After President Donald Trump signed an executive order ending the taxpayer subsidization of National Public Radio, the news outlet is now complaining it has had its First Amendment rights violated.
NPR and a trio of Colorado public radio stations have sued the Trump administration over an executive order seeking to cease all federal funding to NPR and PBS.
Trump’s executive order instructed the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and other federal agencies “to cease Federal funding for NPR” and other public media outlets.
NPR later vowed to challenge the order “by all means available.”
CEO Katherine Maher said in a lengthy statement:
“The Executive Order is a clear violation of the Constitution and the First Amendment’s protections for freedom of speech and association, and freedom of the press.
It is an affront to the rights of NPR and NPR’s 246 Member stations, which are locally owned, nonprofit, noncommercial media organizations serving all 50 states and territories.
Today, we challenge its constitutionality in the nation’s independent courts.”
“Public media was established to inform the American public and uphold American democratic values.
The President’s Executive Order is directly counter to Congress’s longstanding intent, as expressed in the Public Broadcasting Act, to foster vibrant institutions that achieve that mission, serving all Americans independent of political influence.”
AP reported:
The lawsuit alleges that Trump is acting to contravene the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, a private nonprofit corporation set up to distribute federal funding to NPR and PBS, which is intended to insulate the system from political interference. Congress has appropriated $535 million yearly to CPB for 2025, 2026, and 2027.
In response to the lawsuit, White House deputy press secretary Harrison Fields said that CPB “is creating media to support a particular political party on the taxpayers’ dime,” so Trump was exercising his authority under the law.
“The president was elected with a mandate to ensure efficient use of taxpayer dollars, and he will continue to use his lawful authority to achieve that objective,” Fields said.
Trump hasn’t hidden his feelings about NPR, calling it a “liberal disinformation machine” in an April social media post.
The court fight seemed preordained, given that the heads of NPR and PBS both reacted to Trump’s move earlier this month with statements that they believed it was illegal.
The absence of PBS from Tuesday’s filing indicates the two systems will challenge this separately; PBS has not yet gone to court but is likely to soon.
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While we all certainly have the right of free speech, nobody has the right to government subsidy for that speech. The people who run NPR and PBS are welcome to say whatever they wish just not on the taxpayers’ dime.