Photo Credit: PBS & NPR
A group of state attorneys general asks a federal judge to side with PBS and NPR in the legal battle over plans to end the networks’ federal funding.
Filed on Friday, a 41-page amicus brief by 22 state attorneys general say the Trump administration’s plans to defund PBS and NPR through an executive order are unlawful actions which threaten the “critical importance of public media.”
The filing argues that public media is especially beneficial to small, local, and tribal communities in which English is not the primary language spoken at home. “Public media is a public good,” reads the filing. “That good is even more valuable at the local level, where newsworthiness, reach, and financial incentives often do not align.”
Trump issued the executive order on May 1, claiming neither PBS nor NPR present “a fair, accurate, or unbiased portrayal of current events to taxpaying citizens.” The order directs the Corporation for Public Broadcasting Board of Directors “and all executive departments and agencies” to cease funding both NPR and PBS.
In response, PBS and a Minnesota-based subsidiary filed a lawsuit over the “unprecedented presidential directive” that “will upend public television.” They dispute the assertions levied at them in the executive order. Now, 22 states have filed their amicus brief to back up PBS’ lawsuit, urging a federal judge to side with the public networks.
“Several of the Amici States host television and radio partnerships with high schools, colleges, and universities,” the amicus brief states. “Likewise, affiliates across the Amici States report high viewership of NPR and PBS’ flagship programs and especially their documentary, educational, and news content.”
The states’ chief concern is to vindicate the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which was formed via legislation back in 1967 and which created PBS and NPR in 1969 and 1970, respectively.
“The Executive Branch’s duty is to faithfully execute this law and carry out Congress’ appropriations,” reads the brief. “The challenged Executive Order is ultra vires and violates the First Amendment. Amici States have a strong interest in the safeguarding of constitutional values, as well as in the preservation of their unique local media tapestries.”
“It is up to Congress, with its exclusive power of the purse, to decide whether and how to fund public media,” the brief continues. “If the Executive Branch disagrees, the lawful course is to ask Congress to rescind appropriations, as it has no belatedly asked. But the Executive Branch’s actions challenged here, unilaterally terminating appropriations, are unlawful.”
The brief further asserts that PBS and NPR provide a host of emergency-related, life-saving, weather-related, disaster-related, and crisis-related alerts. Similar such information, they argue, would not be provided by private actors in the absence of public broadcasters.
“Public radio and television stations also often have hardened and resilient infrastructure that allows them to continue broadcasting during emergency situations that may knock out power or other communications resources,” the brief reads. “Beyond weather, the [Emergency Alert System] also communicates public safety alerts.”
“Public media connects millions of Americans,” the brief concludes. “It touches life’s ordinary and extraordinary moments, from school lessons in the living room to life-saving emergency alerts in the midst of a storm. It links remote communities to the happenings of the country and the world at the same time that it carries those communities’ vibrant perspectives to a wider audience. These services, and more, combined with the public funding structure, foster an increasingly rare asset for American institutions: public trust. Losing public media would erode that trust and leave many American communities in the dark.”
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