President Donald Trump issued an executive order on Thursday to cut off all federal funding for PBS and NPR because he believes these broadcasters distribute “radical, woke propaganda” as news. The order requires the Corporation for Public Broadcasting to stop receiving subsidies and to resolve its indirect financing methods which forms part of Trump’s initiative to dominate institutions he considers biased.
During his presidency Trump has focused on cultural and educational institutions by reducing Kennedy Center funding and National Endowment for the Humanities support while forcing universities and law firms to eliminate their diversity programs. The White House presented PBS and NPR funding reductions as a measure to defend taxpayers from biased media coverage.
The executive action represents a new peak in Trump’s efforts to transform public institutions through executive authority which has faced widespread criticism for threatening free press freedoms. The federal grant funding that PBS and NPR receive creates financial difficulties which threaten their programming and independent journalistic services in a media environment that has become increasingly polarized.
