A veteran journalist has resigned from National Public Radio after he was suspended for writing an essay that accused the American broadcaster of left-wing bias.
Uri Berliner, a senior business editor who had been at the outlet for 25 years, announced his resignation in a social media post on Wednesday, blaming the broadcaster’s new chief executive, Katherine Maher.
“I cannot work in a newsroom where I am disparaged by a new CEO whose divisive views confirm the very problems at NPR I cite in my Free Press essay,” he wrote. He called NPR a “great American institution” and expressed hope for the future success of the outlet and its journalists.
Berliner had been put on a five-day suspension without pay on April 12, David Folkenflik reported in an NPR article on Tuesday. Folkenflik said the suspension was a result of Berliner’s failure to secure approval for outside work for other news outlets. It was a “final warning”, he said, noting that Berliner provided him a copy of the suspension notice.
While the notice did not address the content of Berliner’s essay, published in The Free Press on April 9, Folkenflik said Berliner “angered many of his colleagues” with his assertion that NPR had “lost America’s trust”.
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In the essay Berliner said that while the station had long had a liberal bent, the rise of Donald Trump prompted a lurch to the far left.
The outlet, according to Berliner, gave too much credence to the “Russiagate” scandal, which claimed that Putin had influenced Trump’s shock 2016 election victory. When the Mueller report was published in 2019 and found no credible evidence of such collusion, Berliner said NPR’s coverage was “notably sparse” and “quickly faded from programming”.
“It is one thing to swing and miss on a major story,” Berliner wrote. “What’s worse is to pretend it never happened, to move on with no mea culpas, no self-reflection … That’s what shatters trust and engenders cynicism about the media.”
Berliner also cited the broadcaster’s approach to the so-called lab leak theory of Covid’s origins and a scandal over Hunter Biden’s laptop during the build-up to the 2020 election as examples of NPR’s progressive bias. He said an NPR editor initially baulked at covering the laptop scandal, saying: “We don’t want to waste the listeners’ and readers’ time on stories that are just pure distractions.” Berliner also quoted an NPR colleague remarking that “it was good we weren’t following the laptop story because it could help Trump”.
When the laptop, which contained emails that Republicans said suggested Hunter Biden used his father’s position to pursue lucrative business details, was confirmed to belong to him, Berliner wrote: “We could have fessed up to our misjudgment. But, like Russia collusion, we didn’t make the hard choice of transparency.”
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Berliner asserted that a similar pattern of ignoring original reports and refusing to “swivel” when the story changed occurred with the theory that the virus which led to the Covid pandemic leaked out of a laboratory in Wuhan.
A lack of conservatives on the staff made NPR’s left-wing bias worse, according to Berliner, who said there was an “unspoken consensus” about how stories should be selected and written.
Berliner, an award-winning journalist who helped to build the popular Planet Money podcast, wrote: “It’s true NPR has always had a liberal bent but during most of my tenure here, an open-minded, curious culture prevailed. We were nerdy but not knee-jerk, activist or scolding.
“In recent years, however, that has changed. Today, those who listen to NPR or read its coverage online find something different: the distilled worldview of a very small segment of the US population.”
Edith Chapin, NPR’s editor-in-chief, wrote a memo to staff saying she and other executives “strongly disagree” with Berliner’s assessment of the newsroom. “We believe that inclusion — among our staff, with our sourcing, and in our overall coverage — is critical to telling the nuanced stories of this country and our world,” Chapin said.
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However, she added that the newsroom must have “vigorous discussions” about how NPR “serves the public as a whole”. She added: “Ideally, we engage in this debate respectfully, with the goal of lifting up and strengthening each other’s work.”
In his report announcing Berliner’s suspension, Folkenflik said that the essay prompted NPR leaders to announce monthly internal reviews of coverage.
Folkenflik also noted the rush of conservative criticism that followed Berliner’s essay, including from Trump. “NO MORE FUNDING FOR NPR, A TOTAL SCAM!” the former president wrote on Truth Social.
Critics uncovered past social media posts by NPR’s new chief executive, Katherine Maher. “Among others, those posts include a 2020 tweet that called Trump racist and another that appeared to minimise rioting during social justice protests that year,” Folkenflik wrote.
Maher addressed the posts in question in a statement on Monday. “In America everyone is entitled to free speech as a private citizen,” she said. “What matters is NPR’s work and my commitment as its CEO: public service, editorial independence, and the mission to serve all of the American public. NPR is independent, beholden to no party, and without commercial interests.”
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Speaking to Folkenflik after the statement was issued, Berliner said Maher’s past posts show she was not fit for the leadership position she assumed last month.
“We’re looking for a leader right now who’s going to be unifying and bring more people into the tent and have a broader perspective on, sort of, what America is all about,” Berliner said. “And this seems to be the opposite of that.”
NPR, which is headquartered in Washington, receives funding through dues from its member stations, corporate sponsor donations and from taxpayers. It is wholly independent from the government, however, and there was an outcry in 2023 when Elon Musk added a “state-affiliated media” tag to NPR’s Twitter account.
