NPR is suing President Trump.
On Tuesday, NPR and three Colorado public radio stations filed suit in federal court against Trump and several members of his administration over an executive order to cut federal funding to NPR and PBS.
The lawsuit calls Trump's early May executive order directing the Corporation for Public Broadcasting to freeze all funding to NPR and PBS "textbook retaliation" and an existential threat to the public radio system "that millions of Americans across the country rely on for vital news and information."
"It is evident from the president's executive order, as well as statements released by the White House and prior statements by the president that we are being punished for our editorial choices," NPR CEO Katherine Maher told All Things Considered host Mary Louise Kelly.
Harrison Fields, a White House spokesperson, said in a statement on Tuesday: "The Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) is creating media to support a particular political party on the taxpayers' dime. Therefore, the President is exercising his lawful authority to limit funding to NPR and PBS. The President was elected with a mandate to ensure efficient use of taxpayer dollars, and he will continue to use his lawful authority to achieve that objective."
Maher spoke with Kelly about the lawsuit. NPR's policy is to cover itself as we would any other organization. NPR newsroom or corporate executives, including Maher, had no input on the questions for this interview.
This interview has been lightly edited for clarity and length.
Interview highlights
Mary Louise Kelly: You've made a statement. It's up on the NPR website. Anybody can read it. It reads: "The EO threatens the existence of the public broadcasting system upon which tens of millions of Americans rely." Katherine, that phrase, "threatens the existence," is that what you see is at stake here?
Katherine Maher: What we see is at stake here is not just funding to NPR, we also see the risk of funding to all public media, as well as broader concerns around government interference with the free press. The specifics of how this executive order concerns us have to do with the viability of public media stations. NPR has 246 member stations. They air hours of NPR programming a day and very often that is when they have their highest number of listeners, their greatest success during donation drives. If stations are unable to air NPR, we recognize that that could be catastrophic for their ability to continue to survive both editorially and financially.
Kelly: Do you worry about further retaliation? We're witnessing with Harvard what happens when an institution decides to stand up and fight back.
Maher: We definitely thought about what the consequences might be when we move forward to file the suit. And I should say that we are not choosing to do this out of politics. We are choosing to do this as a matter of necessity and principle. All of our rights that we enjoy in this democracy flow from the First Amendment: freedom of speech, association, freedom of the press. When we see those rights infringed upon, we have an obligation to challenge them. And that's what's at stake here. Retaliation is something we all think about and yet the principle of what we do and how we do it, we have to defend our editorial integrity and the integrity of those rights.
Kelly: For people listening. For NPR listeners. Will NPR sound any different as this plays out?
Maher: No, I don't believe so. The entire point of going forward with this litigation is to protect our editorial independence. And as you started the segment by saying, there is a firewall between the newsroom and management, such as myself. I believe that the way that we do our work and the way that we are successful is by pursuing journalism that is excellent.
And so, I thank you and everybody else in the newsroom for all you do every day on behalf of our public service and our public interest. I don't think we'll sound different. I think we'll sound exactly as we are: fair, responsible, nonpartisan and seeking the facts.
Kelly: The backdrop here is, of course, bigger than NPR. It's bigger than public broadcasting. We are witnessing a wider assault by the Trump administration on a free press. Are you speaking with leaders of other news organizations about how to navigate this moment? Are you getting support from other news organizations?
Maher: Yes, I've had a number of conversations with leaders of larger media organizations even at NPR. And I do believe that many of us feel as though this is a very difficult moment for this profession, also a difficult moment for our role as the press in democracy.
Without sounding grandiose, I think that's what animates many people who step into newsroom roles, leadership roles at media organizations. And so, we're feeling not just the importance of the moment in terms of operations of an NPR or another media company, but really sort of the existential moment for what is it that we're doing to serve the American public right now.
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Disclosure: This story was adapted for the web by Karen Zamora. It was edited by Managing Editors Gerry Holmes and Vickie Walton-James. Under NPR's protocol for reporting on itself, no NPR corporate official or news executive reviewed this story before it was posted publicly.
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