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NPR suspends veteran editor who blew whistle on liberal bias at organization
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.
This is amusing. NPR is somewhat biased but it's not out of control. It's not like Fox News which is the worst of all. CNN is even worse than NPR.I'm still trying to process how the newsroom at NPR consists of 87 democrats and zero republicans.
Horrible look for NPR.In rebuking Berliner, NPR said he had also publicly released proprietary information about audience demographics, which it considers confidential. He said those figures "were essentially marketing material. If they had been really good, they probably would have distributed them and sent them out to the world."
Feelings of anger and betrayal inside the newsroom
His essay and subsequent public remarks stirred deep anger and dismay within NPR. Colleagues contend Berliner cherry-picked examples to fit his arguments and challenge the accuracy of his accounts. They also note he did not seek comment from the journalists involved in the work he cited.
Morning Edition host Michel Martin told me some colleagues at the network share Berliner's concerns that coverage is frequently presented through an ideological or idealistic prism that can alienate listeners.
"The way to address that is through training and mentorship," says Martin, herself a veteran of nearly two decades at the network who has also reported for The Wall Street Journal and ABC News. "It's not by blowing the place up, by trashing your colleagues, in full view of people who don't really care about it anyway."
Several NPR journalists told me they are no longer willing to work with Berliner as they no longer have confidence that he will keep private their internal musings about stories as they work through coverage.
"Newsrooms run on trust," NPR political correspondent Danielle Kurtzleben tweeted last week, without mentioning Berliner by name. "If you violate everyone's trust by going to another outlet and sh--ing on your colleagues (while doing a bad job journalistically, for that matter), I don't know how you do your job now."
Berliner rejected that critique, saying nothing in his essay or subsequent remarks betrayed private observations or arguments about coverage.
Other newsrooms are also grappling with questions over news judgment and confidentiality. On Monday, New York Times Executive Editor Joseph Kahn announced to his staff that the newspaper's inquiry into who leaked internal dissent over a planned episode of its podcast The Daily to another news outlet proved inconclusive. The episode was to focus on a December report on the use of sexual assault as part of the Hamas attack on Israel in October. Audio staffers aired doubts over how well the reporting stood up to scrutiny.
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"We work together with trust and collegiality everyday on everything we produce, and I have every expectation that this incident will prove to be a singular exception to an important rule," Kahn wrote to Times staffers.
At NPR, some of Berliner's colleagues have weighed in online against his claim that the network has focused on diversifying its workforce without a concomitant commitment to diversity of viewpoint. Recently retired chief executive John Lansing has referred to this pursuit of diversity within NPR's workforce as its "North Star," a moral imperative and chief business strategy.
In his essay, Berliner tagged the strategy as a failure, citing the drop in NPR's broadcast audiences and its struggle to attract more Black and Latino listeners in particular.
"During most of my tenure here, an open-minded, curious culture prevailed. We were nerdy, but not knee-jerk, activist, or scolding," Berliner writes. "In recent years, however, that has changed."
Berliner writes, "For NPR, which purports to consider all things, it's devastating both for its journalism and its business model."
NPR Investigative reporter Chiara Eisner wrote in a comment for this 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."
Some colleagues drafted a letter to Maher and NPR's chief news executive, Edith Chapin, seeking greater clarity on NPR's standards for its coverage and the behavior of its journalists - clearly pointed at Berliner.
A plan for "healthy discussion"
On Friday, CEO Maher stood up for the network's mission and the journalism, taking issue with Berliner's critique, though never mentioning him by name. Among her chief issues: she said Berliner's essay offered "a criticism of our people on the basis of who we are."
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Berliner took great exception to that, saying she had denigrated him. He said that he supported diversifying NPR's workforce to look more like the U.S. population at large. She did not address that in a subsequent private exchange he shared with me for this story. (An NPR spokesperson declined further comment.)
Late Monday afternoon, Chapin announced to the newsroom that Executive Editor Eva Rodriguez would lead monthly meetings to review coverage.
"Among the questions we'll ask of ourselves each month: Did we capture the diversity of this country — racial, ethnic, religious, economic, political geographic, etc — in all of its complexity and in a way that helped listeners and readers recognize themselves and their communities?" Chapin wrote in the memo. "Did we offer coverage that helped them understand — even if just a bit better — those neighbors with whom they share little in common?"
Berliner said he welcomed the announcement but would withhold judgment until those meetings played out.
In a text for this story, Chapin said such sessions had been discussed since Lansing unified the news and programming divisions under her acting leadership last year.
"Now seemed [the] time to deliver if we were going to do it," Chapin said. "Healthy discussion is something we need more of."
Horrible look for NPR.
They even picked a nutty progressive sort as their new leader.
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This is amusing. NPR is somewhat biased but it's not out of control. It's not like Fox News which is the worst of all. CNN is even worse than NPR.
Why the angst for a network that most Americans don't listen to?
Fox isn't any worse than MSNBC. CNN was that bad, but is trying to clean itself up a little.This is amusing. NPR is somewhat biased but it's not out of control. It's not like Fox News which is the worst of all. CNN is even worse than NPR.
Why the angst for a network that most Americans don't listen to?
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NPR suspends veteran editor who blew whistle on liberal bias at organization
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.www.foxnews.com
I don't even know that it's viewed that way. They're just happy to see NPR take a shot.I love how the Rs are trying to turn this into a scandal. You guys just never stop with the bs.
No, this guy sounds totally sane. Who among us hasn't combed through voter rolls to find out how each one of our coworkers are voting? Nothing weird about that at all.Actually, most of his diatribe was demonstrably false. So, unsurprising they'd boot him.
Are you not reading this thread? That's absolutely how Rs are trying to paint this thing.I don't even know that it's viewed that way. They're just happy to see NPR take a shot.
You guys are trying way too hard. He had noticed how the place was and wanted a bit of empirical evidence to back it up when disseminating the opinion to the world.No, this guy sounds totally sane. Who among us hasn't combed through voter rolls to find out how each one of their coworkers are voting? Nothing weird about that at all.
Um, you guys are trying way to hard. Uri clearly has an axe to grind. No sane person would look up the voting records of 87 employees to use as ammo later on.You guys are trying way too hard. He had noticed how the place was and wanted a bit of empirical evidence.
Um, you guys are trying way to hard. Uri clearly has an axe to grind. No sane person would look up the voting records of 87 employees to use as ammo later on.
Dissent from the hivemind will never be tolerated.Actually, most of his diatribe was demonstrably false. So, unsurprising they'd boot him.
You won't get an answer here I don't imagine.Care to address the 87-0 count?
So, he cherry picked a whole bunch of stuff to reinforce the opinion he already had...You guys are trying way too hard. He had noticed how the place was and wanted a bit of empirical evidence to back it up
You won't get an answer here I don't imagine.
Fox had to pay damn near a billion dollars for knowingly spreading lies.Fox isn't any worse than MSNBC.
Yeah, that's how it's done when you're in his position. You notice the bias, the issue, and then put together evidence for it to share with the world.So, he cherry picked a whole bunch of stuff to reinforce the opinion he already had...
That was just DominionFox had to pay damn near a billion dollars for knowingly spreading lies.
They can't, that's why they keep dodging it and defaulting to "but fox!" (Which is also trash in at least my opinion). As for why it happened in the first place, that's just how the modern left operates. I'm not totally joking when I call them a hivemind as they do not allow for dissenting opinion.I'm genuinely curious how anyone can explain it happening in the first place. I'm equally curious if anyone finds it acceptable?
It's not only stunning, it's telling.
They can't, that's why they keep dodging it and defaulting to "but fox!" (Which is also trash in at least my opinion). As for why it happened in the first place, that's just how the modern left operates. I'm not totally joking when I call them a hivemind as they do not allow for dissenting opinion.
They should call all their listeners and get their thoughts on the matter. Shouldn’t take more than an afternoon.
Republicans suck at newsrooming.I'm still trying to process how the newsroom at NPR consists of 87 democrats and zero republicans.