NPR’s Legal Fight Against CPB Gets Dec. 1 Trial Date.

National Public Radio’s intensifying legal battle with the Corporation for Public Broadcasting has a trial date of Dec. 1, with the federal judge overseeing the matter planning a fast-tracked bench trial, which means no jury will be empaneled.

At issue is a multiyear, multimillion-dollar contract that NPR contends was canceled in violation of the law — and done so to appease the Trump administration. CPB denies the claim and says it is acting for the betterment of the public radio system.

NPR contends the CPB reneged on a $36 million deal over the Public Radio Satellite System, which NPR has long managed. The CPB subsequently announced a $57.9 million grant for Public Media Infrastructure (PMI) — which consists of public media organizations American Public Media Group, PRX, New York Public Radio, Station Resource Group, and the National Federation for Community Broadcasters. Among PMI’s plans: to oversee the development of new radio and digital distribution systems. It also aims to create tools for revenue generation and audience development and provide shared services like data analytics and content delivery.

But NPR, which sought to block the distribution of that money, says the CPB’s plans violate the Public Broadcasting Act. That requires CPB to direct interconnection funds to the “national entity” designated by public radio stations — a role long held by NPR.

District Judge Randolph D. Moss has directed CPB to set aside the $36 million in interconnection money until the trial ends.

According to NPR’s own news reporting on the issue, Judge Moss has indicated that CPB’s decision to cancel the contract suggests skepticism of CPB’s contention that its decision to reverse course was based on merit.

“All of a sudden there was this change,” the judge said Tuesday, Oct. 28. “And so, what happened to cause this change? I have to say, the most plausible explanation for what’s happening here is that everything is not quite as linear as ‘We’re for or against it.’”

The judge continued: “CPB is understandably trying to survive. There are a lot of materials that are in the record here that say there are a lot of strategies going on: ‘What do we do? One thing we do is distance ourselves from NPR, because they [the Trump administration] don’t like NPR.’”

On Thursday, the judge threw cold water on CPB’s arguments, saying the hot political climate between President Trump and public media led CPB to “try and earn some brownie points with those who CPB saw as attacking it.”

“I am not sure I have received an answer at all to the question of what changed from April 2nd to April 4th, other than the fact that CPB was looking for ways to try and ingratiate itself with the administration and perhaps folks on the Hill in a desire to survive,” the judge said, according to a transcript, “and that it was perceived that the votes and the support that CPB needed would come from those who were hostile to the content of NPR’s speech.”