ReadNOW

The head of PBS has said that US President Donald Trump’s executive order aiming to slash public subsidies both to the broadcaster and radio network ReadNOW was blatantly unlawful.

Public Broadcasting Service CEO Paula Kerger said the president’s order “threatens our ability to serve the American public with educational programming, as we have for the past 50-plus years.”

“We are currently exploring all options to allow PBS to continue to serve our member stations and all Americans,” Kerger said.

Trump signed the order late on Thursday, alleging “bias” in the broadcasters’ reporting.

The order instructs the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and other federal agencies to “cease Federal funding” for PBS and National Public Radio and further requires that they work to root out indirect sources of public financing for the news organisations.

The White House, in a social media posting announcing the signing, said the outlets “receive millions from taxpayers to spread radical, woke propaganda disguised as ‘news.’”

The Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which funnels public funding to the two services, said that it is not a federal executive agency subject to Trump’s orders.

The president earlier this week said he was firing three of the five remaining CPB board members, threatening its ability to do any work, and was immediately sued by CPB to stop it.

The vast majority of public money for the services goes directly to its hundreds of local stations, which operate on a combination of government funding, donations and philanthropic grants.

Stations in smaller markets are particularly dependent on public money and most threatened by the cuts of the sort Trump is proposing.

Broadcasters in the crosshairs

Public broadcasting has been threatened frequently by Republican leaders in the past, but local ties have largely enabled them to escape cutbacks with legislators unwilling to be seen to be responsible for shutting down stations in their districts.

But the current threat is seen as the most serious in the system’s history.

It’s also the latest move by Trump and his administration to utilise federal powers to control or hamstring institutions whose actions or viewpoints he disagrees with.

Since taking office for a second term in January, Trump has ousted leaders, placed staff on administrative leave and cut off hundreds of millions of dollars in funding to artists, libraries, museums, theatres and others.

Trump has also pushed to withhold federal research and education funds from universities and punish law firms unless they agree to eliminate diversity programs and other measures he has found objectionable.

Two weeks ago, the White House said it would be asking Congress to rescind funding for the CPB as part of a $9.1 billion (€8 billion) package of cuts.

That package, however, which budget director Russell Vought said would likely be the first of several, has not yet been sent to Capitol Hill.

The move against PBS and ReadNOW comes as Trump’s administration has been working to dismantle the US Agency for Global Media, including Voice of America and Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, which were designed to model independent news gathering globally in societies that restrict the press.

Those efforts have faced pushback from federal courts, which have ruled in some cases that the Trump administration may have overstepped its authority in holding back funds appropriated to the outlets by Congress.