A federal judge ruled against one of the Trump administration’s efforts to defund NPR.
The Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) had slashed a $36 million contract with NPR after President Donald Trump signed an executive order aimed at cutting funding to the news outlet. After a judge’s ruling, the CPB is renewing the contract after a judge ruled in NPR’s favor, according to the network.
The Corporation for Public Broadcasting agreed Monday to fulfill a $36 million, multi-year contract with NPR that it had yanked after pressure from the Trump White House.
The arrangement resolves litigation filed by NPR accusing the corporation of illegally yielding to Trump's demands that the network be financially punished for its news coverage. The argument, part of a broader lawsuit by NPR and several stations against the Trump administration, focused on CPB funding for NPR's operation of a satellite distribution system for local public radio stations. NPR announced Monday it would waive all fees for the stations associated with the satellite service for two years.
The judge in the case had explicitly told CPB's legal team he did not find its defense credible. CPB lawyers had argued that the decision to award a contract instead to Public Media Infrastructure, a new consortium of public media institutions, was driven by a desire to foster digital innovations more swiftly.
Katherine Maher, President and CEO of NPR, celebrated the settlement, calling it “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 [Trump’s] Executive Order,” in a written statement.
In its submission Monday evening to the court, CPB did not concede that it had acted wrongfully — nor that it had yielded to political pressure from the administration.
Instead, in a statement posted on its website, CPB asserted its side "prevails" as a result of the settlement.
"This is an important moment for public media," said Patricia Harrison, president and CEO of CPB. "We are very pleased that this costly and unnecessary litigation is over, and that our investment in the future through [Public Media Infrastructure] marks an exciting new era for public media." The contract with PMI will continue, CPB said.
Under the settlement agreement, both parties acknowledged that Trump’s executive order “is unconstitutional and that CPB will not implement or enforce it unless ordered by a court.”
However, this outcome does not resolve the administration’s executive order to cut funding to NPR. A bench trial is scheduled for early December to explore the matter further.
The administration justified the executive order, pointing out that the government was funneling taxpayer funds to outlets that promote “radical, woke propaganda” and noted that NPR displayed a clear bias in favor of the left.
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