Criticism of NPR has increased in recent days after a business editor—who is now suspended—took to a different outlet to criticize the network’s coverage and its lack of ideological diversity, arguing it’s too liberal, and the new CEO’s old tweets supporting progressive issues have resurfaced, leading some conservatives to question whether the network should receive public funding.
Following an essay published last week in which an NPR editor criticized the network’s “lack of ... [+]
Last week, veteran business editor Uri Berliner published an essay in The Free Press—a site founded by an ex-New York Times opinion editor popular among people who believe mainstream media has become too liberal—titled “I’ve Been at NPR for 25 Years. Here’s How We Lost America’s Trust.”
The essay criticized the network for having little viewpoint diversity among its staff, said “an open-minded spirit no longer exists within NPR” and said political motives have infiltrated coverage of major topics including the recent presidential elections and COVID-19.
On Tuesday, NPR reported Berliner had received a five-day suspension and “final warning” for the essay he published, with the official reasoning being he “failed to secure its approval for outside work for other news outlets, as is required of NPR journalists”—though the article said the rebuke did not mention at least one other instance where Berliner spoke to media but did not get permission.
In response to Berliner’s critiques, NPR’s chief news executive announced Monday the newsroom would start monthly meetings to discuss whether the network “capture(d) the diversity of this country” in a way that helped its audience, NPR reported.
The trouble didn’t stop for NPR with Berliner’s essay, though, as tweets from its recently hired CEO Katherine Maher, who did not previously work in news, resurfaced over the weekend.
Maher had previously tweeted “Donald Trump is a racist” and a picture of her wearing a Biden for president hat, both of which drew wide criticism, including from Elon Musk, who tweeted, “This person is a crazy racist!” and conservative activist Christopher Rufo, who has called for her to be let go as CEO.
A spokesperson for NPR, Isabel Lara, told the New York Times Maher “was not working in journalism at the time and was exercising her First Amendment right to express herself like any other American citizen.”
Forbes has reached out to NPR for comment on Maher’s tweets and its suspension of Berliner.
“What’s notable is the extent to which people at every level of NPR have comfortably coalesced around the progressive worldview,” Berliner wrote in The Free Press essay. “And this, I believe, is the most damaging development at NPR: the absence of viewpoint diversity.”
In his piece for The Free Press, Berliner said he previously looked at voter registration among the newsroom and found in Washington, D.C., there were “87 registered Democrats working in editorial positions and zero Republicans.” That point and others, combined with the resurfacing of Maher’s tweets, have led some to renew calls for NPR to lose its public funding. Shortly after Berliner’s essay was published last week, former President Donald Trump posted on Truth Social, saying: “NO MORE FUNDING FOR NPR” and calling the network a “TOTAL SCAM” and a “LIBERAL DISINFORMATION MACHINE.” Berliner has said defunding NPR “isn’t the answer.”
1%. In 2020, the New York Times reported that just about 1% of NPR’s budget came from federal funding.
The right has called to defund NPR before, dating back to about when the Corporation for Public Broadcasting was started in the late 1960s. Both Presidents Ronald Reagan and Richard Nixon “went after” the government subsidies NPR received, Politico reported, and President George W. Bush also tried to reduce NPR funding. In 2011, the House voted to block federal funding for NPR after a then-executive was secretly recorded criticizing Republican groups, though the vote was largely symbolic and funding was not cut. When he was in office, Trump requested federal funding for the CPB be reduced to nothing—which did not happen.