PBS lawsuit against President Trump seeks to prevent public television funding cuts, following a similar NPR lawsuit. The executive order is deemed an "existential threat" by PBS, alleging presidential overreach. This action follows a pattern of Trump administration actions against media outlets, including lawsuits, investigations, and attacks on journalists and pollsters
President Trump's April 27, 2025, comments to reporters before boarding Air Force One in Morristown, New Jersey, follow lawsuits against PBS and NPR over proposed funding cuts. This action is part of a broader pattern of attacks on the media, including lawsuits against news organizations and investigations into journalists
PBS and Lakeland PBS filed suit against President Trump, alleging his executive order to defund public broadcasting (PBS and NPR) via the Corporation for Public Broadcasting is an "existential threat" and an overreach of authority. This action follows similar legal challenges from NPR and comes amidst a broader pattern of Trump administration actions targeting media outlets critical of the administration
Trump's attacks on media outlets include lawsuits against news organizations, promoting right-wing voices in the White House press corps, attempts to defund federally funded media like Voice of America, and FCC investigations into critical networks. These actions follow lawsuits filed by PBS and NPR against Trump's funding cuts and coincide with his escalating rhetoric against the press and pollsters
Trump administration FCC actions targeted media outlets, including investigations into CBS, potentially impacting its merger. This follows lawsuits against news organizations and funding cuts for PBS and NPR, reflecting a broader pattern of attacks on the press
Trump attacks NYT, ABC, Washington Post, and Fox News pollsters as "negative criminals," demanding investigation for "ELECTION FRAUD" due to their recent polls showing his negative approval ratings. This escalation of rhetoric against the press follows lawsuits against media outlets and efforts to defund public broadcasters like PBS and NPR
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Trump—who has feuded with CBS for years—sued the network for $20 billion, claiming it deceptively edited its “60 Minutes” interview with Harris after the network in a preview of her interview aired a different version of Harris’ answer to a question than the one shown in the full program. In the preview, Harris gave a longer answer in response to a question about the Israel-Hamas war than the one aired during the full show. The network later released a full transcript of the interview that showed it ran the first sentence of her answer in the preview and the last sentence during the show, though the meaning of her response was largely the same. Trump is suing CBS as its parent company, Paramount, is seeking the Federal Communications Commission’s approval of a multi-billion-dollar merger with Skydance. Trump urged the FCC to revoke the network’s broadcasting license last month over “60 Minutes” coverage of him, and FCC Chairman Brendan Carr has warned that the deceptive-editing allegations against CBS could become a factor in the FCC review of the merger. Meanwhile, Paramount and Trump began mediation talks earlier this month as Paramount owner Shari Redstone wants to settle with Trump, The New York Times reported, citing unnamed sources. The lawsuit has led to accusations from journalists that Paramount leadership has meddled in coverage of Trump, compromising their integrity. Wendy McMahon, president of CBS News and Stations, said she would step down Monday following a “challenging” few months in which she and the company did “not agree on the path forward,” ostensibly referring to the settlement talks. Longtime “60 Minutes” producer Bill Owens also left his post in April, citing waning editorial independence. Trump reportedly wants $25 million or more and an apology to settle the lawsuit, the Wall street Journal reported this week, citing an unnamed source.
The Federal Trade Commission opened a probe in May into the liberal advocacy group, Media Matters for America, and whether it coordinated with other watchdogs to deter companies from advertising on Elon Musk’s X, according to multiple reports. Musk is also suing Media Matters for defamation over a report it published about antisemitic content on X. Media Matters president Angela Carusone told Forbes in response to the probe “the Trump administration has been defined by naming right-wing media figures to key posts and abusing the power of the federal government to bully political opponents and silence critics. It’s clear that’s exactly what’s happening here, given Media Matters’ history of holding those same figures to account. These threats won’t work; we remain steadfast to our mission.”
NPR also sued the Trump administration Tuesday to block its attempt to revoke federal funding for NPR and PBS. Trump signed an order May 2 to defund NPR and PBS and has said he’ll ask Congress to revoke $1.1 billion in federal funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which provides funding for NPR and PBS. The FCC also said it’s opened investigations into NPR and PBS and whether they aired “announcements that cross the line into prohibited commercial advertisements,” Carr said in a letter to the organizations in January. Carr said the investigation could factor into Congress’ decision on whether to continue funding the organizations. NPR said in a statement in a news article about the threat that the funding cut “would have a devastating impact on American communities across the nation,” adding that “locally owned public media stations represent a proud American tradition of public-private partnership for our shared common good.” PBS CEO and President Paual Kerger told NPR the move would “disrupt the essential service PBS and local member stations provide to the American people.” On April 29, the CPB sought a temporary restraining order to prevent Trump from removing three board members—two appointed by Biden and one appointed by Trump during his first term then reappointed by Biden—arguing the law that established the organization allows Trump to appoint board members, but not fire them.
Carr has opened numerous investigations into media organizations and has echoed Trump’s critical rhetoric of news coverage. “We must dismantle the censorship cartel and restore free speech rights for everyday Americans,” Carr tweeted prior to his appointment as FCC chair. He also warned that “broadcast licenses are not sacred cows,” suggesting the commission could revoke licenses for companies that don’t “operate in the public interest,” and he threatened that the FCC could block merger proposals from companies that promote DEI. In addition to the NPR and PBS probes, Carr has announced investigations into Comcast’s diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives and a San Francisco-based radio station’s coverage of an immigration raid. Comcast said in a statement to the New York Post in response to the probe that it would cooperate with the investigation and built the company “on a foundation of integrity and respect for all of our employees and customers.” The FCC doesn’t distribute and can’t revoke licenses for entire networks and instead oversees licensing for their affiliated local broadcast channels. Cable networks, such as CNN and MSNBC, are not within its jurisdiction since they don’t broadcast on public airwaves. Stations could fight any attempt to revoke their licenses in court, and laws that dictate their regulatory authority would make it highly unlikely, if not impossible, to pull a station’s license. The FCC is prohibited, for example, from “engaging in censorship or infringing on First Amendment rights of the press.” Licensing and merger decisions require the approval of the full commission, which is made up of the chair and four members appointed by the president and confirmed by the Senate for five-year terms. One of the commission’s two Democrats, Geoffrey Starks, announced last month he would resign this spring, and a third Republican seat is vacant.
About one-third of Voice of America’s workforce was terminated earlier this month, Kari Lake, senior adviser for the organization’s parent company, the U.S. Agency for Global Media, told multiple outlets in a statement that said “buckle up, there’s more to come.” The move comes after Lake—a special adviser to the U.S. Agency for Global Media, parent company for international broadcaster Voice of America—announced a “partnership” earlier this month with the conservative One America News Network to broadcast its programs on USAGM networks, including the Office of Cuba Broadcasting, Radio Martí and Voice of America. U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth on April 22 ordered the Trump administration to restore funding for Voice of America, Radio Free Asia and Middle East Broadcasting Network and rehire all staff, halting an executive order Trump signed in March to shut down the government-funded news organizations. Trump, claiming Voice of America was “anti-Trump” and pushed “radical propaganda,” revoked funding for the VOA and its parent company, the U.S. Agency for Global Media, which oversees Radio Free Europe and Radio Free Asia, prompting the organizations to place more than 1,300 employees and hundreds of contractors on leave. Lamberth, who is overseeing six lawsuits opposing the shutdown, ruled the move was likely unconstitutional since the organization was created by and is funded by Congress. On April 29, Lamberth ordered the Trump administration to reinstate $12 million in funding that had previously been appropriated to Radio Free Europe, saying in the ruling the Trump administration cannot take away money that Congress allocated, the Associated Press reported. The VOA, which has a budget of about $260 million annually and was formed in 1942 as a counter to Nazi propaganda, broadcasts in more than 40 languages to an international audience of more than 350 million. Radio Free Asia was formed in 1994 by the International Broadcasting Act and has a budget of about $61 million, and the Middle East Broadcasting Network was founded in 2004 and has a $100 million budget.
The White House has attempted to bar the Associated Press from accessing some spaces, such as the Oval Office and Air Force One, after it refused to rename the “Gulf of Mexico” to the “Gulf of America” in its style guide. The Associated Press then sued the Trump administration over the blockade, and Judge Trevor McFadden ruled in the AP’s favor earlier this month, though Trump has appealed the ruling.
The White House also eliminated a permanent spot in the press pool reserved for wire services and instead put the AP, Bloomberg and Reuters in a rotation for two “print” slots, along with 31 other outlets. The Trump administration announced in February it would decide which journalists are allowed in the White House press pool, breaking a years-long tradition in which the independent White House Correspondents’ Association coordinated the pool, made up of 13 journalists from a rotating group of outlets who travel with the president and share their reporting with other media outlets. The Trump administration has also set up a “new media” seat in the briefing room that’s offered to outlets that don’t have a permanent spot, such as Forbes, though it often hosts non-traditional media such as podcast hosts and social media personalities.
Trump and his companies have filed multiple lawsuits against media organizations prior to his winning a second term. Trump Media & Technology Group, the parent company for Trump’s Truth Social platform, filed a $1.5 billion lawsuit against 20 media organizations, including Forbes, The Guardian, Reuters, Axios and MSNBC, in November 2023, alleging they defamed him by incorrectly reporting that Truth Social lost $73 million from its launch in early 2022 through mid 2023. Many outlets, including Forbes, corrected their stories to say Truth Social had lost $31.6 million since its inception.
In January 2023, Trump sued journalist Bob Woodward, publisher Simon & Schuster and parent company Paramount Global for nearly $50 million, claiming Woodward published recordings of his interviews with Trump for his book “Rage” without Trump’s permission. Trump in December also sued the Des Moines Register, its parent company, Gannett, and its former pollster, Ann Selzer, over a Selzer poll shortly before the election that found Trump would lose Iowa by three to four points, only for him to win the state by 13 points. Trump alleged the poll amounted to election interference and a violation of the Iowa Consumer Fraud Act. The paper and Selzer filed motions to dismiss the suit in February, and the Register alleged the law only applies to “consumer merchandise,” and there’s no evidence Trump ever purchased anything from the paper.
Trump has had mixed results in his legal battles with the press. He settled with ABC News last year in a lawsuit Trump filed when anchor George Stephanopolos said Trump was found liable for “rape” when a jury found him liable for sexually assaulting writer E. Jean Carroll. The network agreed to donate $15 million to Trump’s presidential library and issue a statement of regret as part of the settlement. A judge in July 2023 dismissed a case he filed against CNN over its use of the term “the big lie” to refer to his false claims he won the 2020 election and alleged comparisons between Trump and Hitler.
F.C.C. Chair Orders Investigation Into NPR and PBS Sponsorships (New York Times)
Which media companies has Donald Trump sued? (Reuters)
‘60 Minutes’ Chief Resigns in Emotional Meeting: ‘The Company Is Done With Me’ (New York Times)
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