Trump readies plan for Congress to ax taxpayer funding for NPR, PBS , and more

[Invisible Man]

So federal funding of the CPB remains intact. It just has to be given to entities that have different names than PBS and NPR.

 

[Invisible Man]

PBS is the ONLY media outlet in the country that is required by its charter to produce only bias-free content.

I don't do memes. But a laughing one goes here.

 

[Snowball]

So federal funding of the CPB remains intact. It just has to be given to entities that have different names than PBS and NPR.

No. Trump has zero ability to alter PBS without Congress repealing its charter. Even if its charter were repealed, which is not going to happen, the entity would still keep all its properties. So, Trump must know he has no authority and is just doing this anyway in order to get it off his chest, because that's how he operates emotionally.

 

[Invisible Man]

No. Trump has zero ability to alter PBS without Congress repealing its charter. Even if its charter were repealed, which is not going to happen, the entity would still keep all its properties. So, Trump must know he has no authority and is just doing this anyway in order to get it off his chest, because that's how he operates emotionally.

Where does the OP say anything about altering PBS?

PBS is a private nonprofit organization. It gets some of its funding from the CPB. The CPB gets its funding from Congress and it is up to the executive branch to distribute that funding according to the law. Is there a law that specifically requires funding for PBS and NPR by name?

Maybe there is. I'm not sure.

 

[Snowball]

Where does the OP say anything about altering PBS?

PBS is a private nonprofit organization. It gets some of its funding from the CPB. The CPB gets its funding from Congress and it is up to the executive branch to distribute that funding according to the law. Is there a law that specifically requires funding for PBS and NPR by name?

Maybe there is. I'm not sure.

it's in all the links I posted. Read them if you want to understand. Trump tried to remove 3 PBS board members already.
then he tried to remove the funding. Both failed. Now, this EO which seeks to not remove the funding, but refuse to remit it.
It also has no chance of success. He is forbidden to have any authority over PBS or its governance.
The Congress would have to first overturn, or amend the 1967 Public Broadcasting Act.
Moreover, only about 12% of NPR's and 15% of PBS televisions' funding is from Congress.
If it were to stop, their donors would just pick up. So, it's a nothingburger but he couldn't help himself.

 

[Invisible Man]

it's in all the links I posted. Read them if you want to understand. Trump tried to remove 3 PBS board members already.
then he tried to remove the funding. Both failed. Now, this EO which seeks to not remove the funding, but refuse to remit it.
It also has no chance of success. He is forbidden to have any authority over PBS or its governance.
The Congress would have to first overturn, or amend the 1967 Public Broadcasting Act.
Moreover, only about 12% of NPR's and 15% of PBS televisions' funding is from Congress.
If it were to stop, their donors would just pick up. So, it's a nothingburger but he couldn't help himself because
he hates public ownership of anything.

Do you mean 3 CPB board members?

CPB and PBS are not the same thing.

 

[Snowball]

Do you mean 3 CPB board members?

CPB and PBS are not the same thing.

Correct. I thought readers would more instantly recognize PBS.

 

[Invisible Man]

FYI

The entire Federal Government including the President EXPRESSLY has no authority to govern PBS or refuse to send it the amounts of funding which Congress (and the President, by signing the bill) have appropriated. The President cannot remove PBS board members he does not like, or seek to influence its educational content.

Trump has no chance to win in court with the EO. PBS has already won on District Court level and it will win all the way to Scotus.



Public Broadcasting Act of 1967

Public Broadcasting Act of 1967 - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

From your link:

PBS is a private, nonprofit corporation, founded in 1969

Notice that nowhere in the text of the charter for CPB earlier in that page does it include any stipulation that the CPB must fund PBS.

 

[Invisible Man]

Correct. I thought readers would more instantly recognize PBS.

OK. But by interchanging them, you are saying untrue things, especially when you do that in the context of replying to a comment I made where I made a point of distinguishing the two.

 

[Snowball]

OK. But by interchanging them, you are saying untrue things, especially when you do that in the context of replying to a comment I made where I made a point of distinguishing the two.

From your link:

Notice that nowhere in the text of the charter for CPB earlier in that page does it include any stipulation that the CPB must fund PBS.

The 1967 CPB is not going to include "PBS" or "NPR" because those are simply later syndication names for the "television" and "radio" mandates in the Bill. PBS= Television, NPR=radio. Much like the Educational Television Act of 1962 isn't going to mention the CBP, as the Congress had directed public funding but not created the CPB yet.

Concerning the ability to editorialize (Trump argues "bias" by not liking their editorial styles) , it was upheld by SCOTUS in FCC vs. League of Women Voters, 1984, by 5-4.

The dissent's concern, however, was not CPB's right (1st Amendment) to editorialize, but rather that "censorship and propaganda" from "undue governmental influence" could seep into CPB's editorial decisions, via "the risk that federal coercion or influence will be brought to bear against local stations". https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/468/364/#top

 

[familydog]

In a stunning new development, President Trump has signed a sweeping executive order defunding National Public Radio (NPR) and Public Broadcasting Service (PBS), the Democrats’ taxpayer-funded leftist propaganda machines.


As The Gateway Pundit reported, the president previously called on Congress to defund the absurdly dishonest “news” organizations following a House Oversight DOGE subcommittee hearing, which exposed the stations’ already well-known bias and radical content. This includes documentaries about transvestites and transitioning, a documentary about “Racist Trees,” and so-called educational programming for young children, including toddlers, that featured a cross-dressing freak.

They have continued pushing false narratives, especially about the Trump Administration. Just this week, NPR, citing two anonymous sources, reported that two DOGE workers gained accounts on classified networks, used by the National Security Administration and the Department of Energy, and accessed nuclear secrets.



“This reporting is false. No DOGE personnel have accessed these NNSA systems. The two DOGE individuals in question worked within the agency for several days and departed DOE in February,” a Department of Energy spokesperson told NPR.

The order titled "Ending Taxpayer Subsidization of Biased Media" states, "National Public Radio (NPR) and the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) receive taxpayer funds through the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB). Unlike in 1967, when the CPB was established, today the media landscape is filled with abundant, diverse, and innovative news options. Government funding of news media in this environment is not only outdated and unnecessary but corrosive to the appearance of journalistic independence."


It continues, "At the very least, 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."


CPB's subsidizing of NPR and PBS demonstrates a failure, the order says, to abide by its own principles of impartiality, which require that the agency not “contribute to or otherwise support any political party.” Citing this failure, the president directs the CPB Board of Directors to "cease Federal funding for NPR and PBS," both directly and indirectly.

It further directs CPB to ensure that recipients of the agency's funds do not use federal funds for NPR or PBS. All other agencies are also instructed to identify and terminate funding to the stations.


Additionally, the Department of Health and Human Services has been ordered to determine whether or not NPR and PBS are following the law as it relates to DEI and employment discrimination "on the grounds of race, color, religion, national origin, or sex.” If a finding of noncompliance is made, the Health and Human Services Secretary will be required to take "corrective action."

More at:

https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2025/05/breaking-president-trump-signs-executive-order-defunding-npr/

BREAKING: President Trump Signs "Ending Taxpayer Subsidization of Biased Media" Executive Order to Defund NPR and PBS | The Gateway Pundit | by Jordan Conradson

BREAKING: @POTUS just signed an executive order ENDING the taxpayer subsidization of NPR and PBS — which receive millions from taxpayers to spread radical, woke propaganda disguised as “news.”

www.thegatewaypundit.com

Excellent. Keeping flooding the zone. Keep making the left's heads spin.

 

[nikcers]

If it were to stop, their donors would just pick up. So, it's a nothingburger but he couldn't help himself.

Sounds great.

If private investors are willing to fund it then the government doesn't have to fund it.

It's not like the government has the money to pay for it.

Every single dollar the government collects in taxes goes to non discretionary spending and the rest of it gets borrowed and the interest payment on the debt is now bigger than our military spending.

 

[Snowball]

Sounds great.

If private investors are willing to fund it then the government doesn't have to fund it.

It's not like the government has the money to pay for it.

Every single dollar the government collects in taxes goes to non discretionary spending and the rest of it gets borrowed and the interest payment on the debt is now bigger than our military spending.

it's 500 million a year, or about one-fortieth of one percent of the annual budget. (2.4 trillion)

 

[nikcers]

it's 500 million a year, or about one-fortieth of one percent of the annual budget. (2.4 trillion)

500 million dollars on the government credit card with interest payments that are $1.1265 trillion dollars and the total tax revenue was $5.1 trillion.

How would you like to pay an extra 4000 dollars of income every year just to pay for interest payments?

 

[acptulsa]

The President cannot remove PBS board members he does not like, or seek to influence its educational content.

But the CIA can and does pump in enough tax money through its USAID-style sock puppet to do all of that.

CPB was a hare-brained scheme that wound up in the only condition it could ever have hoped to achieve. Not that Trump can, or would if he could, but stick a fork in it. Dumb idea. Got fifteen decent years out of it, then it went as corrupt as everything else the government touches.

 

[oyarde]

I support Fed tax dollars not supporting media

 

[nikcers]

I support Fed tax dollars not supporting media

It's fine because the payment of $1.1265 trillion for the debt was only an increase of $251 billion year over year.

So if it only increases by 251 billion every year for 10 years our taxes will only have to go up by only 50% to pay for it since our tax revenue is $5.1 trillion.

 

[acptulsa]

This is what the human race gets for trying to make a conversationalist out of a calculator.

 

[Swordsmyth]

FYI

The entire Federal Government including the President EXPRESSLY has no authority to govern PBS or refuse to send it the amounts of funding which Congress (and the President, by signing the bill) have appropriated. The President cannot remove PBS board members he does not like, or seek to influence its educational content.

Trump has no chance to win in court with the EO. PBS has already won on District Court level and it will win all the way to Scotus.

Btw, agree or disagree with how well they meet the requirement, but PBS is the ONLY media outlet in the country that is required by its charter to produce only bias-free content. All others can be fully biased with no repurcussions since the repeal of the Fairness Doctrine in 1987.

Trump's opening lines in his EO make it perfectly clear that he believes PBS should not exist at all.

read:

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURTFOR THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA
CPB v. Trump Complaint

CPB v. Trump Complaint

www.documentcloud.org

Trump orders end to federal funding for NPR and PBS

https://www.npr.org/2025/05/02/nx-s1-5384790/trump-orders-end-to-federal-funding-for-npr-and-pbs

here is his EO

Ending Taxpayer Subsidization Of Biased Media

By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, it is hereby ordered: Section 1. Purpose.

www.whitehouse.gov

Public Broadcasting Act of 1967

Public Broadcasting Act of 1967 - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

They will lose.
SCOTUS has already ruled that Trump has power over any executive agency.
Trump will invoke Impoundment and the Impoundment Control Act will be overturned as unconstitutional.

 

[acptulsa]

They will lose.

Damn it!

I want them to win, but literally none of your predictions come true! Why did you have to jinx this?