NPR is facing both internal turmoil and a firestorm of attacks from prominent conservatives this week after a senior editor publicly claimed the broadcaster has allowed liberal bias to influence its coverage, jeopardizing its trust with the public.
Uri Berliner, a senior business editor who has worked at NPR for 25 years, wrote in an essay published Tuesday by The Free Press, a popular Substack publication, that “people at every level of NPR have coalesced comfortably around the progressive worldview”.
Mr. Berliner, a Peabody Award-winning journalist, criticized NPR for what he said were a series of journalistic errors in its coverage of several major news stories, including the origins of Covid-19 and the war in Gaza. He also said the internal culture at NPR had made race and identity “paramount in almost every aspect of the workplace.”
Mr. Berliner’s essay has sparked a firestorm of criticism against NPR on social media, especially among conservatives who have long accused the network of political bias in its reporting. Former President Donald J. Trump used his social media platform, Truth Social, to argue that NPR’s government funding should be canceled, an argument he has made in the past.
NPR strongly pushed back against Mr. Berliner’s accusations and criticism.
“We’re proud to stand behind the great work our bureaus and broadcasts do to cover a wide range of challenging stories,” Edith Chapin, the organization’s editor-in-chief, said in an email to staff Tuesday. “We believe that inclusion — among our staff, with our sources and in our overall coverage — is critical to telling the diverse stories of this country and our world.” Some other NPR reporters also criticized the essay publicly, including Eric Deggans, its television critic, who blamed Mr. Berliner for not giving NPR a chance to comment on the piece.
In an interview Thursday, Mr. Berliner did not express regret about publishing the essay, saying he loved NPR and hoped to improve it by airing criticisms that had been ignored by leaders for years. He called NPR a “national trust” that people rely on for fair reporting and great storytelling.
“I decided to come out and publish this in the hope that something will change and that we will have a wider conversation about how the news is covered,” Mr. Berliner said.
He said he had not been disciplined by managers, although he said he received a memo from his supervisor reminding him that NPR requires employees to clear speaking appearances and media requests with standards and media relations. He said he did not make his remarks to The New York Times by network representatives.
When the hosts of NPR’s biggest shows, including “Morning Edition” and “All Things Considered,” gathered Wednesday afternoon for a scheduled meet-and-greet with the network’s new CEO, Katherine Maher, the conversation quickly turned to to Mr. Berliner’s essay, according to two people with knowledge of the meeting. During the meal, Ms. Chapin told the hosts that she did not want Mr. Berliner to become a “witness,” the people said.
Mr. Berliner’s essay also sent critical messages to Slack by cutting across some of the same race- and sexual-identity-centered employee affinity groups he mentioned in his essay. In one panel, several staff members disputed Mr. Berliner’s points about the lack of ideological diversity and said that efforts to recruit more people of color would improve NPR’s journalism.
On Wednesday, members of the Morning Edition staff gathered to discuss the results of Mr. Berliner’s essay. During the meeting, an NPR producer took issue with Mr. Berliner’s argument about why NPR’s audience has fallen, outlining several factors that contributed to the change.
Mr. Berliner’s remarks drew a backlash from several news executives. Tony Cavin, NPR’s managing editor for standards and practices, said in an interview that he rejected all of Mr. Berliner’s claims of impropriety, adding that his remarks would likely make it harder for NPR reporters to do their jobs.
“The next time one of our people calls a Republican congressman or something like that and tries to get an answer out of them, they might as well say, ‘Oh, I read these stories, you’re not being fair, so I’m not going to talk to you,” said Mr. Cavin.
Some journalists defended Mr. Berliner’s essay. Jeffrey A. Dvorkin, a former NPR anchor, said Mr. Berliner was “not wrong” on social media. Chuck Holmes, a former managing editor at NPR, called Mr. Berliner’s essay “brave” on Facebook.
Mr. Berliner’s criticism was the latest outcry at NPR, which is no stranger to internal division. In October, Mr. Berliner engaged in a lengthy debate over whether NPR should adhere to the language recommended by the Arab and Middle East Journalists Association while covering the conflict in Gaza.
“We do not need to rely on the guidance of a defense team,” Mr. Berliner wrote, according to a copy of the email exchange seen by the Times. “Our job is to find the facts and report them.” The debate did not change NPR’s language guidance, which is done by editors who were not involved in the debate.
Mr. Berliner’s public criticism has highlighted broader concerns at NPR about the public broadcaster’s mission amid ongoing financial struggles. Last year, NPR cut 10 percent of its staff and canceled four podcasts, including the popular “Invisibilia,” as it tried to make up for a $30 million budget shortfall. Listeners have moved away from traditional radio to podcasts, and the advertising market has been volatile.
In his essay, Mr. Berliner laid some of the blame at the feet of former NPR chief executive John Lansing, who retired late last year after four years in the role. He was replaced by Ms Maher, who started on 25 March.
During a staff meeting her first week, Ms. Maher was asked what she thought of decisions to give a platform to political figures like Ronna McDaniel, the former Republican Party chairwoman whose position as a political analyst at NBC News became untenable after -air mutiny from the hosts who criticized her efforts to undermine the 2020 elections.
“I think this conversation doesn’t have an easy answer,” Ms Maher replied.
