President Donald Trump is following through on a move that conservatives have demanded for decades—cutting off the taxpayer money flow to National Public Radio, NPR, and the Public Broadcasting Service, PBS. In a bold executive order issued Thursday, Trump directed the Corporation for Public Broadcasting to “cease federal funding” for both media outlets.
As reported by The Daily Wire, this decision comes just weeks after the White House released a report blasting the two public broadcasters. “For years, American taxpayers have been on the hook for subsidizing National Public Radio and the Public Broadcasting Service, which spread radical, woke propaganda disguised as ‘news,’” the report stated.
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The executive order pulls no punches, pointing to the modern media environment as more than sufficient to justify pulling the plug. “Unlike in 1967, when the CPB was established, today the media landscape is filled with abundant, diverse and innovative news options,” the order reads. “Government funding of news media in this environment is not only outdated and unnecessary but corrosive to the appearance of journalistic independence.”
Trump further declared that “no media outlet has a constitutional right to taxpayer subsidies,” and emphasized that Americans deserve “fair, accurate, unbiased and nonpartisan news coverage” when their tax dollars are footing the bill.
The order also accuses the CPB of violating its own rules by subsidizing politically biased content.
“Which viewpoints NPR and PBS promote does not matter,” it says. “What does matter is that neither entity presents a fair, accurate or unbiased portrayal of current events to taxpaying citizens.”
Concerns over NPR’s objectivity have recently come from within its own walls. In April, former NPR editor Uri Berliner blew the whistle, admitting, “An open-minded spirit no longer exists within NPR, and now, predictably, we don’t have an audience that reflects America.” He specifically pointed to the outlet’s cozy relationship with Rep. Adam Schiff, whom NPR interviewed 25 times during the Trump-Russia probe. “When the Mueller report found no credible evidence of collusion, NPR’s coverage was notably sparse,” Berliner noted.
Berliner also highlighted how NPR ignored the Hunter Biden laptop scandal ahead of the 2020 election and criticized its shift in mission. “Race and identity became paramount in nearly every aspect of the workplace,” he said. “The absence of viewpoint diversity,” he warned, is the network’s most damaging flaw.
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NPR’s current CEO, Katherine Maher, has added to the controversy. In a 2021 TED Talk, she declared, “Our reverence for the truth might have become a bit of a distraction that is preventing us from finding consensus and getting things done.”
For many Americans, this move by Trump sends a clear message: if media outlets want to push partisan narratives, they shouldn’t do it with our money.
James Lasher is staff writer for Charisma Media.
