“After careful deliberation, PBS reached the conclusion that it was necessary to take legal action to safeguard public television’s editorial independence, and to protect the autonomy of PBS member stations.”
PBS and one of its member stations in Minnesota have filed a lawsuit against President Donald Trump and several of his cabinet officials over a recent executive order that moves to defund the organization fueled by taxpayer dollars.
The lawsuit, filed Friday in US District Court in Washington, DC, alleges that Trump’s May 1 executive order violates the First Amendment and the Administrative Procedure Act. PBS is asking the court to declare the order unconstitutional and to prevent the administration from enforcing it.
“After careful deliberation, PBS reached the conclusion that it was necessary to take legal action to safeguard public television’s editorial independence, and to protect the autonomy of PBS member stations,” a spokesperson for PBS said, according to CNN.
The Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB), which distributes federal funds to public TV and radio stations, has also filed suit against Trump over his effort to remove several board members. Although CPB is refusing to comply with the demand, federal funding for public media has been halted, which may force some smaller stations off the air.
Earlier this week, NPR filed a similar lawsuit, also citing First Amendment violations. Both lawsuits stem from Trump’s claims that PBS and NPR display political bias in their reporting.
“PBS disputes those charged assertions in the strongest possible terms,” the PBS lawsuit states. “But regardless of any policy disagreements over the role of public television, our Constitution and laws forbid the President from serving as the arbiter of the content of PBS’s programming, including by attempting to defund PBS.”
The suit further claims that 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,” calling it “blatant viewpoint discrimination and an infringement of PBS and PBS Member Stations’ private editorial discretion.”
PBS also argued that the Public Broadcasting Act of 1967 was specifically designed to insulate public media from political interference and accused Trump of circumventing Congress, which is responsible for allocating funds to public broadcasting.
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