Federal Judge Says NO To Defunding PBS, NPR

Although the Corporation for Public Broadcasting dissolved at the beginning of the year, National Public Radio and the Public Broadcasting Service still celebrated a win in court on Tuesday, when a federal judge in Washington, DC blocked President Donald Trump’s executive order intended to strip the organizations of federal funding. “As the court expressly recognized, the First Amendment draws a line, which the government may not cross, at efforts to use government power—including the power of the purse—'to punish or suppress disfavored expression’ by others,” he said in a statement to The Associated Press. “It does so, moreover, without regard to whether the federal funds are used to pay for the nationwide interconnection systems,” he explained, “which serve as the technological backbones of public radio and television; to provide safety and security for journalists working in war zones; to support the emergency broadcast system; or to produce or distribute music, children’s, or other educational programming, or documentaries.”

Author: Jessica Corbett

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