Zürcher Nachrichten - Trump signs executive order to cut NPR, PBS public funding

Trump has long had an antagonistic relationship with most mainstream news media, previously describing them as the "enemy of the people."

A notable exception is the powerful conservative broadcaster Fox News, some of whose hosts have taken on major roles in his administration.

National Public Radio (NPR) and the Public Broadcasting Service (CBS) are only partly funded by US taxpayers through the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) and rely heavily on private donations.

Trump in his executive order instructed the CPB Board of Directors and all executive departments and agencies "to cease Federal funding" for NPR and CBS.

He added that "neither entity presents a fair, accurate, or unbiased portrayal of current events to taxpaying citizens."

The CPB budget has already been approved by Congress through 2027, which raises questions about the scope of Trump's order.

Politico magazine described the order as "the White House’s biggest escalation yet in its assault on the media" and said it would likely be challenged in court.

- 'Subsidization of Biased Media' -

The White House published on Thursday a fact sheet titled "President Donald J. Trump Ends the Taxpayer Subsidization of Biased Media."

It said that NPR and PBS "have fueled partisanship and left-wing propaganda with taxpayer dollars, which is highly inappropriate and an improper use of taxpayers’ money."

To support this accusation, the document listed a number of claims about the two media outlets, which it said receive "tens of millions of dollars in taxpayer funds each year."

For example, that "over a six-month period, PBS News Hour used versions of the term 'far-right' 162 times, but 'far-left' only 6 times," the White House said.

It cited research -- from an unnamed source -- that showed that congressional Republicans have received far more negative media coverage than Democrats.

The fact sheet also listed an NPR feature about "queer animals," and on PBS the appearance of a "drag queen" on a kid's show and a movie "which celebrates a transgender teen's transition."

PBS and NPR were not immediately available for comment.

- Press freedom -

More than 40 million Americans listen to NPR public radio each week, and 36 million watch a local television station from the PBS network each month, according to their estimates.

NPR director Katherine Maher estimated in March that the radio station would receive about $120 million from the CPB in 2025, "less than five percent of its budget."

Media rights group RSF warned Friday about "an alarming deterioration in press freedom" in the United States and "unprecedented" difficulties for independent journalists around the world.

In February, the Oval Office stripped the White House Correspondents' Association of the nearly century-old power to decide which of them cover US presidential events, with Trump saying that he was now "calling the shots" on media access.

It also banned reporters from the Associated Press, the top US news agency, from the Oval Office and travelling on Air Force One.

This was because the AP continues to refer to the Gulf of Mexico, an international body of water, and not simply the "Gulf of America" as decreed by Trump.

The Trump administration has also begun to dismantle America's publicly-funded "voices" abroad, including Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Radio Free Asia and "Voice of America."

D.Graf--NZN