PBS sues Trump administration over executive order to cut funding

Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) sued Donald Trump on Friday over the U.S. president's executive order to cut its federal funding, calling it an unconstitutional attack that would "upend public television."

In a complaint filed in the Washington, D.C. federal court, PBS and a public TV station in Minnesota said Trump's order violated the U.S. Constitution's First Amendment by making the president the "arbiter" of programming content, including by attempting to defund PBS.

The May 1 order "makes no attempt to hide the fact that it is cutting off the flow of funds to PBS because of the content of PBS programming and out of a desire to alter the content of speech," PBS said. "That is blatant viewpoint discrimination."

Trump's order demanded that the taxpayer-backed Corporation for Public Broadcasting cut federal funding to PBS and NPR, short for National Public Radio. All three entities are nonprofits.

PBS said the Corporation for Public Broadcasting provides 16 percent of its $373.4 million annual budget.

It also said the funding ban would apply to local member stations, which provide 61 percent of its budget through dues, including millions of dollars in federal funds.

In a statement, White House spokesperson Harrison Fields said the Corporation for Public Broadcasting was "creating media to support a particular political party on the taxpayers' dime. Therefore, the President is exercising his lawful authority to limit funding to NPR and PBS."

NPR filed its own lawsuit on May 27 to block Trump's order.

(With input from Reuters)