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.
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.
“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.”
Folkenflik also reported that Berliner “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.”
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.
“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.”
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.
