The National Public Radio (NPR) will receive an estimated $36 million in grant money as part of a settlement with the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB).
The funding is a result of NPR’s lawsuit against President Trump’s executive order to end taxpayer subsidies for biased media.
According to the joint stipulation, NPR and CPB conclude that the order is “precisely the type of governmental interference designed to impact media programming or program judgments that Congress by its plain terms sought to prevent in creating CPB as it did.”
NPR will now “immediately dedicate additional resources toward fortifying the public radio system,” a press statement explained.
“The settlement is a victory for editorial independence and a step toward upholding the First Amendment rights of NPR and the public media system in our legal challenge to Executive Order 14290,” said President and CEO of NPR Katherine Maher. “While we entered into this dispute with CPB reluctantly, we’re glad to resolve it in a way that enables us to continue to provide for the stability of the Public Radio Satellite System, offer immediate and direct support to public radio stations across the country, and proceed with our strong and substantive claims against this illegal and unconstitutional Executive Order. We look forward to our day in court in December.”
President Trump’s May order on the matter condemned that NPR and PBS receive taxpayer funds through CPB. “Unlike in 1967, when the CPB was established, today the media landscape is filled with abundant, diverse, and innovative news options. Government funding of news media in this environment is not only outdated and unnecessary but corrosive to the appearance of journalistic independence,” the order said, adding that President Trump instructed the “CPB Board of Directors (CPB Board) and all executive departments and agencies (agencies) to cease Federal funding for NPR and PBS.”
