Denial of leftist bias saturating the news presented by NPR and PBS, both publicly funded entities, has been one of the most enduring lies in Washington, DC. Conservatives have long railed against continued government support for the two organizations that receive taxpayer funding via the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB).

Annually, the CPB shells out over $500 million between the two leftmedia outfits. Many a Republican lawmaker has taken up the call to end this funding of NPR and PBS, as both effectively serve as propaganda outlets for Democrats. Yet, time and time again, Congress passes budgets that continue their funding.

Thus, when Donald Trump called for ending taxpayer subsidies for NPR and PBS, it was nothing new. However, Trump is unique in that he, more than any Republican before him, has been abused by the legacy media’s adverse, biased reporting. And he has made it his mission to address the legacy media’s blatant bias with whatever tools are available to him.

Therefore, it came as little surprise when Trump issued an executive order last week titled “Ending Taxpayer Subsidization Of Biased Media.”

The order directs the CPB to cease all direct and indirect taxpayer funding of NPR and PBS. It points to the original intention for the creation of the CPB in 1967, observing that the media landscape has drastically changed since then. “Today, the media landscape is filled with abundant, diverse, and innovative news options,” the order says. “Government funding of news media in this environment is not only outdated and unnecessary but corrosive to the appearance of journalistic independence.”

Trump defended his order by pointing to the CPB’s own governing statute, which states that the CPB may not “contribute to or otherwise support any political party.” The order further states, “The CPB fails to abide by these principles to the extent it subsidizes NPR and PBS. 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.”

It’s hard to argue against the fact that both NPR and PBS engage in massive viewpoint discrimination, but as noted above, the lie of “unbiased” news is maintained by both NPR and PBS. NPR President and CEO Katherine Maher laughably repeated it during her testimony before Congress in March.

Predictably, the response has been defiance, as a biased organization that promotes one political ideology over and against others is loath to lose taxpayer funding. Maher howled that cutting off funding is “an affront to the First Amendment rights of NPR.” (That’s funny. Last year, she called the First Amendment “the number one challenge” for censors.) PBS President and CEO Paula Kerger called Trump’s order a “blatantly unlawful Executive Order, issued in the middle of the night.” The CPB, which is currently suing the administration over Trump having fired three of its five board members, rejected the order. “CPB is not a federal executive agency subject to the President’s authority,” said CEO Patricia Harrison. “Congress directly authorized and funded CPB to be a private nonprofit corporation wholly independent of the federal government.”

Wholly independent … except for depending on that funding.    Indeed, the question is, why all the huffing and puffing over maintaining taxpayer funding, since both NPR and PBS claim that the vast majority of their funding comes from private individuals and corporations? According to NPR, just 1% of its funding comes from taxpayers. PBS claims to rely on taxpayer funding for 15% of its annual budget.

If both NPR and PBS are telling the truth, then cutting off taxpayer funding would hardly kill them. Indeed, they may have to contract some, but one would think with all the leftist billionaires out there, they could soon make up the loss, and, more importantly, not have to keep lying about being unbiased.

However, that is precisely where the real rub is. This is not really about needing continued taxpayer funding to survive; rather, it’s about maintaining the lie that both NPR and PBS exist as nonpartisan entities simply informing the American public about everything from politics to culture. They want to maintain their status and image as gatekeepers of proper, intellectually informed public opinion.

Trump’s executive order will be challenged and likely will not be able to accomplish the complete elimination of taxpayer funding of NPR and PBS. For that to happen, Congress will have to act. What Trump is doing here is pushing Republicans to finally do what they have long called for. Trump is providing cover for the media backlash. Hopefully, Republicans will finally get their act together and end the taxpayer funding of NPR and PBS’s “non-biased” charade.