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President Donald Trump has moved to exceed two main public media of tens of millions of dollars in taxpayers in the context of an executive decree which marks the last of a series of press attacks.
In order rendered last day Thursday, Trump accused the independent and non -profit television network of public broadcasting (PBS) and national public radio (NPR) of not providing a “just, precise or impartial representation of current events to taxpayers”.
“Government funding of information media in this environment is not only exceeded and useless but corrosive to the appearance of journalistic independence,” said the order.
This decision degenerates a repression on the free press which involved the prohibition of the Associated Press of the Oval Office and the Air Force One, and the pursuit of CBS television.
PBS and NPR receive most of their funding for business sponsorships, philanthropic organizations and donations. But the White House said it has won tens of millions of people from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which was created in 1967 to support local radio and television stations, with national content provided by PBS and NPR.
The CPB receives more than $ 500 million a year from Congress, which it then mainly allocates to public television and radio stations, some awarded to NPR and PBS. The CPB continued the Trump administration this week for trying to draw three of its five members of the board of directors.
NPR earns less than 1% of its funds thanks to federal money. However, member stations that authorize NPR content receive an average of 10% of their CPB funding.
PBS Director General Paula Kerger said this week that around 15% of the overall public broadcaster budget came from the federal government.
Trump's order will also end indirect funding in PBS and NPR by prohibiting local stations and any other CPB fund recipients to use taxpayers to support these organizations. It is not clear if the stations can use funds to concede to PBS and the NPR content.
The White House said that NPR and PBS “fueled left -wing supporters and propaganda with taxpayers' dollars, which is very inappropriate and improper use of taxpayers.”
In an information sheet, he highlighted the coverage considered to be biased, in particular that NPR insisted that “COVID-19 did not come from a laboratory and refused to explore theory”, and that he directed a characteristic of Valentine's Day around “queer animals”.
Trump limited the presidential access to the PA after the Wire agency refused to use the name “Gulf of America” instead of the Gulf of Mexico. His trial against CBS allegedly alleged his program 60 minutes He published an interview with Kamala Harris, the democratic opponent he defeated in the November elections.
CBS and its lawyers say that the trial is without merit, but the owner Paramount is in talks to settle the case because she requests regulatory approval for a merger with Skydance Media. The executive producer of 60 minutes resigned Last month, saying that he had lost his journalistic independence.
USAID finance cuts have sparked a financial crisis for the media around the world which was on American support. Voice of America journalists were on leave after Trump closed the American agency for the world's media.
