NPR suspends senior editor after critical essay
NPR has suspended a senior editor who authored an essay published last week on an online news site in which he argued that the network had “lost America’s trust” because of a liberal bias in its coverage, the outlet reported.
Uri Berliner was suspended Friday for five days without pay, NPR reported Tuesday. The revelation came exactly a week after Berliner publicly claimed in an essay for The Free Press, an online news publication, that NPR had allowed a “liberal bent” to influence its coverage, causing the outlet to steadily lose credibility with audiences.
The essay reignited the criticism that many prominent conservatives have long leveled against NPR and prompted newsroom leadership to implement monthly internal reviews of the network’s coverage, NPR reported. Berliner’s essay also angered many of his colleagues and exposed NPR’s new chief executive Katherine Maher to a string of attacks from conservatives.
In a statement Monday to NPR, Maher refuted Berliner’s claims by underscoring NPR’s commitment to objective coverage of national issues.
“In America, everyone is entitled to free speech as a private citizen,” Maher said. “NPR is independent, beholden to no party, and without commercial interests.”
Berliner railed against coverage of COVID-19, diversity efforts
Berliner, a senior business editor who has worked at NPR for 25 years, argued in the Free Press essay that “people at every level of NPR have comfortably coalesced around the progressive worldview.”
While he claimed that NPR has had a “liberal bent” since he was hired at the outlet, he wrote that it has since lost its “open-minded spirit,” and, hence, “an audience that reflects America.”
The award-winning journalist highlighted what he viewed as examples of the network’s partisan coverage of several major news events, including the origins of COVID-19 and the war in Gaza. Berliner also lambasted NPR’s diversity, equity and inclusion policies – as reflected both within its newsroom and in its coverage – as making race and identity “paramount in nearly every aspect of the workplace.”
Essay fuels conservative attacks
In response to the essay, many prominent conservatives and Republicans, including former President Donald Trump, launched renewed attacks at NPR for what they perceive as partisan coverage.
Conservative activist Christopher Rufo in particular targeted Maher for messages she posted to social media years before joining the network – her first at a news organization. Among the posts singled out were a 2020 tweet that called Trump racist.
Trump reiterated on his social media platform Truth Social his long-standing argument that NPR’s government funding should be rescinded.
Uri Berliner is a senior business editor who has worked at NPR for 25 years.
NPR issues formal rebuke
Berliner provided an NPR reporter with a copy of the formal rebuke in which the organization told the editor he had not been approved to write for other news outlets, as is required of NPR journalists. NPR also said he publicly released confidential proprietary information about audience demographics, the outlet reported.
Leadership said the letter was a “final warning” for Berliner, who would be fired for future violations of NPR’s policies, according to NPR’s reporting. Berliner, a dues-paying member of NPR’s newsroom union, said he is not appealing the punishment.