The Pop Corporation

Donald Trump’s thin-skin resulted in the funding being taken away from NPR, or so it seemed to absolutely anyone looking inwards towards one of the United States’ finest institutions. NPR most famously give us the timeless ‘Tiny Desk’ series, but also some of the USA’s most even-handed journalism.

Well, a court settlement has called for NPR to receive around $36million in government funding after the Trump row, in part, resolving a legal dispute where NPR accused the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) of cutting funding after pressure from the US president.

Trump signed an executive order to end the funding, accusing it of being “biased media”, hitting not only NPR, but also PBS. The order said: “Government funding of news media in this environment is not only outdated and unnecessary but corrosive to the appearance of journalistic independence.”

“At the very least, Americans have the right to expect that if their tax dollars fund public broadcasting at all, they fund only fair, accurate, unbiased, and nonpartisan news coverage.”

However, this new settlement states that both NPR and CPB agree that the executive order is unconstitutional, and NPR’s president Katherine Maher, said the settlement was “a victory for editorial independence and a step toward upholding the First Amendment rights of NPR and the public media system”.

It does seem to direct opposition to the infamous ‘first amendment’ that is held so dear by the US, to accuse those who oppose you of being biased. NPR accused the CPB of exactly that, when Congress granted money was cut-off, especially given that the CPB granted a three-year, $36million extension of a grant in the first place.

It would appear that the agency redirected federal funds to an entity that didn’t exist.

Trump’s order hasn’t gone away, obviously, and District Judge Randolph Moss is pencilled in to preside over the next hearing for the case on December 4th.