NPR seeks restraining order against CPB distribution grant

NPR is asking a U.S. district court to grant a temporary restraining order that would prevent CPB from distributing funds for satellite interconnection to an entity other than NPR.

CPB announced Friday that it would provide $57.9 million over five years to Public Media Infrastructure, a new nonprofit created to provide distribution of public radio content. The group consists of American Public Media Group, the National Federation of Community Broadcasters, New York Public Radio, PRX and the Station Resource Group.

NPR, which has managed the Public Radio Satellite System since 1979, argued in a filing in an ongoing case Friday that by providing funding to another entity for distribution services, CPB is carrying out President Trump’s May executive order “Ending Taxpayer Subsidization Of Biased Media,” which prompted a legal challenge from NPR and a handful of stations. The order directed executive agencies and CPB’s board to stop federal funding for NPR and PBS.

“CPB is implementing the Order by refusing to distribute satellite interconnection funding to NPR, the designated manager and operator of the Public Radio Satellite System (PRSS), as CPB is required to do under the Public Broadcasting Act,” NPR said in the filing.

NPR argues that the Act “expressly requires CPB to distribute such funding to the national entity ‘designated’ by interconnected stations to manage and operate the PRSS. CPB has instead stated it will distribute those funds to a coalition of other entities that have not been so designated.”

In the filing, NPR said its grant agreement with CPB for the PRSS ends Tuesday.

NPR said in a memorandum of law filed with the motion that CPB “agreed to renew NPR’s PRSS grant agreement in April— even telling NPR that its Board had approved the renewal. But after increasing pressure from the Administration, CPB reneged on that promise.”

NPR argues that withholding the funds violates the First Amendment and that Trump “issued the Order to punish NPR for protected speech, even listing the specific news articles and other content the President disliked most.” 

CPB issued a request for proposals in July seeking an entity to “manage and govern Radio Broadcast and Digital Content Distribution services for the public radio system.”

NPR claims that in March, CPB asked the network to submit a proposal for about $26 million in PRSS funding for the next three years. The next month, according to the memo, CPB EVP and COO Kathy Merritt told NPR that the corporation’s board approved the proposal. 

“But in the face of ramped-up threats from the Administration, CPB began to waver; and, ultimately, it folded,” the memo said. “On April 14—the same day it was reported that President Trump intended to formally ask Congress to rescind CPB’s funding—Ms. Merritt called NPR’s Chief Operating Officer to inform him that CPB now wanted to provide PRSS funding to a separate entity, with the principal criterion for eligibility being that the entity lack any ties to NPR.”

NPR argues that a temporary restraining order is necessary because CPB is winding down operations and “once those funds are distributed, it is unlikely they can be clawed back. NPR merely seeks to preserve the status quo while the Court considers the merits of its claims against Defendants.”

In a statement to Current, CPB said it is “confident that our actions serve the best interests of the future of public radio and are consistent with this responsibility.”

“We are disappointed that, at a time of tremendous challenge for all public media with substantially diminished resources, NPR is forcing CPB to expend scarce funds that would otherwise support the public media system in defending a lawsuit that has no merits and ultimately does not benefit the system,” CPB added.

Update: This article has been updated with CPB’s statement.