CNN
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Uri Berliner, a Nationwide Public Radio senior editor who wrote a scathing on-line essay accusing the general public radio community of harboring a liberal bias, stated Wednesday he had resigned from the outlet.
“I’m resigning from NPR, an ideal American establishment the place I’ve labored for 25 years,” Berliner wrote in a resignation letter to NPR chief government Katherine Maher, which he posted to his X account.
An NPR spokesperson declined to remark.
Berliner’s resignation got here after he was suspended for five days with out pay over his 3,500-word piece within the anti-establishment publication The Free Press. Within the essay, Berliner claimed NPR had did not correctly cowl allegations Donald Trump colluded with Russia within the runup to the 2016 election, the controversial Covid-19 lab-leak principle and New York Publish’s story on Hunter Biden’s laptop computer.
Berliner used his complaints about how these particular person tales have been coated by his colleagues to attract a sweeping conclusion that NPR had misplaced “viewpoint variety,” and began “telling listeners how one can suppose.”
NPR editor-in-chief Edith Chapin rapidly pushed again towards Berliner’s characterization of the outlet, telling workers in a memo that community administration “strongly disagree with Uri’s evaluation of the standard of our journalism and the integrity of our newsroom processes.”
“We consider that inclusion — amongst our workers, with our sourcing, and in our general protection — is crucial to telling the nuanced tales of this nation and our world,” she added.
Different NPR staffers publicly rejected Berliner’s evaluation in social media posts.
In his resignation letter, Berliner stated he didn’t assist calls to defund NPR and that he needs to see the audio-focused outlet thrive. However he stated he couldn’t “work in a newsroom the place I’m disparaged by a brand new CEO whose divisive views verify the very issues at NPR I cite in my Free Press.”
Berliner was referencing quite a few outdated tweets uncovered in current days by right-wing activists during which Maher posted disparagingly about Trump.
Isabel Lara, an NPR spokesperson, dismissed the assaults, saying Maher “was not working in journalism on the time and was exercising her First Modification proper to precise herself like some other American citizen.”
A day after Berliner penned his piece, the community found itself under siege as Donald Trump, Fox Information and different right-wing figures held up his piece to demonize NPR and name for its defunding. Berliner’s allegations of community bias have been billed as a prime story, with right-wing retailers and personalities portraying Berliner as a “whistleblower.”