Recently long-time National Public Radio veteran Uri Berliner made headlines when he published a lengthy critique of how, in his view, the publicly funded news and entertainment outlet had become an echo chamber of an almost exclusively progressive worldview, largely by having hired nearly exclusively progressive employees. This assertion has since been met with intense pushback, both from NPR CEO Katherine Maher as well as many of the rank-and-file employees of NPR. Despite all of the angry complaints from inside NPR it had appeared that no disciplinary action was going to take place against Berliner, but today we learned that as of last Friday Uri Berliner has been suspended from his duties at the NPR Business desk.
Senior @NPR editor @uberliner has been suspended from the public radio network he's served for 25 years after sharing concerns about bias in The Free Press: https://t.co/EclQJO838a pic.twitter.com/mEfJu0rg1a
— The Free Press (@TheFP) April 16, 2024
NPR itself has also published a news article about the internal action:
Veteran NPR editor Uri Berliner suspended as network grapples with fallout over his essay - my story https://t.co/8kCOUCShqm
— David Folkenflik (@davidfolkenflik) April 16, 2024
According to NPR's telling Berliner has been suspended for five days since this past Friday, which seems like a relatively light punishment given the firestorm that erupted around the piece by Berliner at the time of its publication. Of course, when you dig into NPR's telling of the story the real sin of the Berliner's piece was that it 'gave fresh ammunition to conservative and partisan Republican critics of NPR, including former President Donald Trump', so it's blatantly clear that the executives and staff of NPR haven't learned a darned thing from this entire debacle and are just mad that people know about what's going on behind the walls of the (again, publicly funded) organization. The suspension is for (again, quoting from the article), 'fail(ing) to secure its approval for outside work for other news outlets, as is required of NPR journalists', despite Berliner having repeatedly stated that he went to the Free Press with his story because his internal complaints about the issues that he saw within the organization had apparently fallen on deaf and disinterested ears.
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Something tipped Uri over the edge. Let him have his say.
— Heather Champion (@winningatmylife) April 16, 2024
Nothing screams "non-partisan" like suspending the guy that called you partisan.
— The Middle Aged Baby (@MiddleAgedBaby2) April 16, 2024
Will he be paraded on a stage and be forced to beg for mercy while his family denounces him in their own struggle sessions? ;)
— The Stranger (@eviljinious1) April 16, 2024
Seems a bit much perhaps, but we wouldn't be surprised if they haven't already started making Berliner and other heterodox thinkers to the NPR 'worldview' sit in for a few 'Two Minutes Hate' sessions.
I hope you realize how bad this looks to the general public, a truth teller exposes NPR's bias and instead of responding directly to the legitimate criticism NPR suspends the individual who told the truth and doesn't directly respond to ANY of his constructive criticism.
— Jeff A 🧙♂️ (@Mithrandir48) April 16, 2024
NPR is a federally funded activist organization that serves a tiny slice of affluent, overwhelmingly white progressives who live in a bubble cut off from how the rest of Americans live.
— Florida Man V - Chappelle/Rogan 2024 (@FloridaManV) April 16, 2024
It should serve all Americans, not just rich white ones.
So, it looks like NPR has chosen the path of doing the same thing and doubling down on woke leftist religion and enforcing leftist religious orthodoxy using our tax dollars.#DefundNPR needs to be on Trump's todo list in 2025
— $8 Bartemy (@BartemyS) April 16, 2024
NPR, for its part, often makes the claim when this is brought up that very little of its budget comes from federal funding, despite others frequently pointing out how misleading this claim is.
So just to be clear, official government radio has punished one of its employees for engaging in free expression protected by the first amendment.
— (((Aaron Walker))) (@AaronWorthing) April 16, 2024
I hope @uberliner sues them for every public dollar they get https://t.co/mfVInTOBXl
NPR did some soul searching and found the guy who told the truth about what NPR has become was the problem. https://t.co/Wq06ZkVRSU
— Stephen L. Miller (@redsteeze) April 16, 2024
Their response to him saying dissent isn’t tolerated at NPR was to suspend him for criticizing their political agenda.
— Sunny (@sunnyright) April 16, 2024
Taxpayer-funded. https://t.co/g79xp3L5lq
Again, for now it appears that Berliner's 'punishment' has been relatively light... but we wouldn't bet the farm on this being the only punishment that Katherine Maher metes out before this is all over. From the looks of it doesn't appear that Uri Berliner is the type who's going to quiet down and just keep his head down to keep his job, so we'll see how things turn out on this. This is a story that it seems almost inevitable will keep chugging along.
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