It was entirely predictable that Donald Trump would go after public media in America. Harming the reality-based press – in every form, whether public or private – is a central part of his playbook for controlling the political narrative as he moves the country toward an authoritarian model of government.

For Trump, the message is all, and anything that gets in the way should be portrayed as an evil to society and stamped out.

Like every would-be autocrat, Trump has an anti-media playbook. His includes disparaging journalists, calling them the enemy of the people, suing news organizations and tightly controlling access to newsmakers.

All of that is well under way in the first three months of Trump 2.0, as is the effort to dismantle the Voice of America and Radio Free Europe, which are funded by the federal government.

Now, cue up the attack on National Public Radio and the Public Broadcasting System.

“Radical left ‘monsters’,” as Trump characterized them in a social media post a few weeks ago.

Then another shoe dropped. Last week, NPR itself reported that the Trump administration was drafting a memo to call for eliminating federal funds for public media.

It reportedly involved a “rescission” – the blocking of more than........

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