National Public Radio on Friday officially suspended veteran editor Uri Berliner, who recently published an essay exposing the government-funded outlet’s alleged bias during former President Donald Trump’s presidency.
Berliner, who has worked at NPR for 25 years, alleged in the essay published in The Free Press that the outlet was seeking to take down Trump during his presidency by citing Russia-collusion accusations that subsequently were debunked. The outlet suspended Berliner without pay for five days starting on Friday, NPR reported on Tuesday.
NPR informed Berliner in a letter on Thursday afternoon that the editor neglected to get the outlet’s required sign-off for publishing an essay for another outlet, characterizing it as a “final warning.” NPR said Berliner would be fired should he break the policy again, and the editor is not appealing the suspension.
Berliner’s essay, as well as his public comments after publishing it, led to “deep anger and dismay within NPR,” according to the outlet.
Berliner claimed in his essay that all of NPR was in agreement on the prioritization of race and identity, causing a lack of “viewpoint diversity” and rise in diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives. The editor also criticized the outlet for failing to cover the Hunter Biden laptop story ahead of the 2020 presidential election, and uncritically accepting the words of Dr. Anthony Fauci during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Colleagues contend Berliner cherry-picked examples to fit his arguments and challenge the accuracy of his accounts,” according to NPR. “They also note he did not seek comment from the journalists involved in the work he cited.”
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NPR’s new CEO Katherine Maher criticized Berliner’s essay on Friday, according to NPR, saying it was “a criticism of our people on the basis of who we are.”
Maher posted her support for President Joe Biden’s 2020 campaign on Twitter, now X, in November of that year, as well as called Trump “racist” on social media in 2018, according to The New York Times.
“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 Monday. “And this seems to be the opposite of that.”
NPR receives less than 1% of its funding from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, federal agencies, and departments, according to its website.
“I love NPR and feel it’s a national trust,” Berliner told NPR. “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.”
NPR and Berliner did not immediately respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.
