Fox News legal analyst on defunding PBS and NPR: “While Congress can attach strings to the funding, the proposition that the president can is a lot more dubious”
Andy McCarthy: “Well, you know, extortionate practices by the government is a kind of a fuzzy area”
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From the May 28, 2025, edition of Fox News' America's Newsroom
BILL HEMMER (CO-ANCHOR): What NPR is arguing is that whether they are protected rather by the First Amendment, free speech. Is that the case, Andy? Or does it fall back on the argument that Senator Kennedy just made that if you are taking federal money, you're not free to do what you want?
ANDREW MCCARTHY (FOX LEGAL ANALYST): Well, you know, extortionate practices by the government is a kind of a fuzzy area. You know, on the one hand, they are not supposed to engage in viewpoint discrimination so that if you put out this political message, we'll reel back your money. On the other hand, when I was a prosecutor, I would say to somebody you either plead guilty to one count of the indictment or I'm gonna supersede the indictment, add fifteen more counts, and you'll be looking at, you know, goo-gobs of time in prison. Was that extortionate? Sure. But with the way the law interprets that is, you're rewarding somebody who pleads guilty and doesn't put the system through the burden. So, you know, some government practices that have an extortionate tinge are upheld by the courts. Some are not. I think here the best argument the Corporation for Public Broadcasting has is the structure of the Constitution. It's really a creature of Congress and while Congress can attach strings to the funding, the proposition that the president can is a lot more dubious.