PBS filed a lawsuit against President Donald Trump Friday, claiming it is being discriminated against, The New York Times reported.
Trump issued an executive order on May 1, “Ending Taxpayer Subsidization of Biased Media,” which instructed the Corporation for Public Broadcasting to cease all funding for the Public Broadcasting System and National Public Radio.
The federal lawsuit filed by PBS claims the Trump order is unconstitutional.
“The executive 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,” the lawsuit states. “That is blatant viewpoint discrimination.”
NPR filed a similar lawsuit over Trump’s executive order.
“The Order is textbook retaliation and viewpoint-based discrimination in violation of the First Amendment,” NPR’s suit states.
Trump’s order addressed the issue of bias.
“Which viewpoints NPR and PBS promote does not matter. What does matter is that neither entity presents a fair, accurate, or unbiased portrayal of current events to taxpaying citizens,” the order stated.
And with a wide range of media options available, Trump said none should need taxpayer dollars to survive.
“Government funding of news media in this environment is not only outdated and unnecessary but corrosive to the appearance of journalistic independence,” the order stated.
PBS has claimed Congress controls the funding, not the sitting president. Bills are pending in Congress to block funding for both PBS and NPR, according to the Times.