CPB pushes back on NPR request for restraining order

CPB leaders spoke out Monday against NPR’s filing in federal court that aims to keep the corporation from giving money for satellite interconnection to another organization.

CPB announced Friday that a new nonprofit, Public Media Infrastructure, would receive $57.9 million over five years for public radio content distribution. 

But NPR, which has managed the Public Radio Satellite System since 1979, filed for a temporary restraining order shortly after CPB’s announcement. 

During a CPB board meeting Monday, CEO Patricia Harrison said Public Media Infrastructure’s proposal better met CPB’s requirements, including for governance and sustainability. 

“For decades, CPB chose to fund NPR’s Public Radio Satellite System, PRSS, to fulfill this role,” Harrison said. “But that was always a grant-making decision. It was never a statutory mandate.”

CPB General Counsel Evan Slavitt told the board he would discuss the details of NPR’s action in executive session but called it “unfounded, inappropriate and premature” during the public part of the meeting. 

“CPB will be forced by NPR to use valuable resources that otherwise would benefit the public media system to defend this matter,” he said. 

In Friday’s filing, NPR linked CPB’s decision to President Donald Trump’s executive order instructing the nonprofit corporation to cease federal funding to NPR and PBS. The filing is part of a larger case over the executive order. 

“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 its filing. 

CPB held Monday’s meeting the day before most of its staff will be let go as the nonprofit undergoes a “wind-down” following the rescission of nearly $1.1 billion in federal funding over the next two years. 

Harrison said approximately 70% of CPB’s staff will leave Tuesday. 

“I would recommend each of you … for any position you want to pursue,” Harrison said. 

She added CPB will go forward with a much smaller team that will “continue to wind down as we wind down.”