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(LifeSiteNews) — Longtime National Public Radio (NPR) senior editor Uri Berliner is out after excoriating the outlet for its far-left bias amid ongoing bad press for the publicly funded news organization.
On April 9, The Free Press published an essay by Berliner arguing that his employer “lost America’s trust” via a combination of “default(ing) to ideological storylines,” an “absence of viewpoint diversity,” obsession with identity politics, and general abandonment of journalistic principles. Among the examples he cited were the organization’s uncritical acceptance of narratives on Trump-Russia collusion claims, Hunter Biden’s laptop, and COVID-19’s origins that were favored by liberals but turned out to be false.
Berliner closed his piece by saying that he was “‘rooting for” NPR’s new CEO Katherine Maher, whose lack of a news background “could be an asset given where things stand.” However, within days of publication, critics began publicizing old tweets and video clips of Maher indicating her own far-left bias, prompting him to deem her the “opposite” of the kind of leader he believes the organization needs.
In a statement, Maher maintained that “NPR is independent, beholden to no party, and without commercial interests.” On April 16, NPR reported that Berliner had been suspended for five days without pay on the grounds that he had not obtained approval for “outside work” prior to his publication at The Free Press as required by company policy, with a warning he would be fired if he did it again. He was also rebuked for releasing demographic information about NPR’s audience.
The next morning, Berliner resigned, informing Maher via email that “I respect the integrity of my colleagues and wish for NPR to thrive and do important journalism. But 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.”
Conservatives have long decried NPR as marred by a left-wing bias on political issues such as abortion, arguing that it is inappropriate that such an organization continues to receive federal taxpayer dollars. Congress gives roughly $500 million a year to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which in turn provides funding grants to NPR.
Berliner said in his resignation letter he does not support defunding NPR, but his essay and Maher’s past comments have inspired a new round of calls from Republican lawmakers to do just that.
“The mainstream media has become obsessed with doing the Left’s bidding and taking down strong conservatives – and NPR has led the pack,” Republican U.S. Sen. Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee said. “It makes no sense that the American people are forced to fund a propagandist left-wing outlet that refuses to represent the voices of half the country. NPR should not receive our tax dollars.’”
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