Tracking Trump's executive orders: Targeting NPR and PBS

‍Executive Order 14290: Ending Taxpayer Subsidization of Biased Media

Date Signed: May 1st, 2024

Key Provisions:

• Executive Order 14290 suggests that National Public Radio (NPR) and the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) are not presenting a “fair, accurate, or unbiased portrayal of current events to taxpaying citizens.”
• It therefore calls for the CPB Board of Directors (Corporation for Public Broadcasting) and all executive departments and agencies to cease providing these organizations with federal funding. The CPB Board will also cancel existing federal funds “to the maximum extent allowed by law.”
• The Board will work to ensure that licensees and permittees of public radio and television stations, as well as any other recipients of CPB funds, do not use federal funds for NPR and PBS by revising “the 2025 Television Community Service Grants General Provisions and Eligibility Criteria and the 2025 Radio Community Service Grants General Provisions and Eligibility Criteria to prohibit direct or indirect funding of NPR and PBS.”
• Finally, the Secretary of Health and Human Services shall determine whether these organizations are in compliance with anti-discrimination laws and in the event of noncompliance, will “take appropriate collective action.”

Interfaith Alliance Counterpoints:

• CPB, NPR, and PBS executives have responded by arguing that this Executive Order is unlawful and are challenging it in court.
• Interfaith Alliance has consistently spoken out against the Trump administration’s attempts to defund public institutions, including educational and cultural ones, and has explained their vital role in representing the full breadth of American diversity. Public broadcasting strengthens democracy by providing trusted journalism, elevating diverse voices, and ensuring access to educational resources across the country. This Executive Order is a dangerous attack on the free press and the public’s right to information.
• Public broadcasters like PBS and NPR reflect the breadth of American stories, including those of minority faith communities, immigrant families, and rural Americans that are often ignored by commercial media. Cutting their funding threatens the inclusive vision of our country that Interfaith Alliance fights to protect every day.