBS, the executive order calls on CPB to ensure that licensees and permittees of public radio and television stations as well as other recipients of its funds, do not use federal funds for the two news organizations.
All agency heads are also directed under the order to identify and terminate any funding to the organizations, which are also to be investigated by the Department of Health and Human Services for compliance with statutory mandates concerning employment discrimination.
UPI has contacted both NPR and PBS for comment.
More than 70% of CPB’s congressionally approved $535 million budget goes directly to public media stations through grants.
According to NPR, about 1% of its annual operating budget comes in the form of grants from CPB and federal agencies and departments, excluding CPB funding for the Public Radio Satellite System.
According to PBS, federal funding covers about 15% of its revenue.
The White House on social media said they receive “millions from taxpayers.”
Trump signed the executive order just two days after CPB sued the Trump administration over its attempt to remove three of its board members.
In the lawsuit, CPB argues that it is not a federal agency but a private corporation and therefore is not subject to the president’s authority.
It also comes amid a GOP push to strip the two organizations of federal funds, and roughly two weeks after the White House issued a statement that amounted to a list of articles from NPR and PBS that the Trump administration took exception too, and framed as spreading “radical, woke propaganda disguised as ‘news.'”
On his Truth Social media platform early last month, Trump urged Republicans to abandon both PBS and NPR.
“REPUBLICANS MUST DEFUND AND TOTALLY DISASSOCIATE THEMSELVES FROM NPR & PBS, THE RADICAL LEFT ‘MONSTERS’ THAT SO BADLY HURT OUR COUNTRY!” he said.
CPB was founded in 1967 as a private nonprofit corporation to fund public television and radio stations and their programs.
A recent Pew study conducted in March found that 43% of respondents said NPR and PBS should continue to receive federal funding compared to 24% that said Congress should stop allocating the two news organizations money.The remaining 33% of respondents said they weren’t sure.
