PBS filed a lawsuit on Friday against President Donald Trump and other administration officials to block his order by eliminating federal funds from the 330 stations public television system, Three days after NPR He did the same for his radio network.
In his demand, PBS is based on similar arguments, saying that Trump was exceeding his authority and participating in “Discrimination of the point of view” Due to his statement that PBS news coverage is biased against conservatives.
“PBS disputes those accused statements in the most solid possible terms,” said lawyer ZW Julius Chen in the lawsuit, filed at the United States District Court in Washington. “But regardless of political disagreements about the role of public television, our Constitution and laws prohibit the president to serve as a referee to the content of PBS programming, even when trying to disburse PBS.”
It was the last of many legal actions taken against the administration for their movements, including several by the media organizations affected by Trump’s orders.
PBS joined as a plaintiff for one of its stations, Lakeland PBS, which serves rural areas in the north and center of Minnesota. Trump’s order is an “existential threat” for the station, the demand said.
A PBS spokesman said that “after careful deliberation, PBS concluded that it was necessary to take legal measures to safeguard the editorial independence of public television and protect the autonomy of the PBS member stations.”
Through an executive order earlier this month, Trump told the Corporation for Public Transmission and federal agencies that stop financing the two systems. Only through the corporation, PBS is receiving $ 325 million this year, most of which go directly to individual stations.
PBS, which makes much of the programming used by the stations, said it obtains 22% of its income directly from the federals. The sixty -one percent of the PBS budget is financed through the individual fees of the station, and the stations increase most of that money through the government.
Trump’s order “would have profound impacts on the capacity of PBS and PBS member stations to provide a rich programming uphill to all Americans,” Chen wrote.
PBS said the United States Department of Education has canceled a subsidy of $ 78 million to the educational programming system, used to make shows for children such as “Sesame Street”, “Clifford The Big Red Dog” and “Reading Rainbow”.
For Minnesota residents, the order threatens the “Lakeland Learns” educational program and the “Lakeland news”, described in demand as the only television program in the region that provides local news, climate and sports.
In addition to Trump, the lawsuit appoints other administration officials as defendants, including the Secretary of Education, Linda McMahon, the Treasury Secretary, Scott Besent, and the Secretary of National Security Kristi Noem. PBS says that its technology is used as a backup for the wireless emergency alert system throughout the country.
The administration has fought with several media organizations. News services administered by the Government as Voice of America and Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty They are fighting for their lives, Associated Press has fought with the White House for access to the press and the Federal Communications Commission is investigating television news divisions.
___
David Bauder writes about media intersection and entertainment for AP. Follow it in http://x.com/dbauder and https://bsky.app/profile/dbauder.bsky.social.
