Attorney General Ford Joins State AGs in Support of Lawsuits Challenging Public Media Funding Cuts

Carson City, NV — Today, Nevada Attorney General Aaron D. Ford announced that he, as part of a coalition of 22 attorneys general, filed a court brief in support of two lawsuits brought by National Public Radio and the Public Broadcasting Service that seek to block proposed funding cuts to their organizations and local affiliates.

"Public media is a vital tool to keep our communities informed — not only of local news, but of critical emergencies and missing persons reports,” said AG Ford. “In a state like ours, where many members of our Nevada family live in rural or frontier areas, the reach of these outlets into both these rural areas and into our tribal communities is essential. I am proud to stand with my colleagues to defend this necessary funding from unlawful attacks.”

At issue in the case is an executive order signed by President Trump on May 1 directing the board of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and executive branch agencies to end federal funding for NPR and PBS. On May 27, NPR and three Colorado public radio stations — Colorado Public Radio, Aspen Public Radio and tribal-serving KSUT in southwestern Colorado — sued to block the proposed cuts. PBS and a Minnesota-based affiliate filed a separate lawsuit on May 3.

The coalition of attorneys general, led by Colorado, Arizona, Minnesota and Rhode Island, argue that public broadcast stations serve a critical role in delivering information to the public and the proposed cuts would gravely harm Americans. The coalition says the funding cuts would create risks to public safety and erode trust by threatening coverage of local news; creating disruptions to the distribution of emergency notifications; reducing critical educational services; and limiting public media’s unique reach to rural and tribal audiences.

In the brief, filed concurrently today in both lawsuits, the coalition outlines some of the harms people in their states will face if the cuts move forward. These include threats to emergency notification systems like the Emergency Alert System, or EAS. Many states, including Nevada, rely on public broadcast stations to serve as primary or secondary stations to deliver EAS messages to the public during emergencies. Additionally, other infrastructure provided by NPR and PBS serve as important backups for emergency notifications in the event of electrical or internet outages.

Other emergency notifications disseminated via public media include Amber Alerts for abducted children; Blue Alerts for notifying the public of suspects who have killed or seriously injured law enforcement officers; Silver Alerts used when older people or people with developmental disabilities go missing; and Missing Indigenous Person Alerts that are critical for tribal communities.

The brief also outlines how public broadcasters serve important educational roles, and highlights the disproportionate threats to rural and tribal areas posed by the cuts: “Each of the [states] contain rural population areas that support economic and cultural contributions far bigger than their population density alone might indicate…"

Joining AG Ford in filing today’s brief are the attorneys general of Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington and Wisconsin.

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