President Donald Trump signed an executive order ending public funding to the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) and National Public Radio (NPR) Thursday (May 1) night due to what he referred to as "biased and partisan news coverage," the White House announced.

The order directs the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) to "cease federal funding for NPR and PBS" to the extent allowed by law, with the White House claiming both organizations had received "tens of millions of dollars in taxpayer funds each year to spread radical, woke propaganda disguised as 'news.'"

"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 Government funding of news media in this environment is not only outdated and unnecessary but corrosive to the appearance of journalistic independence," Trump said in the executive order. "At the very least, 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. No media outlet has a constitutional right to taxpayer subsidies, and the Government is entitled to determine which categories of activities to subsidize. The CPB’s governing statute reflects principles of impartiality: the CPB may not “contribute to or otherwise support any political party.”

Trump and his supporters have claimed that both NPR and PBS promote left-wing causes, which both organizations have publicly denied. The president called for both to be defunded in a post shared on his Truth Social account in which he referred to them as "RADICAL LEFT 'MONSTERS' THAT SO BADLY HURT OUR COUNTRY" last month.

NPR and PBS are estimated to have received half a billion dollars in public money and earn funds from sponsorship.

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