NEW YORK — PBS says it is shutting down its office of diversity, equity and inclusion to comply with President Donald Trump’s executive order, firing the two executives brought on when the effort was begun in 2021.
The move, eliminating the jobs held by Cecilia Loving and her associate Gina Leow, comes as public television and radio girds for a fight over federal funding likely to be more serious than it has faced in many years.
Despite eliminating the DEI effort, PBS CEO Paula Kerger said Tuesday that “we were committed to telling the stories of all Americans before we had an office, and will continue to do it afterwards.”
Because PBS gets federal funding through U.S. Department of Education and National Science Foundation for its children’s programming, the system’s lawyers determined that it needed to comply with Trump’s order, she said. The system gets some $535 million in general support from the government, about 16% of its budget, but because it is filtered through the private Corporation for Public Broadcasting, it’s unclear whether that would require compliance.
Some of PBS’ 330 member stations have their own DEI efforts and receive CPB funding, so it will be up to them to decide what to do with their offices. “We’re trying to encourage them to have lawyers look at their circumstances,” Kerger told The Associated Press.
The Free Press website reported that PBS initially considered transferring Loving and Leow t