NPR formally punished senior editor Uri Berliner for publishing an opinion piece last week in which he claimed that the network was taken over by activist progressives who cared more about advancing their agenda than journalistic integrity.
Mr. Berliner, an NPR veteran of 25 years, was given a five-day suspension on Thursday afternoon that began Friday—a decision reported only today by David Folkenflik, an NPR colleague of Mr. Berliner.
“His essay and subsequent public remarks stirred deep anger and dismay within NPR,” Mr. Folkenflik wrote. “Colleagues contend Berliner cherry-picked examples to fit his arguments and challenge the accuracy of his account.”
In the suspension letter reviewed by Mr. Folkenflik, NPR said the editor was suspended because he failed to fulfill his contractual obligation to obtain approval before publishing work with another news outlet.
The network also told Mr. Berliner that the suspension was a “final warning” and that he would be fired if he violated the company’s policy again.
Mr. Berliner, who is a member of NPR’s newsroom union, said he would not appeal the suspension.
The Critique
In his opinion piece, published April 9 in The Free Press, Mr. Berliner alleged that NPR was only catering to the “distilled worldview of a very small segment of the U.S. population.”
“It’s true NPR has always had a liberal bent, but during most of my tenure here, an open-minded, curious culture prevailed,” he wrote.
“In recent years, however, that has changed.”
“An open-minded spirit no longer exists within NPR, and now, predictably, we don’t have an audience that reflects America,” he wrote. “That wouldn’t be a problem for an openly polemical news outlet serving a niche audience. But for NPR, which purports to consider all things, it’s devastating both for its journalism and its business model.”
Mr. Berliner claimed that NPR promoted the Russian collusion conspiracy hoax that eventually fizzled out, turned a blind eye to the Hunter Biden laptop story ahead of the 2020 elections, and its knee-jerk dismissal of the Wuhan lab leak theory as the likely source of COVID-19, among other things.
He also believes how the network, abetted by the unions, had embraced diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) practices that include subjecting staff to “unconscious bias training” sessions and requiring them to view the world through the ideological lens of Critical Race Theory. This then led to the publication of a slew of what Mr. Berliner called “bizarre” stories, such as how bird names are racist.
“What’s notable is the extent to which people at every level of NPR have comfortably coalesced around the progressive worldview,” Mr. Berliner wrote. “And this, I believe, is the most damaging development at NPR: the absence of viewpoint diversity.”
“I’ve become a visible wrong-thinker at a place I love,” he concluded. “It’s uncomfortable, sometimes heartbreaking.”
The Response
NPR’s new CEO, Katherine Maher, pushed back on Friday without mentioning Mr. Berliner’s name or refuting his arguments.
“Questioning whether our people are serving our mission with integrity, based on little more than the recognition of their identity, is profoundly disrespectful, hurtful, and demeaning,” she said.
NPR investigative reporter Chiara Eisner wrote in a comment for Mr. Folkenflik’s story, “Minorities do not all think the same and do not report the same. Good reporters and editors should know that by now. It’s embarrassing to me as a reporter at NPR that a senior editor here missed that point in 2024.”
A few former NPR writers chimed in, saying they had left the company for becoming too far left.
An earlier New York Post analysis of Ms. Maher’s social media posts revealed her left-leaning opinions—many of which she allegedly deleted before assuming her new position at NPR.
For instance, on May 31, 2020, Ms. Maher justified the shoplifting spree that plagued Los Angeles on Twitter: “I mean, sure, looting is counterproductive. But it’s 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.”
Mr. Berliner told Mr. Folkenflik he believes Ms. Maher’s social media posts demonstrate that she is not the right person to direct the news organization.
“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,” Mr. Berliner said. “And this seems to be the opposite of that.”
