Former scandal-plagued NPR CEO Vivian Schiller joined CNN News Central guest host Erica Hill on Friday to freak out over President Donald Trump’s Thursday executive order that ceased taxpayer money from going to NPR and PBS. According to Schiller, the move is just another example of Trump “attacking a free press” for reporting on things he does not like.
A worried Hill wrapped up their interview by wondering, “We’re really tight on time, but I'm just curious, your take. I mean, this is whether or not this goes through, right? What it does is it creates a narrative. It creates a narrative, multiple narratives. But the president has long pushed back against NPR, against PBS. What does that do overall in terms of the credibility of these organizations? How harmful is this?”
Schiller replied that, “I don't think the government's, sorry, the White House's attack, will particularly harm people who have been reliant on NPR or PBS programming for a long time, but this is part of an overall narrative of attacking a free press, an independent free press that reports on things that maybe the president doesn't like.”
It is impossible to take such comments seriously. For years, the media has attacked the Republican Party for being enthralled with Trumpism, but Republicans they now claim to like also once favored defunding public broadcasting, and they freaked out then too.
Nevertheless, Schiller continued, “I mean, this is one of many examples. You've covered them amply on CNN. And I will also say this is not the only way that they're going after public radio and public television. There's a whole bunch of other things that they're doing, too, in trying to fire trustees of CPB and other kinds of cuts and legal attacks”
NPR has had twelve-and-a-half years since Mitt Romney brought up defunding PBS at a debate with Barack Obama, and it has nothing since then to show that they have become less left-wing. If anything, they have become more progressive. Trying to make Trump the main character in this story won’t work.
Here is a transcript for the May 2 show:
CNN News Central
5/2/2025
1:40 PM ET
ERICA HILL: We’re really tight on time, but I'm just curious, your take. I mean, this is whether or not this goes through, right? What it does is it creates a narrative. It creates a narrative, multiple narratives. But the president has long pushed back against NPR, against PBS. What does that do overall in terms of the credibility of these organizations? How harmful is this?
VIVIAN SCHILLER: I don't think the government's, sorry, the White House's attack, will particularly harm people who have been reliant on NPR or PBS programming for a long time, but this is part of an overall narrative of attacking a free press, an independent free press that reports on things that maybe the president doesn't like.
I mean, this is one of many examples. You've covered them amply on CNN. And I will also say this is not the only way that they're going after public radio and public television. There's a whole bunch of other things that they're doing, too, in trying to fire trustees of CPB and other kinds of cuts and legal attacks.
