Subscriber Benefit
As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe NowThe Corporation for Public Broadcasting, a nonprofit organization created by Congress that provides funding to public broadcasters such as NPR and PBS, sued the Trump administration Tuesday after the president attempted to fire three of its board members.
In its complaint, filed in federal district court in D.C., the CPB and the three board members—Laura Ross, Thomas Rothman and Diane Kaplan—said the president does not have the authority to fire these board members because it’s not a government agency subject to the decisions of the executive branch.
Ross, Rothman and Kaplan said they received an email on Monday from Trent Morse, deputy director of presidential personnel, notifying them of their termination. “On behalf of President Donald J. Trump, I am writing to inform you that your position on the Corporation for Public Broadcasting is terminated effective immediately. Thank you for your service,” the email said.
The CPB has five board members, according to its website, with Ross currently serving as vice chair.
“The Corporation for Public Broadcasting is not a government entity, and its board members are not government officers. Because CPB is not a federal agency subject to the President’s authority, but rather a private corporation, we have filed a lawsuit to block these firings,” said CPB spokesperson Tracey Briggs. “CPB’s Board Members are essential to the governance of CPB, which supports more than 1,500 independent, locally owned and operated public television and radio stations that provide universal access to free, high-quality content that educates, informs, and enlightens.”
The White House took a different stance. “As numerous courts have repeatedly affirmed, the Constitution gives President Trump the power to remove personnel who exercise his executive authority,” White House assistant press secretary Taylor Rogers said in a statement. “The Trump Administration looks forward to ultimate victory on the issue.”
CPB board members are nominated by the president and confirmed by the Senate, with members serving six-year terms. The CPB board appoints the president and CEO of the organization.
Since taking office for his second term, Trump has targeted National Public Radio, or NPR, and the Public Broadcasting Service, or PBS, two broadcasters that receive a portion of their funding from the CPB, as appropriated by Congress. The administration previously confirmed to The Washington Post that it is planning to ask Congress for a rescission of already-appropriated funds—possibly as early as this week—to gut the CPB. PBS declined to comment.
The administration has criticized that taxpayer dollars have flowed to content to which it objected, such as an NPR article with facts about “queer animals” and a PBS documentary about a transgender teenager. NPR did not respond to a request for comment on the CPB lawsuit.
Please enable JavaScript to view this content.
LOL Trumpy is all upset that they won’t do his bidding and spread his lies. Trump also wants to defund them but then also exercise authority which he does not have? Sure, Jan…
Uri Berliner, longtime journalist at NPR, finally called it quits because it has become such a partisan joke.
““It’s frictionless — one story after another about instances of supposed racism, transphobia, signs of the climate apocalypse, Israel doing something bad and the dire threat of Republican policies. It’s almost like an assembly line,” said Berliner, an East Coast establishment guy who is almost certainly no great fan of Republicans. Berliner has admitted that he wants NPR and PBS to remain public.
But what’s the point? As someone who pledged as recently as the early 2010s, I can’t even listen to it anymore.
The question is: if NPR only gets a tiny fraction of its funding from the feds (as they routinely claim), why are the muckety-mucks at Corporation for Public Broadcasting so adamant that they remain public? Why not enter the private marketplace and compete freely with WaPo, NYT, and the Atlantic? Sure, the mega foundations like Ford and Kaiser Family will have no tax incentive to “donate” to a private company, but then (at the very least) NPR could get all sorts of money from ad revenue. Or is possible that Maher and her activist board recognize that WaPo and NYT are only still operational because of billionaire bailouts…and the billionaires are getting a little tired?
NPR and PBS (and VOA) can go. Not needed propaganda. Not federally funded at $0 dollars at least. Be relevant / truthful / fair / common sense / competitive or just simply die immediately. You are just PORK the liberals have been gorging themselves on for decades. Liberals are bursting as the seams. Pigs.
For a lot of Americans NPR is the last of the local news sources as print has dried up. I can see how this would work so well for Trump. Keep ‘em ignorant!
I assume you have never actually watched PBS…. If you had, you would realize this is a stupid take
Law, statutes matter. Period.
Per that thing called the Constitution, Courts matter. Period.