WBUR, others react to Trump's order to end NPR funding

In a fresh attack on public media, President Trump has ordered the federal government to end funding for NPR and PBS.

In an executive order late Thursday, Trump instructed the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB), a taxpayer-backed nonprofit created by Congress, to cease funding — direct or indirect — to NPR and PBS. At stake: $500 million in support annually for public broadcasters in radio and TV across the country.

The White House, in a “fact sheet” posted online to support the order, accused the public broadcasters of fueling “partisanship and left-wing propaganda with taxpayer dollars.”

NPR Chief Executive Katherine Maher fired back in a statement Friday, promising to “vigorously defend” the right to provide news and information to the public: “We will challenge this Executive Order using all means available.”

She also rejected Trump’s allegations about the quality of NPR’s reporting: “We stand by our high standards and our colleagues in their pursuit of factual reporting, their work to present issues fairly and without bias, and our effort to seek the humanity and human consequence of every story.”

The president’s order singles out NPR and PBS, but the vast majority of direct funding from CPB goes to local member stations through Community Service Grants. The executive order prohibits stations that receive this money from sending funds to NPR or PBS for programming.

The executive order follows last month’s announcement from the White House that it plans to ask Congress to rescind two years of approved funding for CPB, setting up potential votes in the House and Senate later this legislative session to claw back $1.1 billion.

Earlier this week, Trump tried to fire three of the five CPB board members; the ousted members are suing to block their removal.

In response to Thursday’s order, CPB President Patricia Harrison said in a statement that it is “not a federal executive agency subject to Trump’s authority.”

U.S. Sen. Ed Markey, at a press conference Friday, backed up the position that the president does not have the authority to defund an entity created by Congress.

“If implemented, this executive order is a direct threat to the survival of local media stations all across our nation,” Markey said, describing Trump’s move as “punishing free expression and jeopardizing trusted sources of news, of culture, of emergency information, of educational information.”

He pledged to fight to restore the funding: “There has always been bipartisan support for NPR and the public broadcasting system, and there will continue to be in the future.”

The implications for WBUR and other NPR member stations are still unfolding, according to WBUR Chief Executive Margaret Low. “We do know that the loss of federal funding could leave millions of people, in red states and blue, without access to public radio,” she wrote in an email to WBUR donors Friday afternoon.

Approximately 3% of WBUR’s annual budget, or $1.6 million, comes from CPB. Public radio stations in smaller markets rely more heavily on federal funds, typically around 10%. NPR itself receives only about 1% of its budget directly from CPB.

But NPR gets paid membership fees by local member stations to syndicate its programming, accounting for roughly 30% of the public broadcaster’s annual budget.

That revenue source could be diminished if local stations lose federal funding or are prohibited from sending funds to NPR, as instructed by Trump’s executive order.

Low wrote that WBUR could face similar financial repercussions, given that it has two nationally distributed programs, “Here and Now” and “On Point.” Without federal funding, hundreds of stations that air those shows might no longer be able to afford them, Low said. “This means we could lose millions of dollars more in syndication fees.”

Trump and Republicans in Congress have ramped up criticism of NPR and public broadcasting in recent months. In March, leaders from NPR and PBS were grilled at a House subcommittee hearing over allegations of biased coverage.

Thursday’s executive order instructs executive agencies and CPB’s board to terminate all direct and indirect funding to NPR and PBS under the “maximum extent allowed by law” and decline future funding. It also directs Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy to investigate the national broadcasters for possible employment discrimination.

Trump’s executive order will likely face legal challenges. PBS said it, too, will fight Trump’s order.

"It is an all-out assault on public media," said Kelly McBride, NPR’s public editor and senior vice president of the Poynter Institute, a nonprofit journalism and media studies group. "And I think it's really unfortunate because public media is really crucial to the democratic fabric of this country."