Donald Trump cuts funding to “biased media” NPR and PBS
In a new wave of cuts, President of the USA Donald Trump has signed an executive order ending federal funding of media outlets National Public Radio (NPR) and Public Broadcasting Service (PBS).
Trump signed the order on May 1st. He directed the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) board to “cease federal funding” for the two publications.
Trump has outwardly attacked these platforms before. He dubbed the media the “enemy of the people”, and previously wrote: “Republicans must defund and totally disassociate themselves from NPR & PBS, the radical left ‘monsters’ that so badly hurt our country!”
Trump’s order states: “Government funding of news media in this environment is not only outdated and unnecessary but corrosive to the appearance of journalistic independence. At the very least, Americans have the right to expect that if their tax dollars fund public broadcasting at all, they fund only fair, accurate, unbiased, and nonpartisan news coverage.”
As reported by Consequence, the order also demanded that the CPB revise its 2025 provisions to halt funding to NPR and PBS. It directed all federal agencies to terminate existing grants and contracts with them, and instructed the FCC and other relevant bodies to investigate the outlets for potential unlawful discrimination.
The decision has not gone down well within the American media world. “The president’s blatantly unlawful executive order, issued in the middle of the night, threatens our ability to serve the American public with educational programming, as we have for the past 50-plus years,” Paula Kerger, the president and CEO of PBS, said.
With this move, PBS will lose around 15 per cent of its funding. Media representatives have already warned that this move will affect mainly rural outlets and areas currently underserved by commercial broadcasters.
In a recent cost-cutting move, the Trump administration cancelled millions of dollars in previously awarded federal humanities grants for arts and culture students. The
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