NPR sues Trump over order to cut funding, cites free speech
Share this @internewscast.com

Background: The National Public Radio (NPR) headquarters is photographed on May 2, 2025, in Washington, D.C. (Photo by Samuel Corum/Sipa USA)(Sipa via AP Images). Inset: President Donald Trump is attentive during the 157th National Memorial Day Observance at Arlington National Cemetery, Monday, May 26, 2025, in Arlington, Va. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin).

National Public Radio has filed a lawsuit against President Donald Trump concerning his executive order to eliminate its federal funding, claiming that he is breaching the Constitution and retaliating over its news coverage of issues like Hunter Biden and the origins of COVID-19.

Trump’s May 1 executive order targets NPR and the Public Broadcasting Service, both of which receive taxpayer funds through the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. The order alleges that neither NPR nor PBS “provides a fair, accurate, or unbiased representation of current events to taxpaying citizens.”

Love true crime? Sign up for our newsletter, The Law&Crime Docket, to get the latest real-life crime stories delivered right to your inbox.

The CPB already sued the Trump administration in March over the president’s attempt to fire three of its five board members. On Tuesday, NPR and three of its member stations — Colorado Public Radio, Aspen Public Radio, and KSUT — filed their own lawsuit, arguing Trump’s order demonstrates an “overt retaliatory purpose.”

“The Order is unlawful in multiple ways. It flatly contravenes statutes duly enacted by Congress and violates the Separation of Powers and the Spending Clause by disregarding Congress’s express commands,” the lawsuit reads, referring to how Congress appropriated funds for the organization. “It also violates the First Amendment’s guarantees of freedom of speech and of the press.”

The order “expressly aims to punish and control Plaintiffs’ news coverage and other speech the Administration deems ‘biased,”” the lawsuit continues.

The White House released a “fact sheet” along with the executive order, in which the administration argued the nation’s media landscape has shifted so much since the CPB’s inception in 1967 and that it is “filled with abundant, diverse, and innovative news options, making government funding of news media outdated, unnecessary, and corrosive to journalistic independence.”

The administration also alleged that NPR and PBS “have fueled partisanship and left-wing propaganda with taxpayer dollars.” The White House pointed to NPR’s coverage, or lack thereof, of the COVID-19 China lab leak theory and the 2020 Hunter Biden laptop story, which NPR CEO and President Katherine Maher admitted in March that the organization should have reported on “more aggressively and sooner.”

Maher, however, maintains the order stripping NPR’s funding is “retaliatory” and a “clear violation of the Constitution and the First Amendment’s protections for freedom of speech and association, and freedom of the press,” she said in a statement.

“The Supreme Court has ruled numerous times over the past 80 years that the government does not have the right to determine what counts as ‘biased,’” she added.

Share this @internewscast.com
You May Also Like

Original ‘Gone Girl’ Sherri Papini’s Strange Reversal: Insists on Kidnapping Story After Serving Time for Fake Abduction

Sherri Papini was jailed for admitting that her supposed 2016 kidnapping was…

“Who could be responsible for this?’: Firebombing attack targets new childcare center”

A newly opened childcare centre has become the target of a firebombing…

Revealed: Texts Allegedly Showing Emil Bove’s Profane Remark

Accompanied by his attorneys Todd Blanche on the left and Emil Bove,…

Man Arrested in Connection with New York Child Sexual Battery Case

Staff report from Gainesville Police Department social media post GAINESVILLE, Fla. –…

Tool Theft Suspect Faces Charges After Police Discover $100,000 in Stolen Items

An alleged tool thief has been charged after police raided a home…

Nurse Alters Plea in Unauthorized Foot Amputation Case

Background: Spring Valley Senior Living and Healthcare Campus in Spring Valley, Wisconsin…

Man Accused of Harassing Women at Gas Station Fatally Shoots Another Man: Police

Background: The BP at 778 Grant Street in Akron, Ohio (Google Maps)…

Teenager Accused in Sydney House Party Stabbing

A teen has been charged over a stabbing at a house party…

Father Sentenced for Starving 4-Year-Old Daughter

Main: Rodney McWeay during his June 17, 2025, sentencing hearing in Atlanta…

Khalil accuses Trump administration of engaging in ‘character assassination’

Inset: Mahmoud Khalil addressing the press (WCBS) Background: President Donald Trump listens…

Botched Botox Procedure Causes Facial Paralysis in Patient: Police Report

Left: Rosa Mena. Right, top and bottom: An illegal “Med Spa” Mena…

Man Caught on Camera Before Shooting Claims Memory Loss: Police

Background: The apartment complex in Rochester, Minn. where the alleged shooting took…