INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
"Congress directly authorized and funded CPB to be a private nonprofit corporation wholly independent of the federal government,"
statutorily forbidding "any department, agency, officer, or employee of the United States to exercise any direction, supervision, or control
over educational television or radio broadcasting, or over [CPB] or any of its grantees or contractors."In a statement explaining why "this
is not about the federal budget" and promising to "vigorously defend our right to provide essential news, information and life-saving
services to the American public," NPR President and CEO Katherine Maher called the order an "affront to the First Amendment."PBS President
and CEO Paula Kerger went further, calling the order "blatantly unlawful" in a statement provided to Ars."Issued in the middle of the
night," Trump's order "threatens our ability to serve the American public with educational programming, as we have for the past 50-plus
Further, NPR reported that the networks' "locally grounded content" currently reaches "more than 99 percent of the population at no cost,"
providing not just educational fare and entertainment but also critical updates tied to local emergency and disaster response
systems.Cutting off funding, Kreger said last month, would have a "devastating impact" on rural communities, especially in parts of the
country where NPR and PBS still serve as "the only source of news and emergency broadcasts," NPR reported.For example, Ed Ulman, CEO of
Alaska Public Media, testified to Congress last month that his stations "provide potentially life-saving warnings and alerts that are
crucial for Alaskans who face threats ranging from extreme weather to earthquakes, landslides, and even volcanoes." Some of the smallest
rural stations sometimes rely on CPB for about 50 percent of their funding, NPR reported.
