Photo Credit: PBS
PBS files a lawsuit against the Trump Administration over an executive order signed earlier this month to cut funding to the public television network and NPR.
On Friday, the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) sued Donald Trump and his administration over the executive order signed early last month. The order aims to cut funding to public broadcasters like PBS and NPR. The lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., follows NPR and three of its Colorado-based member stations suing Trump over the same order.
According to attorneys for PBS, the executive order is “blatant viewpoint discrimination and an infringement of PBS and PBS Member Stations’ private editorial discretion. Further, they assert the order is a violation of the First Amendment, as well as parts of the Public Broadcasting Act passed in 1967. Much like NPR’s separate lawsuit over the same executive order, PBS’ lawsuit argues that Trump does not have the authority to block federal funding to the public TV and radio networks over their content.
“The EO [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,” reads the filing. “The EO smacks of retaliation for, among other things, perceived political slights in news coverage.”
Trump’s executive order, signed in early May, instructed the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB), the private nonprofit that serves as the point of contact for government funding to public media, to cease federal funding for PBS and NPR. The order asserts that government funding serves to “support biased and partisan news coverage.” Further, the order says indirect government funding should be stopped, including funding to local stations that connect to a national news network.
When NPR’s lawsuit was filed last week, White House spokesman Harrison Fields told CBS News: “The Corporation for Public Broadcasting 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.”
Notably, the CPB also sued Trump in a separate lawsuit over attempts to fire three members of its five-member board, asserting the president was overstepping his authority.
Should the executive order stand, PBS’ lawsuit 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.”
PBS CEO Paula Kerger, on Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan, said that public broadcasters have “never seen a circumstance like this,” and stressed that the Trump Administration has been “coming after us [in] many different ways.” According to Kerger, a possible revocation of previously appropriated funds, as well as an effort to challenge corporate sponsorships—the primary way that public networks are funded—through the FCC, “among other things,” were possible retaliatory measures.
“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,” said Kerger, who added that PBS only receives 15% of its funding from the federal government.
Smaller stations may receive up to 50% of their funding from federal sources, which adds the risk that those stations will cease to function altogether if that funding stops.
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