NPR suspends editor who criticized network's 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.
Veteran NPR editor Uri Berliner, who is serving a five-day suspension for blowing the whistle on liberal bias at the organization, doesn’t think embattled CEO Katherine Maher is right for the job.
Berliner put a newfound spotlight on NPR last week with a scathing takedown of his employer that detailed the "absence of viewpoint diversity" at the organization published in the Free Press, leading to a five-day suspension without pay. Critics of NPR, including Manhattan Institute senior fellow Christopher Rufo, dug up social media messages Maher posted before running NPR. The messages are seen by critics as proof liberal bias comes from the top down, and Berliner seems to agree.
"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 NPR media reporter David Folkenflik. "And this seems to be the opposite of that."
NPR SUSPENDS VETERAN EDITOR WHO BLEW WHISTLE ON LIBERAL BIAS AT ORGANIZATION
Suspended NPR editor Uri Berliner doesn’t think embattled CEO Katherine Maher is right for the job. (Left: (Photo by JP Yim/WireImage)Right: (Photo by Horacio Villalobos#Corbis/Getty Images))
NPR did not immediately respond to a request for comment by Fox News Digital.
Maher, who served as the CEO for Web Summit and Wikimedia Foundation prior to taking over NPR last month, showed her support for Hillary Clinton in 2016 and Joe Biden in 2020 while regularly sharing far-left talking points and criticizing Donald Trump.
She wrote on X in May 2020 that while "looting is counterproductive," it was "hard to be mad about protests not prioritizing the private property of a system of oppression founded on treating people's ancestors as private property."
In another post on the thread, Maher said that property damage was "not the thing" Americans should be upset over.
In another 2020 post, Maher is seen donning a Biden for President hat and said it was the "best part" of her efforts to get out the vote.
"I can’t stop crying with relief," she wrote after Biden won.
NEW NPR CEO'S SOCIAL MEDIA POSTS SHOW PROGRESSIVE VIEWS, SUPPORT FOR CLINTON, BIDEN
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)
Maher also took issue with the infamous New York Times Tom Cotton op-ed in 2020, saying it was "full of racist dog whistles." She argued it was based on the "false premise that the country is in a state of ‘disorder.'"
Several of her old posts that have resurfaced reference concern over White privilege, and concern over "White silence."
In June 2020, Maher declared "White silence is complicity."
"If you are White, today is the day to start a conversation in your community," she continued.
Maher identified herself as an "unalloyed progressive" supporting Clinton in the 2016 election. However, the NPR CEO had some criticism for Clinton at the time, and said she wished the then-Democratic presidential nominee "wouldn't use the language of ‘boy and girl,'" because it was "erasing language for non-binary people."
In 2018, she wrote, "I’m angry. Hot angry, slow angry, relentless angry. This anger is going to fuel and burn for a long time, and it will deliver back exponentially," during Christine Blasey Ford's testimony accusing Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh of sexual assault.
Here are some of the other messages unearthed by Rufo:
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.
5 THINGS VETERAN NPR EDITOR EXPOSED IN STUNNING CRITICISM OF OWN EMPLOYER’S LIBERAL BIAS
As for Berliner, he’s been suspended after criticizing NPR’s coverage of Russiagate, the COVID lab leak theory, Hunter Biden’s scandalous laptop, embrace of the theory of systemic racism and accusing the organization of downplaying antisemitism following Oct. 7.
Folkenflik 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.
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Fox News' Joseph A. Wulfsohn contributed to this report.
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