NPR Lawsuit Alleges Trump Funding Cuts Violate First Amendment

Taxpayer-subsidized National Public Radio, along with three Colorado affiliates, filed a federal lawsuit Tuesday morning to stop President Donald Trump’s executive order aimed at cutting its funding.

Colorado Public Radio, Aspen Public Radio, and KSUT joined NPR as litigants in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia to challenge Trump’s order.

Trump’s executive order on May 1 instructed the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and other federal agencies “to cease federal funding” for NPR and the Public Broadcasting Service.

“Unlike in 1967, when the CPB was established, today, the media landscape is filled with abundant, diverse, and innovative news options,” Trump’s order says. “Government funding of news media in this environment is not only outdated and unnecessary but corrosive to the appearance of journalistic independence.”

The executive order also directs the CPB to ensure local public radio and television stations don’t use federal funds to pay for NPR or PBS programming, a form of indirect federal funding. 

The NPR stations allege the order is “textbook retaliation and viewpoint-based discrimination in violation of the First Amendment”

“The order’s objectives could not be clearer: the order aims to punish NPR for the content of news and other programming the president dislikes and chill the free exercise of First Amendment rights by NPR and individual public radio stations across the country,” the NPR complaint alleges, according to reporting by The Associated Press.

NPR said in a press release announcing the lawsuit it has 246 member stations across 50 states that reach almost 99% of the population.

The press release noted that Trump has called NPR and PBS “left-wing propaganda,” and said that their news coverage is not “fair, accurate, or unbiased.”

“NPR is a non-partisan news organization that adheres to and upholds the highest standards of public service in journalism,” Katherine Maher, CEO of NPR, said in a public statement. “NPR ensures the integrity of its reporting through multiple, rigorous safeguards. We maintain an editorial firewall that protects against interference in editorial decision-making, and we require all editorial staff to adhere to stringent ethics policies set out in the NPR Ethics Handbook.”