On Tuesday, a federal judge ruled that President Trump’s 2025 executive order defunding NPR and PBS violated free speech rights.
The executive order was deemed unconstitutional for abridging the First Amendment rights of NPR and PBS and attempting to restrict stations like KNKX from working with these national organizations. As our partners at NPR said, “The court affirmed what we have argued from the beginning: the government cannot use the power of the purse to punish the press or suppress viewpoints it dislikes.”
As a media organization founded on the First Amendment rights to freedom of the press and freedom of speech, we appreciate the ruling and its reaffirmation of these core American rights.
At the same time, we recognize that this does not return federal funding to the 1500 public media stations that lost funding last year. In July 2025, Congress legally and officially pulled the money back from stations less than three months before it was scheduled for distribution, creating an unprecedented financial challenge for public media stations across the country.
That challenge is still causing ripple effects and immense challenges for the millions of Americans who rely on public media for nonpartisan news and commercial-free music.