Current:Home > FinanceNPR suspends senior editor Uri Berliner after essay accusing outlet of liberal bias -TradeGrid
NPR suspends senior editor Uri Berliner after essay accusing outlet of liberal bias
View
Date:2025-04-15 21:45:41
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 over her past social media posts.
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. "What matters is NPR's work and my commitment as its CEO: public service, editorial independence, and the mission to serve all of the American public. NPR is independent, beholden to no party, and without commercial interests."
Heat exposure law:Florida joins Texas in banning local heat protections for outdoor workers
Berliner rails against NPR's 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 always had a "liberal bent" ever 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 Peabody 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 (DEI) policies – as reflected both within its newsroom and in its coverage – as making race and identity "paramount in nearly every aspect of the workplace.”
"All this reflected a broader movement in the culture of people clustering together based on ideology or a characteristic of birth," he wrote.
Uri Berliner's essay fuels conservative attacks on NPR
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 longstanding argument that NPR’s government funding should be rescinded.
NPR issues formal rebuke to Berliner
Berliner provided an NPR reporter with a copy of the formal rebuke for review 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, who is a dues-paying member of NPR's newsroom union, told the NPR reporter that he is not appealing the punishment.
A spokeswoman for NPR said the outlet declined to comment on Berliner's essay or the news of his suspension when reached Tuesday by USA TODAY.
"NPR does not comment on individual personnel matters, including discipline," according to the statement. "We expect all of our employees to comply with NPR policies and procedures, which for our editorial staff includes the NPR Ethics Handbook."
NPR staffer express dismay; leadership puts coverage reviews in place
According to the NPR article, Berliner's essay also invoked the ire of many of his colleagues and the reporters whose stories he would be responsible for editing.
"Newsrooms run on trust," NPR political correspondent Danielle Kurtzleben said in a post last week on social media site X, though he didn't mention Berliner by name. "If you violate everyone's trust by going to another outlet and [expletive] on your colleagues (while doing a bad job journalistically, for that matter), I don't know how you do your job now."
Amid the fallout, NPR reported that NPR's chief news executive Edith Chapin announced to the newsroom late Monday afternoon that Executive Editor Eva Rodriguez would lead monthly meetings to review coverage.
Berliner expressed no regrets about publishing the essay in an interview with NPR, adding that he tried repeatedly to make his concerns over NPR's coverage known to news leaders.
"I love NPR and feel it's a national trust," Berliner says. "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."
Eric Lagatta covers breaking and trending news for USA TODAY. Reach him at elagatta@gannett.com
veryGood! (616)
Related
- Most popular books of the week: See what topped USA TODAY's bestselling books list
- Laguna Beach’s Stephen Colletti and Alex Weaver Are Engaged After One Year of Dating
- Travis Kelce dishes on Taylor Swift lyrics, botched high-five in Argentina
- The Oakland Athletics’ move to Las Vegas has been approved by MLB owners, AP sources says
- DoorDash steps up driver ID checks after traffic safety complaints
- NFL Week 11 odds: Moneylines, point spreads, over/under
- New York sues PepsiCo Inc. for plastic pollution, alleging the company contaminated drinking water
- 'I just want her to smile': Texas family struggles after pit bull attacks 2-year-old girl
- Senate begins final push to expand Social Security benefits for millions of people
- Matthew Perry’s ‘Friends’ costars reminiscence about the late actor
Ranking
- Retirement planning: 3 crucial moves everyone should make before 2025
- Ousted Texas bishop rallies outside US bishops meeting as his peers reinforce Catholic voter values
- Progress in childhood cancer has stalled for Blacks and Hispanics, report says
- Russian convicted over journalist Anna Politkovskaya's murder pardoned after serving in Ukraine
- A Mississippi company is sentenced for mislabeling cheap seafood as premium local fish
- Law enforcement has multiple investigations into individuals affiliated with Hamas, FBI director tells Congress
- Common passwords like 123456 and admin take less than a second to crack, research shows
- How to solve America's shortage of primary care doctors? Compensation is key
Recommendation
Biden administration makes final diplomatic push for stability across a turbulent Mideast
'Aaron's a big boy': Jets coach Robert Saleh weighs in on potential Rodgers return from injury
Prosecutor asks judge to revoke bond for Harrison Floyd in Georgia election case
U.S. Navy warship shoots down drone fired from Yemen
The company planning a successor to Concorde makes its first supersonic test
Blackwater founder and 4 others on trial in Austria over export of modified crop-spraying planes
Goodbye free returns: Retailers are tacking on mail-in fees. Why that may be good news.
Xi-Biden meeting seen as putting relations back on course, even as issues remain unresolved