Trump FCC chief investigates NPR, PBS: NPR

The new head of the President Trump Federal Communications Commission ordered an investigation into NPR and PBS, with a view to unraveling federal funding for any public broadcasting.

“I fear that NPR and PBS programs will violate federal law by broadcasting advertisements” President Brendan Carr Wednesday wrote to the presidents and chiefs of the management of NPR and PBS, Katherine Maher and Paula A. Kerger, respectively. “In particular, it is possible that the member stations of NPR and PBS broadcast subscription announcements which cross the line in prohibited commercial advertisements.”

The FCC does not directly regulate the two networks. Instead, he assesses the actions of around 1,500 public broadcasting stations across the country, which hold licenses granted by the FCC for the use of public waves for radio and television, even in the era digital.

Public broadcasting stations is prohibited from directing advertisements. Instead, they present what is considered to be business subscription places, which are supposed to stop a “call for action” by telling listeners and viewers to buy a product or service.

The two CEOs rejected the assertion that public broadcasters had violated federal laws or practices dating back decades.

“PBS is proud of the non -commercial educational program that we offer to all Americans through our member stations,” Kerger said in a press release shared with NPR. “We work with diligence to comply with the subscription regulations of the FCC and welcome the opportunity to demonstrate this to the Commission.”

In a publicly published declarationMAHER said that CRDP credits and sponsorship programs were respected for federal regulations and FCC directives.

“We are convinced that any revision of our programming and subscription practices will confirm the membership of NPR to these rules,” said Maher. “We have been working for decades with the FCC for decades in favor of non-commercial educational broadcasters who provide essential information, educational programs and emergency alerts on local communities in the United States.”

Relive the debate on public funding

Carr noted in his letter that he shared it with the legislators of Capitol Hill because he thought that this could shed their debate on the opportunity to cut all the subsidies of taxpayers of the NPR and PBS programming.

“For my part, I do not see the reason why Congress should continue to send dollars taxpayers to NPR and PBS taking into account changes in the media market,” Carr wrote. He argued that any sign that the dollars of taxpayers support a broadcaster performing what is effectively advertising still undermines the case to send federal dollars to public broadcasters.

In a statement, the FCC commissioner Geoffrey Starks, appointed Democrat, said that Carr’s announcement was a source of “serious concern”.

“Public television and radio stations play an important role in our media ecosystem,” said Starks. “Any attempt to intimidate these local media is a threat to the free movement of information and the ideas market.”

Carr’s letter is part of Trump calls at the end of public funding for NPR and for PBS and in the president’s broader rhetorical assault on the media.

“There is no reason to believe that there are important or widespread violations of article 399b of the law on communications, as mentioned in the letter, or directives of the FCC adopted under From this law, “said Andrew Jay Schwartzman, a public interest lawyer who represented consumer groups before the agency. “It brings me to conclude that it is much more a frightening tactic than the identification of a real problem.”

Reinstatement of requests on other major networks

The president of the FCC under former president Joe Biden, Jessica Rosenworcel, cited the principles of freedom of expression by rejecting complaints earlier this month against local stations belonging to three television networks: CBS, NBC and Fox. Last week, Carr restored the complaints filed by a group affiliated to Trump against CBS and NBC for their treatment of the presidential campaign. He did not leave the dismissal of the one who focuses on a Fox station belonging to the Rupert Murdoch conservative media magnate.

The subscription has been an increasingly important part of the finances of public broadcasting in recent decades, as federal governments and states have withdrawn from this funding. On average, NPR receives approximately 1% of its funding directly from the federal government each year, according to documents accessible to the public. PBS receives 16%, according to a spokesperson for the network.

On average, member stations of the NPR obtain 10% of their funds from the public dissemination company with American charter. Rural stations are generally among the most dependent on these federal generosity. Consequently, public broadcasting has often benefited from bipartite support.

Trump used the 2025 project of the Conservative Heritage Foundation as a informal plan for its second administration, appointing one of its co-authors as a budget head. The section on public broadcasting called for the elimination of all federal funding.

“The next conservative president must finally do it and do it despite the opposition of the members of the congress of his own party if necessary”, ” Mike Gonzalez, a principal researcher in Heritage, wrote in the report. “Stoping public funding is a good policy and a good policy.”

In his first mandate, Trump Rhas sought to eliminate the federal funds of the public dissemination company, without success.

“There is an internal inconsistency to complain about the subscription to pay for public dissemination and to oppose public funding simultaneously,” adds Schwartzman. “There is an illogical in these two positions unless you really did not want the public of the nation disseminated by public broadcasting at all.”

Disclosure: This story has been reported and written by the media correspondent NPR, David Folkenflik and published by the assistant editor Emily Kopp and the editor-in-chief Vickie Walton-James. As part of the NPR protocol to account for himself, no manager of the company or the director of the news examined this story before its publication publicly.