NPR Suspends Whistleblower Who Exposed Network’s Extreme Progressive Bias

Supposedly objective news agency retaliates against longtime staffer for exposing network’s radical left-wing slant.

NPR has suspended a senior editor without pay after he issued scathing criticisms of the newsroom’s politically biased reporting, calling them out for skewing too far left.

The liberal network, which receives taxpayer funds from the federal government, announced Tuesday it had “punished” veteran reporter Uri Berliner with a five-day suspension over an essay published at The Free Press earlier this month.

“It angered many of his colleagues, led NPR leaders to announce monthly internal reviews of the network’s coverage, and gave fresh ammunition to conservative and partisan Republican critics of NPR, including former President Donald Trump,” NPR wrote in an article announcing Berliner’s suspension Tuesday.

One notable criticique came from conservative Manhattan Institute Senior Fellow Christopher Rufo, who dug up old tweets from NPR’s new CEO Katherine Maher showing she suffers a severe case of Trump Derangement Syndrome.

Here Maher is referring to Trump as a “deranged racist sociopath.”

She praised BLM looting and destruction of private property.

Here was her tweet when Biden “won”:

She also promoted the notions of white guilt and white privilege:

Maher pushed back after her old tweets resurfaced in a statement Monday, saying, “In America everyone is entitled to free speech as a private citizen… 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.”

Speaking to NPR, Berliner, who initially believed Maher could do well, admitted she’s probably not right for the job.

“We’re looking for a leader right now who’s going to be unifying and bring more people into the tent and have a broader perspective on, sort of, what America is all about,” Berliner said. “And this seems to be the opposite of that.”

In his Free Press article, Berliner noted progressive far left ideologies were compromising the newsroom’s supposed commitment to unbiased journalism.

He wrote:

It’s true NPR has always had a liberal bent, but during most of my tenure here, an open-minded, curious culture prevailed. We were nerdy, but not knee-jerk, activist, or scolding. 

In recent years, however, that has changed. Today, those who listen to NPR or read its coverage online find something different: the distilled worldview of a very small segment of the U.S. population. 

He also criticized the network for its skewed reporting on “Russiagate,” refusing to report on the damning but “newsworthy” Hunter Biden laptop saga, and missing the boat on the Covid-19 lab leak theory.

He also noted that the entire newsroom voted Democrat.

“Concerned by the lack of viewpoint diversity, I looked at voter registration for our newsroom. In D.C., where NPR is headquartered and many of us live, I found 87 registered Democrats working in editorial positions and zero Republicans. None.”

NPR suspended Berliner last Thursday claiming he broke a rule requiring reporters to obtain permission before reporting for a different outlet, and threatened him with termination if he repeated the offense.

The network notes, “Berliner is a dues-paying member of NPR’s newsroom union but says he is not appealing the punishment,” however, thus far the union doesn’t appear to be coming to his aid.