NPR is fighting back over Trump's "retaliatory viewpoint-based discrimination"
President Donald Trump’s war with the media has a new front. National Public Radio is suing his administration over an executive order to cut off funding for the radio network and other public news outlets.
NPR and three Colorado affiliates filed the lawsuit on Tuesday, arguing that the order violated the First Amendment and “flatly contravenes statutes duly enacted by Congress and violates the Separation of Powers and the Spending Clause by disregarding Congress’s express command.”
“The Order’s objectives could not be clearer,” said the suit, which was filed in Washington, D.C. It “aims to punish NPR for the content of news and other programming the President dislikes and chill the free exercise of First Amendment rights by NPR and individual public radio stations across the country.”
The president signed the order, which targets NPR and PBS, at the beginning of this month, saying that no media organization has a “constitutional right to taxpayer subsidies,” and that “neither entity presents a fair, accurate, or unbiased portrayal of current events.” Trump earlier called the two outlets “horrible and completely biased platforms” in a post on Truth Social, calling on Congress to defund them immediately. “Republicans, don’t miss this opportunity to rid our Country of this giant SCAM, both being arms of the Radical Left Democrat Party. JUST SAY NO AND, MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!!!” he wrote
PBS President Paula Kreger called the move “blatantly unlawful” at the time. On Tuesday, NPR CEO Katherine Maher released a statement explaining the suit, which called the order “a clear violation of the Constitution and the First Amendment's protections for freedom of speech and association, and freedom of the press.”
“This is retaliatory, viewpoint-based discrimination in violation of the First Amendment,” she added. “NPR will never agree to this infringement of our constitutional rights, or the constitutional rights of our Member stations, and NPR will not compromise our commitment to an independent free press and journalistic integrity."
The suit names Trump as well as Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Director of the Office of Management and Budget Russell Vought, among the defendants.
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