NPR and three Colorado public radio stations sue Trump administration

Here & Now Anytime

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4.1 • 954 Ratings

🗓️ 27 May 2025

⏱️ 28 minutes

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Summary

NPR and three Colorado public radio stations filed a lawsuit Tuesday challenging President Trump's executive order to bar federal funding from going to NPR and PBS. NPR's David Folkenflik explains more. And, the Trump administration on Tuesday ordered federal agencies to unwind all federal funding to Harvard University. Trump claims the university fosters antisemitism and stifles viewpoint diversity. Connor Murnane — campus advocacy chief of staff at the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression — argues that Harvard's failures do not justify Trump's dramatic steps against the university. Then, if you've seen the hit TV show "Bridgerton," you've likely heard the musical stylings of the Vitamin String Quartet. The group reimagines pop songs as string instrument covers, and members Rachel Grace and Derek Stein share more about their musical journeys.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Support for this podcast comes from Is Business Broken, a podcast from BU's Mayrotra Institute that explores questions like, why are executives paid so much?
0:11.0	Do they deserve it? Listen wherever you get your podcasts.
0:16.0	WBUR Podcasts, Boston.
0:21.4	They're saying that it could throw it a real, almost existential threat to the system itself.
0:29.6	NPR is suing President Trump over his executive order to withhold funding for public broadcasting.
0:43.9	No. to withhold funding for public broadcasting. It's Tuesday, May 27th, and this is here and now anytime from NPR and WBUR Boston.
0:50.7	I'm Ashley Locke, in for Chris Bentley.
0:55.0	Today on the show, a free speech advocate says Harvard's failures to protect speech do not justify the Trump administration's dramatic steps against the university.
1:06.0	And take a break from the news and meet the Vitamin String Quartet, the classical musicians soaring to new heights after covering pop hits on the Netflix show Bridgerton.
1:17.4	We have more fun and, in my opinion, give a better performance if the audience is really into it, really rowdy.
1:30.9	But, really rowdy. But first, NPR and three member stations in Colorado are now suing the Trump administration.
1:38.0	They're challenging President Trump's executive order barring federal funding for NPR and PBS.
1:44.0	Scott Tongue speaks with NPR media correspondent
1:46.9	David Fulkenflick about what's in the lawsuit. And we should note, no NPR official or news
1:53.4	executive has had a hand in this news coverage. David, welcome back. Thanks, God. What does the NPR
2:00.2	lawsuit argue?
2:02.2	Well, it argues on a couple of grounds.
2:04.5	It says that the executive order is seeking unlawfully to kind of usurp or take over congressional ability to pass laws, to pass laws like those that created the corporation for public broadcasting through which
2:18.2	money flows to decide priorities to determine where money gets spent. But even more fundamentally,
2:24.0	this lawsuit is based on the idea that the president issued this executive order on May 1st
2:30.4	after sort of a pattern of attacking NPR and PBS arguing that its coverage is ideological,
2:36.8	biased against the president, and that that is retaliatory, unconstitutional, going after essentially
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