Judge sets trial over whether CPB pulled back from NPR due to White House pressure
Source: NPR
Updated October 30, 2025 5:39 PM ET
NPR's lawsuit against its decades-long partner, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, is headed for trial in December, a federal judge ruled Thursday. It is another marker of the Trump administration's disruptive force throughout the media. NPR alleges that last spring, CPB unlawfully yanked away a planned three-year contract worth $36 million in the face of intense pressure from the White House to sever ties with the radio network.
As NPR presented evidence in court hearings on Tuesday and Thursday, U.S. District Court Judge Randolph Moss indicated a deep skepticism of CPB's argument that it sharply reversed course on the merits. The most plausible explanation, Moss said, was that CPB was hoping to survive.
"I am not sure I have received an answer at all to the question of what changed from April 2nd to April 4th, other than the fact that CPB was looking for ways to try and ingratiate itself with the administration and perhaps folks on the Hill in a desire to survive," Moss said at Thursday's court hearing, according to a transcript, "and that it was perceived that the votes and the support that CPB needed would come from those who were hostile to the content of NPR's speech."
The CPB is the nonprofit that funneled federal dollars to public media until this month, as Congress and the president acted this summer to halt all $1.1 billion in planned future subsidies. Only a skeleton crew remains at the corporation.
Read more: https://www.npr.org/2025/10/30/nx-s1-5590945/npr-cpb-lawsuit-trial-political-pressure
REFERENCES
https://www.democraticunderground.com/10143441312
https://www.democraticunderground.com/10143450031
https://www.democraticunderground.com/10143451659
https://www.democraticunderground.com/10143453494
https://www.democraticunderground.com/10143474387
https://www.democraticunderground.com/10143538038
https://www.democraticunderground.com/10143554746