NPR suspends editor who criticized networks liberal bias
Fox News senior political analyst Juan Williams joins Americas Newsroom to discuss possible reasons behind the 5-day suspension of NPR senior editor Uri Berliner.
NPR has suspended veteran editor Uri Berliner after he detailed his employer’s "absence of viewpoint diversity" last week in a stunning rebuke of the news organization.
NPR media reporter David Folkenflik reported the five-day suspension without pay began on Friday.
Berliner penned a bombshell piece in the Free Press that criticized NPR’s coverage of Russiagate, the COVID lab leak theory, Hunter Biden’s scandalous laptop, embrace of the theory of systemic racism and accused the organization of downplaying antisemitism following Oct. 7.
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Uri Berliner, the senior business editor and a 25-year NPR veteran, accused his employer of liberal groupthink. (Getty Images)
Berliner also wrote that registration records in 2021 showed an astonishing disparity between Democrats and Republicans in the NPR newsroom and said staffers didn’t want to help former President Trump, among other things, to indicate an "open-minded spirit no longer exists" at NPR.
"It angered many of his colleagues, led NPR leaders to announce monthly internal reviews of the network's coverage, and gave fresh ammunition to conservative and partisan Republican critics of NPR, including former President Donald Trump," Folkenflik wrote.
Folkenflik also spoke to Berliner directly, and the suspended editor told him embattled new CEO Katherine Maher is not the right person for the job after a plethora far-left social media posts she wrote before being hired were unearthed by NPR critics.
Maher, who took over as NPR's CEO and president last month, has gone viral over her old tweets, which show her support for Hillary Clinton in 2016, Joe Biden in 2020, referenced concern over White privilege, and said that property damage was "not the thing" Americans should be upset over during looting in May 2020.
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"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 told Folkenflik. "And this seems to be the opposite of that."
Maher has defended her old tweets.
"In America everyone is entitled to free speech as a private citizen," she said in a statement on Monday.
Folkenflik also reported that Berliner tried "repeatedly to make his concerns over NPR's coverage known to news leaders and to Maher's predecessor as chief executive before publishing his essay."
"We have great journalists here. If they shed their opinions and did the great journalism they're capable of, this would be a much more interesting and fulfilling organization for our listeners," Berliner told Folkenflik.
NPR did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Folkenflik, who has worked at NPR for years, noted that management did not comment or confirm the suspension to him, either. But Berliner provided him with a copy of the formal rebuke noting it was his final warning.
"In presenting Berliner's suspension Thursday afternoon, the organization told the editor he had failed to secure its approval for outside work for other news outlets, as is required of NPR journalists. It called the letter a ‘final warning,’ saying Berliner would be fired if he violated NPR's policy again. Berliner is a dues-paying member of NPR's newsroom union but says he is not appealing the punishment," Folkenflik wrote.
A former high-level NPR executive who worked with Berliner recently told Fox News Digital that it would be hard for Berliner to remain at the company.
NPR CEO and President Katherine Mahers old tweets about looting, her support for Hillary Clinton and Biden-Harris have resurfaced after she addressed Uri Berliners concerns about NPR in a letter to staff. ( (Photo by Rita Franca/NurPhoto via Getty Images), Screenshot/X/KatherineMaher)
"It seems to me that it would be very difficult for him now at NPR. I’ve seen stuff on the internet that he’s come under attack by people who are still at NPR," he continued. "I think he did this out of a sense of principle."
Berliner did not get permission to inform Folkenflik he was suspended, but isn’t worried about the consequences.
"Talking to an NPR journalist and being fired for that would be extraordinary, I think," he told Folkenflik.
Reached for comment about Berliner’s claims, an NPR spokesperson last week directed Fox News Digital to a memo to staff by editor-in-chief Edith Chapin, where she said she and her team "strongly disagree" with the veteran editor’s assessment of the quality of NPR's journalism and integrity.
"We’re proud to stand behind the exceptional work that our desks and shows do to cover a wide range of challenging stories. 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," she wrote as part of a lengthy memo.
Chapin also said she was proud of the organization's work and lauded NPR as "one of the most trusted news organizations in the country."
"Let’s not forget that the reason we remain one of the most trusted news organizations in the country is that we respect people’s ability to form their own judgments," she added.
Fox News Digital's Hanna Panreck and Joseph A. Wulfsohn contributed to this report.
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