White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt. Photo: MANDEL NGAN / AFP
After claims Associated Press (AP) - one of the world's biggest news agencies - could be kicked out of the White House for not adopting Trump terminology such as 'Gulf of America,' AP went to court to argue the presidency cannot decide who gets to report on it.
Yes we can - and we are, the White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told the press pool last Tuesday.
"Asking the president of the United States questions in limited spaces such as the Oval Office in Air Force One is a privilege that unfortunately has only been granted to a few. It is not a legal right," she said.
"The Trump administration has already proven to be the most transparent ever," she insisted.
But also this week, outlets including NPR were asked to leave office space at the Pentagon. PBS - most famous for Sesame Street - shut its Diversity Equity and Inclusion office after President Trump issued executive orders to curtail DEI initiatives.
And even though both national public service broadcast networks receive tiny sums in federal finance in the US - that is under threat too.
Just nine days after his appointment, Trump's new chief of the Federal Communications Commission [https://edition.cnn.com/2025/01/30/media/trump-fcc-npr-pbs/index.html ordered an investigation into how NPR and PBS use their commercial revenues and underwrite its local stations.
"Congress is actively considering whether to stop requiring taxpayers to subsidize NPR and PBS programming," he said in a letter to both.
"I do not see a reason why Congress should continue sending taxpayer dollars to NPR and PBS given the changes in the media marketplace since the passage of the Public Broadcasting Act of 1967."
The bosses of both broadcasters have also been called to testify before a Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) committee to respond to accusations of "systematically biased content".
That committee is headed by MAGA stalwart senator Marjorie Taylor Greene - who also called for all foreign press to be kicked out of the White House last month.
It is a worry for the Public Media Alliance, an international umbrella group for public service broadcasters which includes PBS in America and RNZ here.
"I'm very worried. Public broadcasting in the US is very different to many other public broadcasting models around the world. Their funding is very mixed and they often rely on philanthropic funding but also receive some federal funds," the UK-based CEO of the Public Media Alliance Kristian Porter told Mediawatch.
"They are independent and in a country where there's a very strong commercial press - and now a strong and very vocal president and leadership - there needs to be a public broadcaster to hold all of those things to account and to be a place for trusted information."
Columbia Journalism Review reported this week more than 2000 of the 3143 counties in the US have no daily print or digital news operation any more.
"On a local level, public service media in the US is often the only source of trusted news and information. It's such a fragmented system, but it's an important one. If you create vacuums - whatever country you are - you've got to think about who fills that gap," Porter said.
"Increasingly around the world there are these 'de-fund' movements and trends on social media. These pressures don't just happen in places with diminished press freedom, they're happening in places with quite high levels of press freedom too."
"In Switzerland there's a consultation at the moment about defunding the Swiss public broadcaster's international services. We are fully against it because they act as... part of the solution around disinformation and misinformation coming into the country."
RNZ's chief executive, Paul Thompson, is the current PMA president and RNZ's chair Dr Jim Mather is on the PMA's Global Task Force, formed to "defend the values and interests of public media."
"The movements are picking up pace often because of quite simplistic arguments."
"But who are the detractors? What is their agenda? Is it an opposition party that's had a bad experience being held to account?" Porter told Mediawatch.
"A common one is that people are paying a compulsory tax for public broadcasters while also paying by choice for the likes of Netflix," he said.
"Do they appreciate the local services (public broadcasting) offers - weather reports, news, the broad array of entertainment and content, radio stations, journalists placed around the country that they live in? Or do they just want the sheer entertainment from Netflix?"
"Will Netflix or Disney or whoever ever provide those services that your public broadcaster offers, which is also bound by a set of values that you might trust?"
Last year X, formerly Twitter, briefly branded many public broadcasters - including RNZ - as 'state-affiliated media'.
"That was one of our more successful pushbacks, because that is disinformation. Simplistically labelling a public broadcaster as a government voice is a real issue for trust."
"If you receive public funding you're not going through the same challenges as commercial players might be, but the responsibility becomes bigger. When you've got real challenges in the commercial market, some countries in Europe in particular, there is more of a rallying against the public broadcaster because people see it as having an unfair advantage," he said.
"Public media should exist in a plural media environment, but there is evidence out there that shows it doesn't really disadvantage commercial players. When there is support, whether that's in public funding, public support or even political support for an independent public broadcaster, it really shows that there is a care for democracy."
Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero, a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
