CPB & PBS Independence: Funding & Executive Orders

” CPB is not a government exec company based on the President’s authority,” Harrison said in a separate statement on Friday. “Congress straight moneyed and authorized CPB to be a personal nonprofit company entirely independent of the federal government.”

CPB’s Congressional Mandate

Per a reality sheet offered to THR by PBS, public broadcasting costs concerning $1.60 each, per year. The reality sheet specified that greater than 70 percent of the obtained funding goes directly to public TV and radio stations.

“In developing CPB, Congress specifically prohibited ‘any kind of department, agency, policeman, or staff member of the United States to work out any type of instructions, guidance, or control over educational tv or radio broadcasting, or over [CPB] or any one of its beneficiaries or service providers,” Harrison continued.

PBS Responds to Order

“The President’s blatantly illegal Executive Order, provided in the middle of the evening, threatens our ability to serve the American public with educational shows, as we have for the previous 50-plus years,” Kerger’s full declaration reads. “We are presently checking out all choices to allow PBS to continue to serve our member stations and all Americans.”

In a declaration shown to The Hollywood Press Reporter on Friday, Kerger, the head of state and CEO of PBS, called Trump’s newest executive order “blatantly illegal,” said it “threatens our capability to offer the American public with educational programming, as we have for the past 50-plus years.”