The U.S. Department of Justice has filed a lawsuit against three former members of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting for refusing to vacate their federal offices after being ousted from their jobs by President Donald Trump.
According to the complaint filed Tuesday in the U.S. District Court of Washington, D.C., defendants Laura G. Ross, Thomas E. Rotham, and Diane Kaplan "have continued to usurp the office of board member of the CPB, including by participating in board meetings, voting on resolutions and other business that comes before the board, and presenting themselves to the public as board members."
"All of this is manifestly unlawful," the complaint states.
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It comes just two months after President Trump — as part of his effort to shrink the size and scope of the federal government — signed an executive order to end the taxpayer subsidization of what the White House described as "biased media." The CPB is responsible for funding things like National Public Radio (NPR) and the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS).
"At the very least, Americans have the right to expect that if their tax dollars fund public broadcasting at all, they fund only fair, accurate, unbiased, and nonpartisan news coverage," the executive order states. "No media outlet has a constitutional right to taxpayer subsidies, and the Government is entitled to determine which categories of activities to subsidize. The CPB’s governing statute reflects principles of impartiality: the CPB may not 'contribute to or otherwise support any political party.'"
"The CPB fails to abide by these principles to the extent it subsidizes NPR and PBS," it continues. "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."
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The Corporation for Public Broadcasting is a private, nonprofit corporation authorized by Congress in the Public Broadcasting Act of 1967. About 70% of the funds it receives go to approximately 1,500 public television and radio stations in the U.S.
The organization receives about $525 million from Congress.
Paula Kerger, president of PBS, said cutting the organization's government funding could have dire consequences, particularly for stations in rural areas that could see up to half of their funding eliminated.
"This is why we are so focused on trying to make the case that if these cuts go through, it's about eliminating the possibility of funding and sustainability, frankly, for many of our stations," she said.
