Donald Trump has ruffled a few feathers with his audacious war against the mainstream media. He signed an executive order to eliminate public funding for National Public Radio (NPR) and the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS). This decision strikes at the heart of federal support for these organizations, which Trump says report unfairly on him.
In his announcement, Trump claimed that both NPR and PBS fail to provide a fair, accurate, or unbiased portrayal of current events to taxpaying citizens. He would frequently express his frustration with these networks. It’s a dangerous sentiment that underscores his decades-long, adversarial rapport with the majority of establishment media outlets. He has previously referred to them as the “enemy of the people.” This conditional statement makes clear that his administration has had an adversarial and hostile relationship with the media.
The potential ramifications of this executive order are enormous. Every week, more than 40 million Americans tune in to NPR public radio stations. At the same time, 36 million Americans regularly watch local television stations that are member stations of the PBS television network. These numbers only highlight the massive, diverse audience that public broadcasters proudly reach and uplift. This should ring alarm bells when considering the impact of decreased funding on their expanded programming and outreach initiatives.
Katherine Maher, NPR’s director, forecasts that NPR will get about $120 million from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) in 2025. This funding only makes up about 5% of NPR’s overall budget. This funding is very important to the viability of NPR and its journalistic excellence.
Critics of Trump’s executive order warn that cutting funding could undermine the quality of news coverage available to the public. This action marks the latest advance in a powerful trend. It’s not an accident that media outlets who challenge the government are undergoing deep financial and existential crises.