Mushroom Management ...

Signs supporting NPR outside its headquarters in Washington in March.

Credit...Eric Lee/The New York Times

The move toward dictatorship continues unabated, this time, attacking NPR by Trump shutting off federal funds by executive order as it's the smart thing to do to keep people in the dark along the lines of mushroom management whereby employees of a given company are kept in the dark regarding corporate operations.

President Trump on Thursday signed an executive order aiming to cut federal funding for NPR and PBS, accusing the news outlets of producing biased coverage and “left-wing propaganda.”

Mr. Trump instructed the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which funds public broadcasters in the United States, to end federal funding for NPR and PBS, to the extent allowed by law. The outlets receive only a small portion of their funding from Congress, with the rest coming from donors and sponsors.

The immediate impact of the order was unclear. The Corporation for Public Broadcasting, a taxpayer-backed, private entity created by an act of Congress, is funded two years in advance to protect it from political maneuvering.

“CPB is not a federal executive agency subject to the President’s authority,” Patricia Harrison, the president and chief executive of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, said in a statement on Friday. “Congress directly authorized and funded CPB to be a private nonprofit corporation wholly independent of the federal government.”

Mr. Trump ordered the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and all federal agencies to also cut indirect funding by forbidding public radio and television broadcasters that receive federal funds from using that money for PBS or NPR programs.

The headquarters for National Public Radio (NPR) is seen in Washington, D.C.

Charles Dharapak/AP

President Trump signed an executive order Thursday directing the Corporation for Public Broadcasting's board of directors to "cease federal funding for NPR and PBS," the nation's primary public broadcasters. Trump contends that news coverage by NPR and PBS contains a left-wing bias. The federal funding for NPR and PBS is appropriated by Congress.

The executive order, like many that have been signed by the president, could be challenged in court.

"Which viewpoints NPR and PBS promote does not matter," the executive order says. "What does matter is that neither entity presents a fair, accurate or unbiased portrayal of current events to tax-paying citizens."

The useful idiot speaks.