Republicans voted on Thursday night to clawback $1.1 billion in congressional funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which helps finance National Public Radio (NPR) and the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS). The vote marks the latest chapter in President Donald Trump’s attacks against media companies and publications who aren’t covering his presidency to his liking.
NPR and PBS receive the majority of their funding not from Congress, but from public fundraising. Rural stations, which are more dependent on direct funding from lawmakers in Washington, are expected to suffer the most from the cuts.
“Supporters of defunding are fixated on NPR and PBS, but in reality the cuts will be felt where these services are needed most. Stations in places like West Virginia, and those serving tribal nations, receive more than 50% of their budget from federal funding,” NPR wrote in a statement responding to the vote. “Public radio provides local programming that would otherwise be unavailable — coverage of town councils, statehouse affairs, local elections, and local music.”
“Public radio is also a lifeline, connecting rural communities to the rest of the nation, and providing life-saving emergency broadcasting and weather alerts. Nearly 3-in-4 Americans say they rely on their public radio stations for alerts and news for their public safety,” the broadcaster added.
Trump has pushed to cut funding for NPR and PBS, including through an executive order in May. “Neither entity presents a fair, accurate or unbiased portrayal of current events to tax-paying citizens,” the order reads. “The CPB Board shall cancel existing direct funding to the maximum extent allowed by law and shall decline to provide future funding.”
The CBP responded by noting that it is not a “federal executive agency subject to the President’s authority,” and that it is funded by Congress.
The Republican-approved blow to public broadcasting came the same night news broke that CBS News is canceling The Late Show With Stephen Colbert. The decision came shortly after Colbert publicly criticized a decision by Paramount — CBS’ parent company — to settle a lawsuit brought against them by Trump for $16 million. At the same time, Paramount is trying to merger with Skydance Media, which has been held up by Federal Communications Commission approval.
Paramount is not the only major media company who has settled frivolous Trump lawsuits in order to avoid a drawn out court battle that — even though their chances are prevailing are favorable — could create additional acrimony with the administration.
In December, ABC News agreed to pay $15 million to Trump’s future presidential library in order to settle a defamation lawsuit leveled against ABC anchor George Stephanopoulos. Last month, the same network suspended and then fired anchor Terry Moran after he called White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller a “world-class hater” in a social media post.
Trump is still pursuing litigation against the Iowa pollster Ann Selzer and The Des Moines Register over a 2024 poll that incorrectly predicted that Trump’s then opponent, former Vice President Kamala Harris, would win the state by a landslide. The president claimed the poll was “brazen election interference,” in his initial lawsuit.
“Trump, like all authoritarians, doesn’t like criticism or objective reporting. He just wants to be flattered. That’s why he wants to defund NPR and PBS,” Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) wrote on X earlier this week. “If democracy is to survive we need a strong, independent media.”
In an interview with CNN, veteran NPR Morning Edition host Steve Inskeep said that “NPR is heard by tens of millions of people. Some 43 million people consume us on some platform or another … A lot of Republicans are on there, a lot of Democrats are on there too.”
“There are people on there who maybe, if you conservative, you don’t agree with,” he added. “You’re going to hear a trans person on the radio, or someone that perhaps you don’t agree with. But our idea is to hear people in their own words, to get their stories across, and that means that whatever my personal view might be is a little bit less important, because you’re getting to people’s actual stories.”
Inskeep insisted that the cuts will not deter him, and the thousands of other NPR hosts broadcasting from around the country and the world, from continuing with their work.
“I got up at three o’clock this morning to do the news. I will get up at three o’clock tomorrow morning to continue doing the news,” he said. “I’m doing that with thousands of people at NPR stations — local stations in communities across the country — run by those communities across the country. Who are covering their communities even now, while they are the subject of the news, they’re covering the news and trying to cover it straight.”
