NPR defends reporting after veteran editor slams anti-Trump bias
‘Outnumbered’ co-hosts react to an NPR senior editor calling out the outlet’s alleged bias during an interview with Bari Weiss.
Donald Trump called for NPR to no longer be funded by the public after an insider called out the organization for its lopsided liberal biases, including against the former president.
In a bombshell essay published in The Free Press, veteran NPR senior business editor Uri Berliner said the 2016 election of Trump encouraged NPR journalists to find ways to "damage or topple" his presidency, saying the narrative that the Trump campaign colluded with Russia to win the White House "became the catnip that drove reporting" and that "we hitched our wagon to Trump’s most visible antagonist, Representative Adam Schiff."
Trump responded to the revelation by posting on his Truth Social platform, appearing to specifically paraphrase Berliner’s claims about NPR journalists aiming to "damage" his presidency, "NO MORE FUNDING FOR NPR, A TOTAL SCAM! EDITOR SAID THEY HAVE NO REPUBLICANS, AND IS ONLY USED TO ‘DAMAGE TRUMP.’ THEY ARE A LIBERAL DISINFORMATION MACHINE. NOT ONE DOLLAR!!!"
In the original piece, Berliner claimed that Trump’s ascension to the presidency caused a stark change at NPR.
Trump condemned NPR in a social media post, demanding it no longer be funded by taxpayers. (Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images | Alex Wong/Getty Images)
NPR EDITOR FOUND REGISTERED DEMOCRATS OUTNUMBERED REPUBLICANS 87 TO ZERO IN NEWSROOM
"Like many unfortunate things, the rise of advocacy took off with Donald Trump. As in many newsrooms, his election in 2016 was greeted at NPR with a mixture of disbelief, anger, and despair. (Just to note, I eagerly voted against Trump twice but felt we were obliged to cover him fairly.)," he wrote. "But what began as tough, straightforward coverage of a belligerent, truth-impaired president veered toward efforts to damage or topple Trump’s presidency."
He also claimed that NPR eagerly repeated claims about Trump allegedly colluding with Russia until the Mueller investigation concluded the evidence was insufficient, and noted the repeated interviews it did with Schiff, who pushed the Russia collusion narrative for years.
A Fox News Digital review found at least 32 interviews Schiff gave to the taxpayer-backed outlet between Dec. 11, 2016, and July 24, 2019, all involving some aspect of Russia's interference in the 2016 election and the sprawling investigation into whether the Trump campaign illicitly coordinated with it.
"Schiff, who was the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, became NPR’s guiding hand, its ever-present muse," Berliner recalled. "The Schiff talking points became the drumbeat of NPR news reports."
Former President Trump arrives at Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson Airport in Georgia on Wednesday, April 10, 2024. Trump is visiting the state to host a campaign fundraising event. (Robin Rayne for Fox News Digital)
CENSURED MEDIA DARLING ADAM SCHIFF USED LIBERAL TV PLATFORMS TO PEDDLE ‘COLLUSION’ CLAIMS FOR YEARS
Berliner went on to write, "But when the Robert Mueller report found no credible evidence of collusion, NPR’s coverage was notably sparse. Russiagate quietly faded from our programming."
Berliner appeared to pre-empt critics' calls to defund NPR in his original piece, however. NPR has insisted it receives "less than 1 percent of its $300 million annual budget" from the federally funded Corporation for Public Broadcasting, although it also receives fees from federally backed partner stations.
"Despite our missteps at NPR, defunding isn’t the answer. As the country becomes more fractured, there’s still a need for a public institution where stories are told and viewpoints exchanged in good faith," he wrote. "Defunding, as a rebuke from Congress, wouldn’t change the journalism at NPR. That needs to come from within."
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Fox News’ Joseph A. Wulfsohn and David Rutz contributed to this report.
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