NPR goes FULL SPIN mode after editor blows the whistle on propaganda media organization
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Accusations of biased coverage at NPR were leveled by a senior business editor who ignited a wave of backlash against the left-leaning public radio broadcaster.
Award-winning journalist Uri Berliner blew the whistle on his own employer in a blistering essay for the Free Press published Tuesday which called out the outlet’s lack of “viewpoint diversity” as well as the glaring disparity in the number of Democrats and Republicans in the newsroom.
“So on May 3, 2021, I presented the findings at an all-hands editorial staff meeting. When I suggested we had a diversity problem with a score of 87 Democrats and zero Republicans, the response wasn’t hostile. It was worse,” Berliner wrote.
“It was met with profound indifference,” the 25-year veteran of NPR continued. “I got a few messages from surprised, curious colleagues. But the messages were of the ‘oh wow, that’s weird’ variety, as if the lopsided tally was a random anomaly rather than a critical failure of our diversity North Star.”
An NPR spokesperson wasn’t sure where the longtime editor had gotten the numbers and told Fox News Digital that the organization had nearly 1,200 full-time and temporary employees.
“Berliner noted that polling showed NPR’s audience had become significantly less diverse over the years as well, going from slightly left-leaning overall in 2011 to overwhelmingly so by 2023,” Fox News reported.
“Only 11 percent described themselves as very or somewhat conservative, 21 percent as middle of the road, and 67 percent of listeners said they were very or somewhat liberal,” Berliner said, citing a recent survey.
“An open-minded spirit no longer exists within NPR, and now, predictably, we don’t have an audience that reflects America,” he added. “That wouldn’t be a problem for an openly polemical news outlet serving a niche audience. But for NPR, which purports to consider all things, it’s devastating both for its journalism and its business model.”
Fox News senior political analyst Juan Williams was not surprised at those comments by Berliner and discussed his time at the organization and subsequent firing in 2010.
“I don’t think I’m any wild-eyed conservative, but they thought I was too conservative a black guy for their kind of company,” he told host Laura Ingraham on “The Ingraham Angle” Tuesday.
“Not only did they fire me — they called me a psycho. I mean, they said horrible things about me quite publicly. So, no, it doesn’t surprise me what [Berliner] had to say,” Williams added.
The end of his run at NPR came when he had expressed his concerns after seeing people in Muslim garb in airports after the Sept. 11 terror attacks.
“I’m not a bigot. You know the kind of books I’ve written about the civil rights movement in this country, but when I get on the plane, I got to tell you, if I see people who are in Muslim garb and I think, you know, they’re identifying themselves first and foremost as Muslims, I get worried. I get nervous,” he said on “The O’Reilly Factor” at the time.
Agreeing with much of what Berliner wrote, Williams reminded Ingraham about how NPR’s reaction to his comments by firing him came well ahead of the appearance of their nemesis, Donald Trump.
“So they are a very much an insulated cadre of people who think they’re right, and they have a hard time with people who are different,” he said, adding later that “they threw me out the door, so this doesn’t surprise me at all.”
“I think what you’re seeing now, especially after Trump, is that we live in a very polarized media landscape, and they have established a beachhead on the far left,” Williams said.
Edith Chapin, the editor-in-chief and acting chief content officer of NPR News, defended her newsroom from Berliner’s criticism, saying they “strongly disagree” with the assessment.
“I and my colleagues on the leadership team strongly disagree with Uri’s assessment of the quality of our journalism and the integrity of our newsroom processes,” Chapin wrote. “We’re proud to stand behind the exceptional work that our desks and shows do to cover a wide range of challenging stories.”
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