CPB

The CPB immediately fired back Friday, with a statement asserting that the president does not have the power to cut off its funding — Congress does.

“Congress directly authorized and funded CPB to be a private nonprofit corporation wholly independent of the federal government,” the CPB said in a statement.

The White House is likely aware of that fact as it reportedly is expected to go to Congress with a formal request to claw back the $1.1 billion currently allocated for the CPB over the next two years.

A representative for the CPB did not comment on whether it will pursue legal action, but PBS President Paula Kerger said in a statement that the service is “exploring all options.”

Jeffrey McCall, professor of communication at DePauw University, said there is a case to be made that government funding of public radio and TV outlets needs to be revisited as the media landscape provides a wide array of information sources that didn’t exist when the CPB was founded in the 1960s.