Demand Progress

The Trump administration just opened up federal investigations into PBS and NPR that threaten to destroy the public broadcasters.¹

Trump’s FCC Chair, Brendan Carr, also told the broadcasters that, “Congress is actively considering whether to stop requiring taxpayers to subsidize NPR and PBS”² — a direct threat to funding that NPR and PBS need to survive.

Crushing public journalism will only give rise to more right-wing propaganda and disinformation — and that’s exactly what Trump wants.

Sign the petition: Save public media from Trump’s direct attacks on NPR and PBS!

The Trump media playbook is to accuse any and all trustworthy journalism as lying, propaganda, and biased against him. It’s exactly how Musk and Marjorie Taylor Greene are trying to destroy PBS and NPR.

After PBS reported on Elon Musk’s apparent Nazi salute after the inauguration, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene threatened the public broadcaster. She wrote that she’d bring PBS in front of her DOGE committee to explain “why lying and spreading propaganda to serve the Democrat party and attack Republicans is a good use of taxpayer funds.”³

Musk has said he’s “gunning” for public media.⁴ He wrote, “Taxpayer money should not be used to fund propaganda” when referring to NPR⁵ — straight out of the Trump playbook.

Trump, Musk, and Greene want to destroy reliable public journalism by slashing funding for NPR and PBS, but Congress must stand for these popular public broadcasters.

Sign the petition: Save critical PBS and NPR funding from Musk, Trump, and Greene’s right-wing attacks!

Sources:

1. New York Times, “F.C.C. Chair Orders Investigation Into NPR and PBS Stations,” January 30, 2025.
2. Ibid.
3. The New Republic, “MTG Threatens PBS for Accurately Describing Elon Musk’s Salute,” January 21, 2025.
4. New York Times, “NPR and PBS Stations Brace for Funding Battle Under Trump,” December 27, 2024.
5. Elon Musk on Twitter, “Taxpayer money should not be used to fund propaganda,” January 12, 2025.