Trump's Censorship Czar Orders NPR and PBS Investigation

WASHINGTON — On Thursday, Federal Communications Commission Chairman Brendan Carr ordered an investigation into NPR and PBS. In a letter to the chief executives of both publicly funded networks, Carr used the investigation as a pretext to suggest that Congress end federal funding for NPR and PBS. 

“To the extent that these taxpayer dollars are being used to support a for profit endeavor or an entity that is airing commercial advertisements, then that would further undermine any case for continuing to fund NPR and PBS with taxpayer dollars,” Carr wrote.

In his brief tenure as FCC chairman, Carr has also threatened to pull the broadcast licenses of other broadcasters, including affiliates of ABC, CBS and NBC, for airing segments that displeased President Trump. In public polling, NPR and PBS routinely rank among America’s most trusted brands, and taxpayer money “well spent.”

Free Press Co-CEO Craig Aaron said:

“His seat as FCC chairman is barely warm, but Brendan Carr is already abusing his power and harassing public broadcasters with a sham investigation designed to scare journalists into silence. This is all part of Carr’s far-right, Project 2025-inspired agenda.

“This bogus investigation is an attack on the freedom of the press and a bungling attempt to bash public broadcasters and further weaken their resolve to question the extremism, corruption and cruelty of the Trump administration. This unjustified investigation isn’t based on any genuine concern about whether there’s too much advertising on public media. It’s a blatant attempt to undermine independent, rigorous reporting on the Trump administration.

“Carr may not like public media — and that’s no surprise given that he isn’t a fan of journalism that holds public officials and billionaires accountable. In this, as in so many other areas under his purview, Chairman Carr is far out of step with the American public and their needs.

“Communities all across the country rely on their local public radio and TV stations to provide trustworthy news reporting and a diversity of opinions. In every survey, the American public indicates it wants more support for public and community media, not less.

“In a healthy democracy, we would be investing enough in our public-media system that it wouldn’t need to seek any corporate underwriting. Unfortunately, Carr’s cronies in Congress and the Big Media barons they serve have instead for decades tried to zero out funding for public media. They have repeatedly failed because millions of viewers and listeners opposed them.”