Trump moves to gut PBS and NPR in latest salvo against the media

One of the less bombastic features of the second Trump administration has been the effort to reshape the traditional media ecosystem into a more obsequious institution. That endeavor took a significant step forward on Thursday, when President Donald Trump signed a new executive order aimed at stripping federal funding from NPR and PBS. The president accused the two broadcasters of eschewing a "fair, accurate or unbiased portrayal of current events to taxpaying citizens" in the service of "partisanship and left-wing propaganda."

The 'biggest escalation yet'

Trump's executive order instructs the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, a private entity that distributes government funds to public media outlets, to end its allocation of federal money to PBS and NPR to the "extent allowed by law," said The New York Times. Crucially, however, "only a small portion" of both outlets' budget comes from federal funds, while the vast majority comes from "donors and sponsors." As such, the "immediate impact" of Trump's order is "unclear," particularly given that the Corporation for Public Broadcasting is funded several years in advance to "protect it from political maneuvering."

Even so, Trump's "extraordinary order" marks the "biggest escalation yet" in the White House's "assault on the media," Politico said. Earlier this year, the president signed a separate order designed to "hollow out" Voice of America, another "independent, government-funded media organization the president has long accused of bias." Trump's latest order arrives amid an "already tense" situation between the White House and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which sued the administration on Wednesday over Trump's effort to fire several members of its board, said Axios. Separately, the Federal Communications Commission has recently "launched an investigation" of NPR and PBS, claiming it "appears" their corporate underwriting could violate laws "banning commercial advertisements," said NPR.

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'Countered by local support'

Should Trump's effort to hamstring public broadcasting succeed, rural communities, the "original target audience of educational radio," would "feel the biggest impact," said University of Colorado Boulder Associate Professor of Media Studies Josh Shepperd at The Conversation. There are "few alternatives" for news in rural communities where local journalism has been "hit hard by corporate cuts to newsrooms."

"For decades," public broadcasting outlets have "enjoyed bipartisan support," said Axios. In his first term, Trump had "zeroed out the funding" for PBS and NPR, but lawmakers ultimately "always allocated the funds," CNN said. That was a sign that any "national Republican opposition" to the outlets is often "countered by local support." To that end, the "legal wrangling" already underway to fight the administration's effort to oust Corporation for Public Broadcasting board members could provide a model for a "similar legal challenge" against this latest defunding effort, said The Washington Post. The order is "all but certain to be challenged in court," Politico said.

Many local public broadcasting stations simply "would not exist were there not federal dollars to help," PBS CEO Paula Kerger said to "PBS Newshour." If the order is allowed to move forward, some newsrooms would likely see that reality firsthand.