Trump signs executive order in bid to cut $1.1bn funding for pubcasters PBS and NPR

Donald Trump has signed an executive order seeking to cut public funding for the US public service organisations PBS and NPR, accusing them of being biased.

Donald Trump

Library of Congress

The move comes after the White House said earlier this month it planned to ask Congress to rescind US$1.1bn in funding to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB), which supports the likes of PBS and radio broadcaster NPR.

The executive order, signed yesterday, argues in a media landscape “filled with abundant, diverse and innovative news options” that government funding of news media “is not only outdated and unnecessary but corrosive to the appearance of journalistic independence.”

“Neither entity presents a fair, accurate or unbiased portrayal of current events to taxpaying citizens,” the executive order states.

The Trump administration has previously alleged PBS and NPR spread “radical, woke propaganda disguised as news” and claimed that funding both organisations is a “waste” of public resources.

The CPB board has been instructed to cancel existing direct funding to NPR and PBS to “the maximum extent allowed by law” and it must now decline to provide future funding.

PBS, which is a non-profit organisation, is funded through a combination of government funds, money from the CPB, private donations and dues from its member stations.

Execs at two of PBS’s main documentary series recently told C21 they are staying the course amid the ongoing threats from Trump.

Congress will now have 45 days to decide what to do, explained Noland Walker, co-curator of the Independent Television Service, a documentary fund and production entity that presents docs that are distributed via PBS, including the weekly series Independent Lens.

Once Congress has made its decision, PBS will decide how best to proceed, he said, adding that the organisation has been “scenario planning” for something “other than business as usual.”