PBS Caves To Trump, Ousts Staffers: ‘We Have Closed Our DEI Office’
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The Public Broadcasting Service announced Monday evening it had closed its diversity, equity, and inclusion office in order to comply with an executive order signed by President Donald Trump.
PBS also said the staffers in that office had left the company, but that it would continue to serve Americans of all backgrounds.
A spokesperson with the non-profit distributor of educational programming – which receives some government funding – told The Hollywood Reporter the office had been shuttered.
“In order to best ensure we are in compliance with the President’s executive order around Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion we have closed our DEI office,” the person said. “The staff members who served in that office are leaving PBS. We will continue to adhere to our mission and values. PBS will continue to reflect all of America and remain a welcoming place for everyone.”
The Hollywood Reporter noted:
The move to close the unit comes after Trump issued a number of executive orders aimed at cutting DEI programs on a federal level and among federal contractors as well as private companies, and as PBS faces an investigation by the Federal Communications Commission, following repeated threats by Trump.
The announcement from PBS comes as Trump has threatened the company, and as it faces an FCC investigation.
FCC head Brendan Carr, who was tapped by Trump for the job in November, was a Project 2025 author.
Carr launched investigations into PBS and NPR in January, saying he was concerned “taxpayer dollars are being used to support a for profit endeavor or an entity that is airing commercial advertisements, then that would further undermine any case for continuing to fund NPR and PBS with taxpayer dollars.”
Trump has railed against DEI initiatives for years. In a Jan. 22 executive order, he wrote:
Today, President Donald J. Trump signed an historic Executive Order that protects the civil rights of all Americans and expands individual opportunity by terminating radical DEI preferencing in federal contracting and directing federal agencies to relentlessly combat private sector discrimination. It enforces long-standing federal statutes and faithfully advances the Constitution’s promise of colorblind equality before the law. This comprehensive order is the most important federal civil rights measure in decades.
