NPR sues Trump administration, claims funding cuts violate First Amendment rights
Weeks after the Trump administration announced that it was instructing the Corporation for Public Broadcasting to stop funding National Public Radio and the Public Broadcasting Service, NPR and several publicly owned radio stations are suing.
NPR filed the suit on Tuesday along with three Colorado-based radio stations that claim the cuts would violate the stations' First Amendment rights. Additionally, they claim that the White House is overstepping its authority, given that funding is appropriated by Congress.
President Donald Trump's executive order indicates that public radio stations would be ineligible to receive funds if they utilize NPR content. "Congress has for decades promoted, supported and protected from governmental interference the speech of private entities in the public broadcasting system, including NPR and non-commercial radio stations like the Local Member Stations," NPR said in the suit. "In so doing, Congress recognized not only that promoting and supporting public broadcasting serves the public interest, but also that such speech remains private—and thus fully protected from censorship, retaliation or other forms of governmental interference, consistent with the Constitution and our country’s democratic traditions."
The Trump administration argues that government funding of news media in this environment is not only outdated and unnecessary but is corrosive to the appearance of journalistic independence. "Americans have the right to expect that if their tax dollars fund public broadcasting at all, they fund only fair, accurate, unbiased, and nonpartisan news coverage. No media outlet has a constitutional right to taxpayer subsidies, and the government is entitled to determine which categories of activities to subsidize," President Trump wrote in the executive order.
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@JohnnySpot it’s a baby/bathwater problem. PBS news is for the most part down the center, but when they do run a story about climate change or trans rights, the right will label the whole network as far left.
@trollslayer "Republicans repeatedly cited Uri Berliner, a senior business editor for NPR who resigned last year after publishing an essay critical of the network's news coverage. Berliner argued that NPR's coverage increasingly reflects a rigid progressive ideology.
Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, pointed to Berliner's accusation that "in the D.C. area editorial positions at NPR, he said he found 87 registered Democrats, 0 Republicans."
Pointing to specific stories and programs at both networks, GOP lawmakers at the hearing said the public broadcasters aired opinions and programming that did not represent the views of the majority of Americans.
"PBS news is not just left leaning, but it actively uses taxpayer funds to push some of the most radical left positions," Greene said in her opening statement. "Like featuring a drag queen on the show Let's Learn, a show targeted toward young children ages 3 to 8 years old."
@sunsporter1649 i haven't listened/watched news on either network for a decade or more, but I have noticed a change to having more left-leaning subjects on their programs. It also seems like both are trying to keep things toward the center, despite the near unanimous left leaning views of those who work there. I think is a negative-reinforcing problem - right leaning people don’t donate to PBS or NPR, and right leaning people would rather work for someone else.
The reality here is that if Democrat editors outnumbered Republican editors 89-0, I would expect them to be even more left of CNN, but they aren’t.
@sunsporter1649 Jus shut up Sporter. Your problem, and that of Jim Jordan and Donald Trump, is that none of you want to live in the real world. And anyone that sheds a light or reflects on the real world therefore becomes an enemy. That's pretty much the issue in a nutshell.
