PBS Sues Trump Over Funding Cuts to Public Media

The Public Broadcasting Service is suing the Trump administration over an executive order that would eliminate federal funding for public media.

The nonprofit filed a lawsuit Friday in a US District Court in Washington, DC. The lawsuit argues that the administration has violated the First Amendment by targeting PBS and lacks the authority to influence funding decisions made by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.

“The EO 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,” according to the lawsuit.

“That is blatant viewpoint discrimination and an infringement of PBS and PBS Member Stations’ private editorial discretion,” the complaint read.

According to the complaint, CPB grants comprise around 16% of PBS’s $373.4 million annual budget.

The CPB allocates around $535 million in federal funding annually to NPR and PBS. PBS is seeking declaratory and injunctive relief from Trump’s executive order and asking the court to declare the order unconstitutional. NPR has also already filed a similar complaint.

“After careful deliberation, PBS reached the conclusion that it was necessary to take legal action to safeguard public television’s editorial independence, and to protect the autonomy of PBS member stations,” PBS said in a statement to Business Insider.

The lawsuit is a part of ongoing tensions between the Trump administration and public media. Last month, the CPB sued Trump over attempts to remove board members.

“The Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) is creating media to support a particular political party on the taxpayers’ dime,” Harrison Fields, Principal Deputy Press Secretary, told Business Insider in a statement. “Therefore, the President is exercising his lawful authority to limit funding to NPR and PBS.”