In May, President Trump signed an executive order cutting off federal funding for public broadcasters, including NPR and PBS. In his order, Trump said “neither entity presents a fair, accurate or unbiased portrayal of current events to taxpaying citizens.” WSJ’s Joe Flint breaks down the decades-long fight over public media, and NPR’s CEO Katherine Maher explains why her network is challenging the Trump administration in court. Jessica Mendoza hosts. Further Listening: -For Millions of Student-Loan Borrowers, It's Time to Pay -Can the GOP Unite Around Trump's 'Big, Beautiful Bill'? Sign up for WSJ’s free What’s News newsletter . Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Full Episode
Earlier this month, President Donald Trump took an ax to the public broadcasting budget. President Trump signed an executive order on May 1st which ended federal funding for NPR and the Public Broadcasting Service, or PBS, over what he claims is bias in their programming.
PBS and NPR are America's leading public television and radio networks, respectively. Both were established more than 50 years ago and given government funding by Congress in the process. This week, NPR pushed back against Trump's executive order, saying the order is an attack on free speech. How would you characterize the fight between National Public Radio and the president at the moment?
It's a fight that's going on on multiple levels. That's our colleague Joe Flint.
He covers media and entertainment.
So one aspect of the fight is the idea or question of whether the government should continue to help fund public media. So there's been many attempts over the last several decades to end public funding, and Trump has just put it on the forefront. He has pretty much said, I feel that they are biased, hence we shouldn't support them with taxpayer money.
But for NPR CEO Catherine Marr, this fight is about more than funding.
This is about the First Amendment. It is our responsibility as a media organization, when the principle of the free press is challenged, to challenge back.
Welcome to The Journal, our show about money, business, and power. I'm Jessica Mendoza. It's Thursday, May 29th. Coming up on the show, NPR versus the Trump administration. Experience star chef Andreas Caminada and his friends in Dinner Club, included in Prime.
We're on a culinary journey.
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