Nevada-based public media stations are appealing to listeners and viewers for help after President Donald Trump on Thursday signed an executive order aiming to slash public subsidies to PBS and NPR, alleging “bias” in the broadcasters’ reporting.

The order instructs the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) and other federal agencies “to cease Federal funding for NPR and PBS” and further requires that they work to root out indirect sources of public financing for the news organizations. The White House, in a social media posting announcing the signing, said the outlets “receive millions from taxpayers to spread radical, woke propaganda disguised as ‘news.’”

Four Nevada-based outlets have received nearly $3.9 million from this funding in fiscal year 2024. KUNR Public Radio, a Reno-based station under NPR, receives $267,000 annually from federal funding, meaning CPB supports 15 percent of KUNR’s total budget. 

The CPB responded to Trump’s executive order saying the White House doesn’t have legal authority to defund public media. NPR’s president and CEO Katherine Miller vowed to challenge the executive order — a position echoed by KUNR leadership.

“We are just continuing on business as usual because that executive order does not hold legal water,” Brian Duggan, general manager for KUNR, said in an interview. “KUNR agrees with that position, that Congress is the only body that can affect anything in this realm.”

Duggan told The Nevada Independent that KUNR has already received $267,000 for fiscal year 2026, but that if the executive order survives an expected legal challenge, they won’t be receiving any additional funding for fiscal year 2027.

This funding supports the salaries of two government reporters whose work is free for the public to read. 

Duggan said he suspected public media might be in danger when Trump won the 2024 presidential election. In March 2017, Trump called for Congress to defund public media and Project 2025, the pre-2024 election conservative playbook for a second Trump administration, argued that public broadcasting is no longer educational and is instead a biased forum that suppresses conservative views. 

“We knew what had been written in Project 2025, which we're basically seeing that playbook come to pass now,” Duggan said.

Mary Mazur, president and general manager of Vegas PBS, said she too viewed Project 2025’s language on public media as “foreshadowing.”

Kurt Mische, president and CEO of PBS Reno, told The Nevada Independent that it’s nothing new for public media to be in the crosshairs, and he traced opposition back to President Richard Nixon in 1968. PBS was launched in 1970, but Nixon, alleging that broadcast stations held bias against him, threatened to not renew their license if they “failed to get in line.”

“Television was on the Nixon enemies list,” Mische said in an interview. “So every few years we have these efforts.”

The executive order also comes from the latest government crackdowns to cut back on “unnecessary” spending — the Corporation for Public Broadcasting receives about $565 million in federal funds a year — but Mische said he believes it solely comes down to the government’s own bias. 

“Now for us mere mortals, $565 million sounds like a ton of money, and it is, in some ways,” Mische said. “It's a 10th of a percent of the entire federal budget. So anybody that says, ‘Well, we have to save money, we have to balance the budget so we're not going to fund public television,’ no. It's about ideology.”

Duggan, Mische and Mazur have already met with congressional representatives about where the Trump administration stands on public media. Duggan met with Rep. Mark Amodei (R-NV) on the matter when he was on a congressional recess last month.

Duggan said Amodei has “been a consistent and vocal supporter of public media funding.”

“He considers us part of the emergency infrastructure of our country, and he will be doing all he can to work with his colleagues to continue this funding,” Duggan said.

Mische also says he’s in contact with the delegation on an ongoing basis and that they are “very much in the know about what we're doing and what we're facing.”

Amodei is the Republican co-chair for the public broadcasting caucus and has been since he’s been in Congress.

“He's working very hard with other moderate, sensible members of his party to make sure that there are enough votes to block any rescission or defunding that may take place,” Mische said.

The Nevada Independent has reached out to Amodei’s office for comment.

Mazur spoke with the full delegation in February about her concerns around public media and said they were “incredibly supportive.”

Vegas PBS gives 80 percent of its funding right back to the community via programming, educational workshops, workforce education, community engagement and public safety. Vegas PBS receives 75 cents per Southern Nevada resident annually in federal funding, meaning its budget is made up of 12 percent federal funding.

About 500,000 Southern Nevadans tune into Vegas PBS programs regularly and there are about 3 million streams per month of PBS KIDS. 

Similarly, PBS Reno has 542,000 monthly viewers and 17 percent of its budget comes from federal funding. Mische noted that 52.8 percent of Nevadans don’t have access to reliable or affordable cable, highlighting the benefits PBS brings to the community. 

“We have a lot of children in the state and in our region for whom English is not their native language, and they can learn English on Sesame Street and some of the other programs,” Mische said. “And if their parents aren't fluent or do not speak English, they can learn right along with the child.”

Duggan and other public media officials will be visiting Washington, D.C., next week to have conversations in person with representatives and will advocate for bipartisan support for public media. 

Vegas PBS is also encouraging Nevadans to contact their representatives, sign a petition and share a story about why public media matters. Mazur told The Nevada Independent that viewers have already been rallying for Vegas PBS by contacting their elected officials and signing the Protect My Public Media petition. 

“I'm getting a lot of support from our viewers, which is … really very gratifying,” Mazur said in a phone interview. “It's good to know that what we're doing truly matters to people.”

PBS Reno has also been getting a lot of support from the community. Mische has noticed people increasing their donations with notes that say, “I’ll give you a little extra because of what’s going on.”

The budget for Nevada Public Radio, a Las Vegas station under NPR, receives 8 percent of its revenue from federal funding. President Favian Perez said in a statement that “the elimination of CPB funding would have a devastating blow to public media nationwide.” 

Perez also said many stations in rural and underserved communities rely on federal funding and he urged listeners to advocate for the future of public media.

A campaign of cuts

It’s the latest move by Trump and his administration to utilize federal powers to control or hamstring institutions whose actions or viewpoints he disagrees with. Since taking office, Trump has ousted leaders, placed staff on administrative leave and cut off hundreds of millions of dollars in funding to artists, libraries, museums, theaters and others, through takeovers of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and the National Endowment for the Humanities. 

Trump has also pushed to withhold federal research and education funds from universities and punish law firms unless they agreed to eliminate diversity programs and other measures he has found objectionable.

The broadcasters get roughly half a billion dollars in public money through the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, and have been preparing for the possibility of stiff cuts since Trump’s election, as Republicans have long complained about them.

The executive order only targets federal dollars — meaning private donations, foundation grants, corporate sponsorships and member support will still help fund NPR affiliates and PBS. 

KUNR is working on contingency plans just in case Congress does decide to pull federal funding from public media. 

“The fundraising efforts are already ramped up,” Duggan said. “We have strong support from this community, and I believe people will step up to help us if the worst comes to pass.”

PBS Reno is also working with two budgets — one with federal funding and the other without it.

“I think if the defunding does happen, there will be quite a lot of noise made by the general public,” Mische said. “There are already hundreds of thousands of emails going in through Protect My Public Media, and the electeds are going to hear about it when they come home, and people are going to remember this issue at the ballot box.”

Paula Kerger, PBS’ CEO and president, said in a statement last month that the Trump administration’s effort to rescind funding for public media would “disrupt the essential service PBS and local member stations provide to the American people.”

​​“There’s nothing more American than PBS, and our work is only possible because of the bipartisan support we have always received from Congress,” she said. “This public-private partnership allows us to help prepare millions of children for success in school and in life and also supports enriching and inspiring programs of the highest quality.”

The Corporation for Public Broadcasting sued Trump last week over his move to fire three members of its five-person board, contending that the president was exceeding his authority and that the move would deprive the board of a quorum needed to conduct business.

Just two weeks ago, the White House said it would be asking Congress to rescind funding for the CPB as part of a $9.1 billion package of cuts. That package, however, which budget director Russell Vought said would likely be the first of several, has not yet been sent to Capitol Hill.

The move against PBS and NPR comes as his administration has been working to dismantle the U.S. Agency for Global Media, including Voice of America and Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, which were designed to model independent news gathering globally in societies that restrict the press. Those efforts have faced pushback from federal courts, who have ruled in some cases that the Trump administration may have overstepped its authority in holding back funds appropriated to the outlets by Congress.

This story was updated at 11 a.m. on 5/8/25 to add comments from PBS Reno President and CEO Kurt Mische.

Editor’s note: The Nevada Independent has a content-sharing agreement with KUNR, and partners with Vegas PBS for the Nevada Democracy speaking series.

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AP Congressional Correspondent Lisa Mascaro contributed.