Shortly after the Corporation for Public Broadcasting announced Friday that it had awarded a large grant to a newly formed coalition to handle public radio distribution, National Public Radio asked a federal judge to block the move.
The clash exposes deep strains within public media during a year of extraordinary upheaval.
NPR is seeking a temporary restraining order to “stop immediate and irreparable harms” to the public radio system, arguing that CPB initially approved more than $30 million in the Public Radio Satellite System — of which NPR manages — before reversing course under pressure from the Trump administration.
In a Friday filing with the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, NPR said CPB’s reversal violated both the First Amendment and the Public Broadcasting Act of 1967.
“For four decades, NPR has been the sole designated manager of the PRSS,” the motion stated. “Federal law requires CPB to provide PRSS funds to the entity designated by those stations, which has always been NPR.”
“The only plausible explanation for CPB’s unlawful turnabout is its desire to comply with the order,” NPR wrote, referring to President Trump’s May executive order directing CPB to cut NPR’s funding.
CPB announced the creation of the Public Media Infrastructure on Friday, with a five-year, $57.9 million grant from CPB and backed by American Public Media Group, the National Federation of Community Broadcasters, New York Public Radio, PRX and the Station Resource Group — to distribute content to and from U.S. public radio stations.
A CPB spokesperson told Radio World that it issues requests for proposals and evaluates them based on the requirements outlined and “their benefit to the entire public media system.” CPB said it is confident that its actions “serve the best interests” of public radio’s future.
“We are disappointed that, at a time of tremendous challenge for all public media with substantially diminished resources, NPR is forcing CPB to expend scarce funds that would otherwise support the public media system in defending a lawsuit that has no merits and ultimately does not benefit the system,” the spokesperson said.
NPR countered that the network of approximately 1,200 stations relying on PRSS “never requested this change.”
The Washington Post reported that in an email to NPR staffers Friday, CEO Katherine Maher said the decision by CPB to form the coalition “undercut the bonds” between the two organization formed over many decades.
Maher wrote that it stands as a “regretful coda” to CPB’s prior history of First Amendment support.
