Uri Berliner, a 25-year veteran of National Public Radio (NPR), resigned Wednesday after facing retaliation for exposing the outlet’s liberal bias. NPR suspended Berliner for five days without pay after he wrote an essay detailing the company’s hard-left slant and its efforts to undermine former President Donald Trump.
In his resignation, Berliner lamented NPR’s decline but stopped short of calling for its defunding. “I cannot work in a newsroom where I am disparaged by a new CEO whose divisive views confirm the very problems at NPR I cited in my Free Press essay,” he said.
In the piece, published in the Free Press and titled “I’ve Been at NPR for 25 Years. Here’s How We Lost America’s Trust,” Berliner expressed his belief that NPR has increasingly been driven by activists with extreme left-leaning views, particularly in the wake of Donald Trump’s presidency and the racial justice protests of 2020. He criticized NPR’s excessive focus on race and identity in its reporting, as well as mandates to disclose the race, gender and ethnicity of individuals being interviewed.
Katherine Maher, who took over as CEO last month, has faced scrutiny for her far-left social media posts. Berliner, who twice voted against Trump, cited examples of NPR’s bias in its coverage of the Russian collusion hoax, the Hunter Biden laptop scandal and the COVID-19 lab leak theory.
ICYMI: Uri Berliner didn't just effectively resign from NPR with his piece revealing their editorial corruption, he set the place on fire as he left. And what a spectacular conflagration he has started.
My best-written piece yet, for @NRO: https://t.co/mA9H58G0qM
— Jeff Blehar is *BOX OFFICE POISON* (@EsotericCD) April 17, 2024
He also noted the extreme disparity between Democrats and Republicans in NPR’s Washington, D.C., newsroom and said many employees were on a crusade to hurt Trump. “Many employees were simply on a crusade to hurt Trump in any way possible,” Berliner wrote.
Anyone who’s listened to NPR long enough to get a reasonable sample can tell you exactly where they stand and what kind of policies the government is making you fund through your tax dollars. The far-left outlet has consistently pushed some of the most outrageous ideas and they do appear to be, as Berliner rightly points out, on something of a crusade against former President Trump, along with the rest of the media.
While Berliner hasn’t called for NPR to be defunded, it seems like it would be a very reasonable thing for conservatives to double down on pursuing.
