How Trump’s funding cuts to NPR and PBS threaten North Carolina stations
Big Bird, Cookie Monster and Snuffleupagus found themselves the latest victims of President Donald Trump’s executive orders.
Late Thursday night, Trump instructed the Corporation for Public Broadcasting to cease funding to NPR and PBS. At risk is $535 million provided annually to around 1,600 radio and television stations across the country. An earmark in the most recent congressional budget set the CPB’s funding levels through 2027.
The executive order emulates Trump’s recent attacks on members of the media, including banning The Associated Press from the Oval Office, suing CBS and shuttering Voice of America.
It’s not yet clear how the executive order will be carried out. But the results will likely have a direct impact on the 12 PBS television stations and nine NPR stations in North Carolina. Those include Durham’s WUNC and Charlotte’s WFAE, where reporters from The News & Observer appear as regular guests on shows like Due South and Charlotte Talks with Mike Collins.
Paul Hunton, WUNC’s president and general manager, learned about the executive order around 11:45 p.m. Thursday. WUNC receives $800,000 in federal money annually.
“In North Carolina, it would have a big effect,” Hunton told McClatchy. “We’ve got nine stations that cover most of the state, and that’s a lot of investment in infrastructure and technology. We’ve got one of the bigger newsrooms in the area.”
He added that Trump’s executive order would “challenge our ability to bring our audiences national programming,” because the executive order states that federal funding can’t be spent, directly or indirectly, on NPR programming.
Hunton was elected to NPR’s Board of Directors on Friday.
David Crabtree, CEO and general manager of PBS North Carolina, echoed Hunton’s concerns on the impact in the state. PBS North Carolina has been on the air more than 70 years.
“While this is framed as defunding PBS at the national level, it directly threatens vital funding for local stations,” Crabtree said in a written statement to McClatchy. “Federal support accounts for $4.8 million of our annual operating budget. This funding is critical to the essential services we provide every day, such as delivering emergency communications across the state, educational programming and resources, and the local and national programs our viewers depend on.”
Crabtree said he is actively monitoring developments and that the station would “remain steadfast in our mission to educate, inform, entertain and inspire.”
PBS North Carolina is also at risk of losing $4 million in funding in the state’s budget.
Both PBS and CPB executives challenged the legality of the executive order, which could run afoul of the Constitution. The Impoundment Control Act of 1974 dictates that a president can’t unilaterally undo a congressional earmark without congressional action.
Congress created CPB, in 1967, under the belief that the “growth and development” of public radio and television was in the public’s interest. CPB is supported by taxpayer dollars and directed to offer grants to public broadcasters.
“The President’s blatantly unlawful Executive Order, issued in the middle of the night, threatens our ability to serve the American public with educational programming, as we have for the past 50-plus years,” said Paula Kerger, president and CEO of PBS. “We are currently exploring all options to allow PBS to continue to serve our member stations and all Americans.”
Patricia Harrison, president and CEO of CPB, wrote in a published statement that “CPB is not a federal executive agency subject to the President’s authority.”
“Congress directly authorized and federally funded CPB to be a private nonprofit corporation wholly independent of the federal government,” Harrison wrote. “In creating CPB, Congress expressly forbade ‘any department, agency officer or employee of the United States to exercise any discretional supervision or control over educational television or radio broadcasting, or over CPB or any of its grantees or contractors.’”
Trump’s opposition to NPR and PBS stretches back to his first term in 2017, when he called for Congress to defund CPB, accusing both broadcasters of supporting the Democratic Party. But Congress didn’t act.
However, in late March, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, a Republican from Georgia, held a congressional hearing attacking both NPR and PBS, echoing many of Trump’s complaints.
Both Kerger and NPR CEO Katherine Maher testified before the committee.
On Thursday, Trump accused NPR and PBS of “receiving tens of millions of dollars in taxpayer funding” to spread “radical, woke propaganda disguised as news.”
PBS’ website states that 15% of the network’s revenue comes from federal funding.
Both PBS and NPR hold fundraising drives for additional money from supporters. WUNC ended its drive Thursday.
This story was originally published May 2, 2025 at 5:33 PM with the headline "How Trump’s funding cuts to NPR and PBS threaten North Carolina stations."
