By Jonathan Stempel
(Reuters) -PBS sued Donald Trump on Friday over the U.S. president’s executive order to cut its federal funding, calling it an unconstitutional attack that would “upend public television.”
In a complaint filed in the Washington, D.C. federal court, PBS and a public TV station in Minnesota said Trump’s order violated the U.S. Constitution’s First Amendment by making the president the “arbiter” of programming content, including by attempting to defund PBS.
The May 1 order “makes no attempt to hide the fact that it is cutting off the flow of funds to PBS because of the content of PBS programming and out of a desire to alter the content of speech,” PBS said. “That is blatant viewpoint discrimination.”
PBS is short for Public Broadcasting Service.
Its programming has included “Sesame Street,” “Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood,” “Frontline” and several Ken Burns documentaries including “The Civil War.” Member stations also broadcast public affairs shows such as “Washington Week.”
Trump’s order demanded that the taxpayer-backed Corporation for Public Broadcasting cut federal funding to PBS and NPR, short for National Public Radio. All three entities are nonprofits.
PBS said the Corporation for Public Broadcasting provides 16% of its $373.4 million annual budget.
It also said the funding ban would apply to local member stations, which provide 61% of its budget through dues, including millions of dollars in federal funds.
In a statement, White House spokesperson Harrison Fields said the Corporation for Public Broadcasting was “creating media to support a particular political party on the taxpayers’ dime. Therefore, the President is exercising his lawful authority to limit funding to NPR and PBS.”
NPR filed its own lawsuit on May 27 to block Trump’s order.
PBS SAYS LAWSUIT ‘SMACKS OF RETALIATION’
Formed in 1969, PBS has 336 member stations including the plaintiff Lakeland PBS, which serves about 490,000 people in northern and central Minnesota.
The executive order was part of Trump’s effort to sanction entities he believes are opposed to his political agenda.
Trump said that by funding PBS and NPR, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting ignored Americans’ right to expect that taxpayer dollars going to public broadcasting “fund only fair, accurate, unbiased, and nonpartisan news coverage.”
The White House separately accused PBS and NPR of using taxpayer money to spread “radical, woke propaganda disguised as ‘news.'”
In its complaint, PBS said Trump’s order “smacks of retaliation for, among other things, perceived political slights in news coverage.”
The Corporation for Public Broadcasting receives funding from Congress two years in advance, to shield it from political interference.
It sued Trump last month after he sought to fire three of its five board members.
The case is Public Broadcasting Service et al v Trump et al, U.S. District Court, District of Columbia, No. 25-01722.
(Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York; Editing by Bill Berkrot and Cynthia Osterman)
