The White House issued an executive order to cease federal funding for National Public Radio and the Public Broadcasting Service the night of May 1, 2025. 

The Media Center, home to The Daily Beacon, is also home to NPR member WUOT. WUOT calls CPB funding “crucial” and has stated that this funding makes up almost 8% of its total revenue. 

According to WUOT’s 2024 financial statement, the station receives a community service grant from the CPB annually, which is used to purchase network programming. For 2023-2025, the grant amounted to $157,420. WUOT received $177,00 from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting in 2025.

NPR and PBS receive funding via taxpayer dollars through the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which outlines in its governing statute that it may not “contribute to or otherwise support any political party.” The executive order wrote that by funding NPR and PBS, CPB does not follow in line with this principle. 

“The CPB fails to abide by these principles to the extent it subsidizes NPR and PBS,” the executive order says. “Which viewpoints NPR and PBS promote does not matter.  What does matter is that neither entity presents a fair, accurate, or unbiased portrayal of current events to taxpaying citizens.”

The CPB Board was instructed to cease indirect funding, cancel existing direct funding to the maximum extent allowed by law and decline to provide future funding. 

The White House further stated that media outlets do not have a constitutional right to taxpayer subsidies and that it is the government’s responsibility to determine which categories of activities to subsidize.

“We are working to determine the full impact of the cuts,” UT’s Director of Media and Internal Relations Kerry Gardner told the Beacon. “WUOT is committed to serving East Tennessee and that mission will continue.”