NPR’s lawsuit reiterates a common-sense argument: that the Trump administration is less concerned with enforcing real rules, regulations, and statutes than it is with lashing out against media outlets perceived as hostile.
National Public Radio and three of its local stations have filed a lawsuit against Donald Trump, claiming that a recently-issued executive order stripping NPR of much of its public funding is patently unconstitutional and predicated on power that the president doesn’t have.
According to The Associated Press, earlier this month, President Trump directed the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, and other federal agencies, to cease all funding to both NPR and PBS.
In each case, the president and his allies say that the networks have a left-leaning bias and shouldn’t, as a result, be entitled to any amount of taxpayer money.
“It’s interesting, because the executive order is very specific, in that it accuses NPR and PBS of not airing fair or unbiased news,” said Katherine Maher, the network’s president and CEO.
“And so it is a textbook example of viewpoint discrimination from a First Amendment standpoint,” Maher told NPR “Newshour” host Geoff Bennett in an interview. “Essentially, by blocking funding to NPR and PBS, it is a form of retaliation against our organizations for airing editorial programming that the president might disagree with.”
“The safeguards for our editorial independence go very far back,” she said. “They go back to the Public Broadcasting Act [of 1967]. It was one of Congress’ … paramount objectives [t]o ensure that public media was independent from government influence. And so you have the editorial safeguards that should exist for our organizations.”
NPR’s lawsuit reiterated the same, common-sense argument: that the Trump administration is less concerned with enforcing real rules, regulations, and statutes than it is with lashing out against media outlets perceived as hostile.
The plaintiffs in the lawsuit include National Public Radio and three of its local stations, all in Colorado: Colorado Public Radio, Aspen Public Radio, and KUTE, Inc., which were specifically chosen to highlight the diverse coverage NPR offers in urban and rural areas alike.
“By basing its directives on the substance of NPR’s programming, the executive order seeks to force NPR to adapt its journalistic standards and editorial choices to the preferences of the government if it is to continue to receive federal funding,” Maher said in a statement announcing the lawsuit.
President Trump’s executive order also limited funding to PBS, which has since filed its own, separate lawsuit against the administration. Maher indicated that, while NPR and PBS opted not to file a joint claim, both networks are of the same opinion on Trump’s new rule.
“We have obviously been in close coordination with PBS, and they have expressed … their support for this particular action,” Maher said in her “Newshour” interview. “And we know that, when the executive order first came out, they were clear that they also believe that this is unlawful.”
Sources
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