NPR sued Trump because of an executive order about funding public broadcasting

The Appeal of NPR and PBS to the Public Broadcasting Sector, Defending the Trump’s Decree on Commercial Radio Commercials

Theodore J. Boutrous is a noted free speech lawyer. The suit calls Trump’s early May executive order “textbook retaliation” and an existential threat to the public radio system “that millions of Americans across the country rely on for vital news and information.”

Public broadcasting is not protected by Trump’s executive order. FCC Chair Brendan Carr launched an investigation in January into whether or not NPR and PBS broke FCC guidelines by airing commercials.

The appeal and reach of the broader public radio system are captured by the differing profiles of the three stations joining in the suit.

Congress gives money to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting a few years in advance to make public broadcasters less vulnerable to political pressure. The CPB was authorized by Congressional statute but set up as a private corporation. There is a lawsuit that the organization is in against Trump over an earlier decree, in which he claimed to be firing three members of the board of directors.

Defending the statements made by Mr. Trump, NPR’s Maher pointed out that the president said he was looking for illegal payback for their news coverage.

An NPR Account of the First U.S. Supreme Court Action Against the Establishment of a School-Based Educational Radio Broadcasting System

In the statement, Harrison noted that the statute Congress passed to create CPB “expressly forbade ‘any department, agency, officer, or employee of the United States to exercise any direction, supervision, or control over educational television or radio broadcasting, or over [CPB] or any of its grantees or contractors.”

For now, Harrison and the rest of the board members are retained, but no action has been taken to block money from NPR or PBS because of the case being heard in the federal courts.

Public radio sees itself as an interdependent system. NPR says its audience exceeds 43 million Americans for its programs, articles, and other offerings through local stations.

Local station reporters appear frequently on NPR news magazines; the network often provides editing and guidance for regional collaborations between local stations; and NPR News member stations pledge to adhere to a shared set of ethical standards. The NPR system allows member stations to deliver and download content for broadcast. Additionally, the network and its member stations rely on CPB to help acquire rights to broadcast music for use on its shows.

Trump’s Republican allies in the U.S. House held a hearing at which Maher was assailed for both personal social media posts showing a liberal tilt years before she joined the network, and journalism published before her arrival. NPR has policies that prevent corporate executives from making editorial decisions for the newsroom, according to her testimony. PBS chief Paula Kerger was asked about a video posted on a New York City public television’s website featuring a drag queen for a show intended for young children. (Kerger said it never ran on television and was taken down.)

“To the extent that taxpayer dollars are being used to support a for profit endeavor or an entity that is airing commercial advertisements,” Carr wrote in a letter to the heads of NPR and PBS, “then that would further undermine any case for continuing to fund NPR and PBS with taxpayer dollars.”

Disclosure: This story was reported and written by NPR media correspondent David Folkenflik and edited by Deputy Business Editor Emily Kopp, Managing Editor Vickie Walton-James and Managing Editor Gerry Holmes. There was no review of the story before it was posted on NPR’s website.

NPR and three Colorado public radio stations filed suit Tuesday morning in federal court against the Trump White House over the president’s executive order purportedly barring the use of Congressionally appropriated funds for NPR and PBS.

FOLKENFLIK: The next day the president issued a memo stating that the coverage on NPR and PBS was biased and that he was acting to prevent federal taxpayers from giving money to them. And the accompanying material made clear that he thought they were biased against the right, that they were woke, they were left-wing propaganda – choose any epithet that you – or denigration that you want that’s popular these days in his circles.

KELLY. OK, so this is an effort to make clear what the stakes are for local audiences, local communities. The White House has responded. What is it being said?

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Reply to the “Comment on Applications of the Second Amendment to the Constitutional Fundamental Law of the Fourth Amendment in the First Amendment'”

According to the complaint, the president has no authority to take such actions. “On the contrary, the power of the purse is reserved to Congress.”