NPR sues Trump administration for cutting US federal funding

A lawsuit against US President Donald Trump and three of its local stations, National Public Radio (NPR), alleges that an executive order that would cut off the organization’s funding is unlawful.

The lawsuit alleges that Trump’s executive order to cut public subsidies for PBS and NPR is in violation of the First Amendment of the US Constitution and was filed in federal court on Tuesday in Washington, DC, by NPR and three local Colorado stations Colorado Public Radio, Aspen Public Radio, and KUTE Inc.

The Corporation for Public Broadcasting and other federal agencies were instructed by Trump to “stop Federal funding for NPR and PBS” earlier this month and to work to eradicate any indirect sources of public funding for the news organizations. Trump later claimed that the broadcasters’ reporting was biased. He issued the order.

Every year, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting invests about $500 million in public television and radio. Federal grants, which amount to 17 and 2 percent, respectively, support PBS and NPR.

The lawsuit claims that the Order’s goals “could not be clearer: the Order aims to stifle NPR for the president’s disliked news and programming, and impede NPR’s and individual public radio stations’ free exercise of First Amendment rights.”

The Order “violates the First Amendment and textbook retaliation, and it interferes with the editorial discretion and freedom of NPR’s,” it said.

According to the White House’s executive order, editorial choices, such as NPR’s alleged refusal to cover the Hunter Biden laptop story and its “Valentine’s Day feature around “queer animals,” were some of the reasons it wanted to reduce federal funding.

NPR CEO Katherine Maher stated in a statement that this discrimination is retaliatory and based on one’s opinion, violating the First Amendment.

NPR is protected by both government attempts to restrict private speech and retaliation intended to defame and demonize protected speech, according to the First Amendment. The Executive Order asks NPR to change its journalistic standards and editorial choices in accordance with the government’s wishes if it is to continue receiving federal funding by basing its directives on the substance of NPR’s programming.

The two systems will contest this separately because PBS hasn’t yet filed in court, but it will likely do so soon, as the absence of PBS indicates.

Court fights have also been sparked by the US president’s attempts to shut down government-run news outlets like Voice of America and Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty.