NPR called the order, which could upend public media, “an affront to the First Amendment.”

President Trump’s executive order to defund NPR and PBS was met with fiery pushback on Friday, as the organizations challenged the legality of the move and said it could jeopardize access to vital information.

The order issued late Thursday instructed the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which receives and distributes over $500 million in taxpayer money to public TV and radio stations annually, to eliminate millions of dollars in federal funding to the two public media organizations. It amounts to perhaps the most significant threat in a decades-long campaign by Republicans to weaken NPR and PBS.

Patricia Harrison, the chief executive of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, a private company, said in a statement that the White House had no legal authority over the company. NPR vowed to challenge the order, calling it “an affront to the First Amendment.”

Paula

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