Donald Trump is extremely unpopular on Sesame Street. Trump’s attempts to block all federal funding to PBS have caused the broadcaster to file a lawsuit against him. The purpose of the lawsuit is to prevent Trump from freezing the financing necessary to remain on air. On Friday, a public TV station in Minnesota joined the Public Broadcasting System and filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court in Washington. The lawsuit accuses Trump of “blatant viewpoint discrimination.”
May 1 Executive Order
The lawsuit is a direct result of Trump signing an executive order on May 1 that stopped all federal funding for NPR and the Public Broadcasting Service. Trump signed the order, which claimed the media outlets allegedly displayed “bias” in their reporting.
After Trump signed the executive order, a lawyer representing the Public Broadcasting Service hit back and argued that the proposed cutting of funds violated laws that forbid a president from being an “arbiter” of its content. PBS is made up of mostly kid-focused programming, including Elmo’s World, Sesame Street, and Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood. The shows have found a new place to call home on Netflix.
PBS Fights Back
The lawyer representing PBS added that those laws cover “attempting to defund PBS. The executive order does not attempt to hide the fact that it is cutting off the flow of funds to PBS because of the content of PBS programming and out of a desire to alter the content of speech,” the complaint read. “That is blatant viewpoint discrimination.”
Reportedly, an estimated 16 percent of PBS’s $373.4 million yearly budget comes from grants from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. The Public Broadcasting Service spends an estimated $500 million annually on public media, and those funds come from Congress.
Lawsuit Order: ‘Blatantly Unlawful’
PBS’s lawyer says that Trump’s new executive order would “destabilize” an estimated 61% of its budget that comes from local stations’ dues for its programming. Paula Kerger, the CEO of PBS, says Trump’s executive order is “blatantly unlawful.”
The Public Broadcasting Service released a statement saying the broadcaster believes that it was “necessary to take legal action to safeguard public television’s editorial independence and to protect the autonomy of PBS member stations.”
NPR Files Lawsuit
The NPR has also filed a lawsuit against Trump’s executive order. On Tuesday, National Public Radio and three of its local stations filed lawsuits against Trump. In its lawsuit, it alleges Trump’s executive order cuts funding to 246 stations in the network, violates free speech, and relies on an authority that Trump does not have.
“By basing its directives on the substance of NPR’s programming, the executive order seeks to force NPR to adapt its journalistic standards and editorial choices to the preferences of the government if it is to continue to receive federal funding,” the CEO of NPR, Katherine Maher, said on Tuesday.
