As NPR takes CPB to courtroom, public media infighting spills into view : NPR

[ad_1] <img src="https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims3/default/strip/false/crop/2980x1978+0+0/resize/1100/quality/50/format/jpeg/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F5f%2Fb6%2Fa5dea3824553b1604439d6759c32%2Fgettyimages-180967640.jpg" data-template="https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims3/default/strip/false/crop/2980x1978+0+0/resize/{width}/quality/{quality}/format/{format}/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F5f%2Fb6%2Fa5dea3824553b1604439d6759c32%2Fgettyimages-180967640.jpg" class="img" alt="The headquarters for National Public Radio, or NPR, are seen in Washington, DC, September 17, 2013." fetchpriority="high"/> The headquarters for Nationwide Public Radio, or NPR, are seen in Washington, DC, September 17, 2013. SAUL LOEB/AFP through Getty Pictures/AFP cover caption

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SAUL LOEB/AFP through Getty Pictures/AFP The chasm is widening between NPR and the Company for Public Broadcasting, the nonprofit that funneled federal {dollars} to public media till Congress killed that funding earlier this yr.

NPR's authorized group privately questioned the CPB's longtime chief government, Patricia Harrison, below oath earlier this month, based on the radio community's authorized filings, and is scheduled to take action publicly at a courtroom listening to Tuesday morning.

In courtroom paperwork, NPR has offered proof to bolster its case that the board of the nonprofit company first authorised a multiyear, multimillion-dollar contract for NPR to function a satellite tv for pc distribution system for public radio stations. Then, NPR alleges, CPB unlawfully yielded to political strain by yanking the contract simply days after President Trump warned that NPR ought to obtain no extra federal {dollars}. NPR contends it's but yet another instance of a significant establishment yielding to the president's whim.

CPB rejects that, saying that it awarded the contract to a special group to higher serve the nation's numerous array of public radio stations. NPR and CPB every declined remark for this story, citing the litigation.

The 2 establishments — together with PBS — have stood collectively on the core of public media for greater than a half century. They fashioned a united entrance, no less than publicly, as they lobbied lawmakers in opposition to clawing again the $1.1 billion already authorised by Congress and signed into legislation by the president for the broader public media system.

Behind the scenes, nonetheless, CPB and PBS officers signaled they'd not object to pulling funding for NPR, which has drawn the lion's share of Republicans' accusations of liberal bias.

A White Home price range official warns CPB of her "intense dislike for NPR" NPR's authorized paperwork supply the next chronology: In late March and early April, Trump known as NPR and PBS "monsters" and demanded Congress eradicate federal funds for them.

On April 2, CPB's board directed officers to barter the effective print of a contract with NPR to function the satellite tv for pc for the following three years, based on NPR's filings. The radio community has operated the system, by way of which native radio stations obtain and share packages, podcasts and different content material, for 4 many years.

Two days later, a senior White Home price range official met with three CPB executives.

"It could be a disgrace to throw the child out with the tub water," the administration official, Katherine Sullivan, mentioned, based on accounts from CPB officers cited by NPR in its authorized filings. She steered CPB may salvage its future and relayed her "intense dislike for NPR," Harrison wrote to NPR CEO Katherine Maher a number of days later, based on NPR's current filings within the case.

Harrison expressed deep fears that the White Home may take an ax to CPB and public media extra broadly. "These rumors have potential to show into boy who cried wolf," Harrison wrote in her e-mail to Maher. "Besides the wolf is admittedly coming." Inside days, CPB's board moved to direct executives to refashion the phrases of the contract so it may solely be granted to an entity that stood solely other than NPR.

<img src="https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims3/default/strip/false/crop/5753x3835+0+0/resize/1100/quality/50/format/jpeg/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F9f%2Ffc%2Fb279be9f4f1db6480af4e7661f45%2Fap25251118754802.jpg" data-template="https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims3/default/strip/false/crop/5753x3835+0+0/resize/{width}/quality/{quality}/format/{format}/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F9f%2Ffc%2Fb279be9f4f1db6480af4e7661f45%2Fap25251118754802.jpg" class="img" alt="Patricia Harrison, right, accepts the Governors Award on behalf of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) from Henry Louis Gates Jr. during the Television Academy's 2025 Creative Arts Emmy Awards on Sept. 7, 2025." loading="lazy"/> Patricia Harrison, proper, accepts the Governors Award on behalf of the Company for Public Broadcasting (CPB) from Henry Louis Gates Jr. throughout the Tv Academy's 2025 Artistic Arts Emmy Awards on Sept. 7, 2025. Phil McCarten/Phil McCarten/Invision/AP/Invision cover caption

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Phil McCarten/Phil McCarten/Invision/AP/Invision At the same time as they moved to sever the NPR contract, and linked the choice privately to the political local weather, courtroom paperwork present a number of CPB executives advised a newly employed Republican marketing consultant they might not merely announce they had been withdrawing the satellite tv for pc contract from NPR to appease the White Home.

"There are apparent political challenges, however we won't 'personal that' outright," Debra Sanchez, CPB's chief of workers, wrote to the Republican marketing consultant, Carl Forti, in one in every of a number of such exchanges captured in NPR's courtroom filings. "So we're in a decent spot type of. What are the strongest messages we will make in regards to the 'why' or the 'as a result of?'"

For all these efforts, when Trump and his Republican allies in Congress stripped public media of subsidies, it was the start of the top of CPB. The nonprofit laid off most of its workers final month and expects to close down in January. Layoffs even have ensued at PBS and plenty of public media stations.

NPR and CPB are battling in courtroom over a separate pot of cash, price tens of thousands and thousands of {dollars}, to function the satellite tv for pc system.

CPB argues NPR and public media stations could have separate pursuits CPB argues that NPR is wrongfully performing as if it's entitled to function the satellite tv for pc in perpetuity. Its authorized group has waved off NPR's arguments that it acted as a result of political strain. As an alternative, CPB contends that, with the elimination of federal subsidies, the radio community's pursuits could diverge from these of native public media stations. CPB's legal professionals say the choice to grant the contract to a different group is meant to make sure the station's long-term pursuits are protected.

The supply pulled from NPR — a three-year contract price practically $36 million — pales compared to the brand new one introduced in September. That one is valued at $57 million over 5 years. CPB has awarded it to a consortium that features New York Public Radio, American Public Media, the Nationwide Federation of Group Broadcasters and a consulting agency known as the Station Useful resource Group, amongst them. It's known as Public Media Infrastructure, reviving the dormant nonprofit Public Radio Worldwide.

Earlier this month, Harrison advised officers at public media stations receiving a ultimate spherical of federal grants that she could be compelled to disclose unflattering critiques of NPR's management because of the litigation.

"As this lawsuit strikes ahead, CPB will likely be required to put into the general public report proof of its issues and the issues of others about NPR's administration, its resistance to innovation and reforms that many in our system have urged it to undertake, and its repeated dismissal of the significance of the federal appropriation that sustains public media," Harrison warned Oct. 13 in an e-mail to station officers.

In courtroom filings, CPB says the April resolution got here "after many years of research by exterior consultants" and embodied "a technique of getting an unbiased entity that was extra inclusive of the broad vary of public media entities throughout the nation" than NPR.

NPR alleges political strain behind a change of thoughts By NPR's telling, the allegations signify a case examine in what occurs when establishments wilt below the president's unprecedented train of government authority. CPB and the Trump administration are co-defendants on this case, which was filed by NPR and three Colorado public radio stations over Trump's government order which sought to easily order the ending of all federal funding for public media. But CPB earlier sued Trump over his efforts to oust its board members, calling that unconstitutional.

As CPB pulled again from the contract understanding with NPR, Sanchez employed Forti, the Republican marketing consultant. On his first day on the job, April 10, he wrote a memo defining CPB's problem as he noticed it: "BIAS: Perception each in Administration and amongst basic public that the media is biased in opposition to conservatives and extra particularly in opposition to Trump. NPR is excessive on these lists."

That very same day, Trump posted on-line: "NO MORE FUNDING FOR NPR, A TOTAL SCAM!"

On April 14 — the identical day that information broke that Trump would formally request Congress to rescind all future funding for CPB — CPB Chief Working Officer Kathy Merritt known as her counterpart at NPR, Ryan Merkley, to say the board had modified course. It could now not award federal cash to function the general public radio satellite tv for pc and distribution system until it had been spun off NPR.

On Capitol Hill, as Trump's push to eradicate all federal subsidies for public radio, CPB executives mapped out a technique to attraction to Republican Senators John Barrasso of Wyoming and Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia — purple states the place statewide public media networks carry broad attraction. (CPB's board chair had beforehand headed Wyoming PBS.)

However it was to no avail. The senators voted together with all however two of their Republican colleagues to efficiently eradicate all funding for public media — serving to to seal the destiny of CPB.

Disclosure: This story was reported and written by NPR media correspondent David Folkenflik. It was edited by Deputy Enterprise Editor Emily Kopp and Managing Editors Gerry Holmes and Vickie Walton-James. Below NPR's protocol for reporting on itself, no NPR company official or information government reviewed this story earlier than it was posted publicly.