NPR is unwavering in our commitment to integrity,
editorial independence, and our mission to serve the American people in
partnership with our NPR Member organizations. Last night the President
released an Executive Order seeking to cease all federal funding to NPR
and PBS. We will vigorously defend our right to provide essential news,
information and life-saving services to the American public. We will
challenge this Executive Order using all means available.
America's
founders knew that an informed public is essential to a functioning
democracy, and that commitment to serve an informed public is the heart
of NPR's mission. With the creation of the Public Broadcasting Act,
Congress explicitly forbade 'any department, agency, officer, or
employee of the United States to exercise any direction, supervision, or
control over educational television or radio broadcasting.' This
independence has informed the role of public broadcasting in the
American interest for more than half a century, and is core to our
relentless commitment to editorial independence and integrity in our
service today.
This is not about balancing the federal budget.
The appropriation for public broadcasting, including NPR and PBS,
represents less than 0.0001% of the federal budget. The President's
order is an affront to the First Amendment rights of NPR and locally
owned and operated stations throughout America to produce and air
programming that meets the needs of their communities. It is also an
affront to the First Amendment rights of station listeners and donors
who support independent news and information. Although federal funding
is an essential aspect of public media, significant financial support
comes from listeners, underwriters, and philanthropic grants.
NPR
programming is essential to the economic viability of its 246 Member
organizations, generating on average 50% of all public radio listening,
despite only accounting for roughly 25% of station programming. Every $1
of federal funding generates $7 from local sources, enabling stations
to produce local journalism, support local and regional music and arts,
and develop creative, informative, and entertaining programming for
distribution across the nation. The local-national partnership between
NPR and its Member stations is essential to maintaining the viability
and strength of a nationwide public media network.
NPR was
established in 1970 as an act of partnership by 88 public media stations
around the nation. In the six decades since, NPR's Membership has
expanded to every state in the nation. The NPR Member network is among
the largest and most trusted media organizations in America. With a
presence in every state, often with local reporters on the ground and
specific expertise in music, culture, and newsgathering, NPR Member
stations work together to produce creative, substantive, and impactful
programming that holds the powerful to account, unearths untold stories,
gives voice to the unheard, and elevates the American experience
through creativity and inspiration.
This action jeopardizes the
national airing of beloved programming and essential news such as NPR's
iconic hourly Newscast, Morning Edition, and Tiny Desk Radio. It seeks
to deprive tens of millions of Americans of their regular, trusted
sources of information, and cut off resources to award-winning reporting
and cultural programming.
NPR stands by the excellence and
commitment of our journalists, staff, and Member organizations to seek
out stories that matter to the American public, that reflect every part
of the diversity of our nation, and that bring affairs of the world to
our audiences. We stand by our high standards and our colleagues in
their pursuit of factual reporting, their work to present issues fairly
and without bias, and our effort to seek the humanity and human
consequence of every story. We will strongly defend our work and our
editorial independence and will continue to tell the stories of our
country and the world with accuracy, objectivity, and fairness.
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