President Donald Trump signed an executive order on May 1 directing the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) “to cease Federal funding for NPR and PBS,” adding the outlets taint journalistic integrity and push partisan beliefs.
“Government funding of news media in this environment is not only outdated and unnecessary but corrosive to the appearance of journalistic independence,” the order states, adding that “Americans have the right to expect that if their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.”
The president stated that PBS and NPR, known for their hard Democrat bias, are unable to provide a “fair, accurate, or unbiased portrayal of current events.”
National Public Radio’s (NPR) CEO Katherine Maher proved this point in a TED Talk where she proclaimed, “Our reverence for the truth might be a distraction that’s getting in the way of finding common ground and getting things done.”
Ultimately, even if NPR and PBS could provide “fair” and “unbiased” reporting, there is no legal provision under the U.S. Constitution for such an entity to exist.