Her Campus Logo Her Campus Logo
White House with American Flag
White House with American Flag
Photo by Joshua Sukoff from Unsplash
Pace | Culture > News

Public Broadcasting Funding is Back: Federal Judge Blocks Order to Defund PBS and NPR

Sabrina Crowley Student Contributor, Pace University
This article is written by a student writer from the Her Campus at Pace chapter and does not reflect the views of Her Campus.

On Tuesday, March 31, a federal judge blocked the Trump Administration from ending government funding to the National Public Radio (NPR) and the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS). United States District of Columbia Judge Randolph Moss made the decision, citing the First Amendment– the right to free speech, including freedom of the press. 

According to an article from The New York Times, Moss said that Trump’s original order to defund the news outlets was “unlawful because it instructed federal agencies to refrain from funding NPR and PBS because the president believed their news coverage had a liberal viewpoint.” 

The article went on to say that Moss wrote, “The message is clear: NPR and PBS need not apply for any federal benefit because the president disapproves of their ‘left-wing’ coverage of the news.” But the First Amendment, he said, “does not tolerate viewpoint discrimination and retaliation of this type.” 

While Trump’s original executive order claimed that there was no discrimination on the basis of NPR and PBS’s political views, it did say that the outlets do not present “fair, accurate, or unbiased portrayal of current events to taxpaying citizens.”

While this federal block is a short-term victory for public broadcasting sources, an article from PBS says that it is unsure whether the blocked executive order will continue to help public broadcasting outlets. Judge Moss’ decision will likely be appealed by the administration, and so much damage has already been done to the public broadcasting system after the money they have lost so far. This includes the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB), which shut itself down after being defunded by Congress.

Public broadcasting funding has been a major issue lately regarding freedom of the press, but the Trump Administration has not been much of a friend to journalism outlets in general thus far. In late 2025, the administration put heavy restrictions on most news outlets, removing journalists from the White House press pool and even banning certain reporters. This, combined with the slashed public broadcast funding, has created many issues between Trump and the press, with some saying that he has been “attacking press freedom.”

While the public broadcasting system is safe for now, it is clear that the Trump Administration does not want them to continue being paid for by taxpayer dollars, as they claim that outlets like NPR and PBS are heavily biased. However, it is also important to acknowledge that PBS is used primarily for education, including for children, which can be used by low-income households to provide some form of early childhood education. 

Both outlets provide local and national content, which reaches about 99% of the population. In many areas, local PBS and NPR stations can serve as emergency and disaster response systems, according to an NPR article. They both also get a large portion of their money from donations, sponsorships, and local funding; however, government funding remains critical to their success.

Despite the contents of the original executive order, neither PBS nor NPR have an inherent goal to be political, or to reside on one side or another, as seen in their respective mission statements:

“The mission of the PBS Foundation is to be a leader for philanthropic support of public broadcasting, and to ensure that PBS continues to be an excellent provider of outstanding programs and services.”

“The mission of NPR is to collaborate with Member Stations to cultivate an informed public, fostering a deeper understanding and appreciation of events, ideas, and cultures.”

As seen in their mission statements, these outlets are meant to educate the public and provide a service for Americans. The future of these news outlets are unsure, but overall, it seems as though they do not cause any apparent harm to the United States or its citizens — they simply report the news and provide public broadcasting. You can learn more about these public broadcast organizations and their funding at NPR.org and PBS.org.

Sabrina Crowley

Pace '28

Sabrina Crowley is a current sophomore and contributor to Her Campus at Pace University. A daughter of English teachers, Sabrina has loved reading and writing for as long as she can remember. She enjoys writing about current news, pop culture, and arts, while sharing her writing with anyone who will read it.

Sabrina is a double major in Communications and Media Studies and Film and Screen Studies, with minors in Photography and Spanish. She is from just outside of Chicago, Illinois, where, in high school, she participated in speech team and drama as well as serving as the copy editor of her school newspaper. At Pace, she is also the current president of Kappa Delta Sorority and a Teagle Fellow.

In her free time, you can find Sabrina reading, at the gym, watching movies-- or most likely, spending time with her friends or sorority sisters. Sabrina is so excited to be writing for Her Campus at Pace!