NPR Defends Its Journalism After Senior Editor Says It Has Lost The Publics Trust

[TTL News 308]

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Berliner is a senior editor on NPR's Business Desk. (Disclosure: I, too, am part of the Business Desk, and Berliner has edited many of my past stories. He did not see any version of this article or participate in its preparation before it was posted publicly.)

Berliner's essay, titled "I've Been at NPR for 25 years. Here's How We Lost America's Trust," was published by The Free Press, a website that has welcomed journalists who have concluded that mainstream news outlets have become reflexively liberal.

Berliner writes that as a Subaru-driving, Sarah Lawrence College graduate who "was raised by a lesbian peace activist mother," he fits the mold of a loyal NPR fan.

Yet Berliner says NPR's news coverage has fallen short on some of the most controversial stories of recent years, from the question of whether former President Donald Trump colluded with Russia in the 2016 election, to the origins of the virus that causes COVID-19, to the significance and provenance of emails leaked from a laptop owned by Hunter Biden weeks before the 2020 election. In addition, he blasted NPR's coverage of the Israel-Hamas conflict.

On each of these stories, Berliner asserts, NPR has suffered from groupthink due to too little diversity of viewpoints in the newsroom.

 

Read the rest here. 

What do you think?

[Chris 2,162]

I listen to WSKG radio every day and, yeah, I can hear a bias of NPR. It’s not as in your face as CNN or FOX, but it’s there.

[MsKreed 1,182]

13 hours ago, TTL News said:

Berliner writes that as a Subaru-driving, Sarah Lawrence College graduate who "was raised by a lesbian peace activist mother," he fits the mold of a loyal NPR fan.

🤣

Nailed it!

[Chris 2,162]

You can read his entire article here. I highly reccomend it. The author makes several very valid points and things that I have noticed as a regular listener in the mornings.

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There’s an unspoken consensus about the stories we should pursue and how they should be framed. It’s frictionless—one story after another about instances of supposed racism, transphobia, signs of the climate apocalypse, Israel doing something bad, and the dire threat of Republican policies. It’s almost like an assembly line. 

The mindset prevails in choices about language. In a document called NPR Transgender Coverage Guidance—disseminated by news management—we’re asked to avoid the term biological sex. (The editorial guidance was prepared with the help of a former staffer of the National Center for Transgender Equality.) The mindset animates bizarre stories—on how The Beatles and bird names are racially problematic, and others that are alarmingly divisive; justifying looting, with claims that fears about crime are racist; and suggesting that Asian Americans who oppose affirmative action have been manipulated by white conservatives.

More recently, we have approached the Israel-Hamas war and its spillover onto streets and campuses through the “intersectional” lens that has jumped from the faculty lounge to newsrooms. Oppressor versus oppressed. That’s meant highlighting the suffering of Palestinians at almost every turn while downplaying the atrocities of October 7, overlooking how Hamas intentionally puts Palestinian civilians in peril, and giving little weight to the explosion of antisemitic hate around the world. 

 

Those two bolded parts are bolded by me for emphasis. Both instances I heard this discussed and was like, "What the actual f--k are these people on about?"

Every story is given a slant based on race or sexual orientation, like they're actively looking for any way that any particular group is "affected disproportionately"

And you are almost guaranteed a daily reminder of how bad the people of Gaza have it thanks to Israel, but rarely are the atrocities committed by Hamas mentioned. Ot how those affected by it directly or otherwise are holding up. The coverage is very one sided. 

[TTL News 308]

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CNN — NPR has suspended the senior business editor who penned a scathing online essay claiming the radio network had “lost America’s trust” by embracing a “progressive worldview,” prompting fierce right-wing backlash and calls to defund the public radio network.

NPR’s David Folkenflik reported on Tuesday that Uri Berliner’s five-day suspension without pay began last Friday. In a written letter notifying Berliner of the suspension, the network said he did not first seek approval for work in other outlets, as is required by NPR. It described the notice as a “final warning,” stating Berliner would be fired if he violated NPR’s policy again, Folkenflik reported.

An NPR spokeswoman told CNN the outlet “does not comment on individual personnel matters, including discipline.” Berliner did not immediately respond to a CNN request for comment.

 

Read more here.

[Chris 2,162]

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A senior editor at a public broadcaster in the United States who accused his employer of liberal bias, igniting heated debate about standards in journalism, has resigned.

Uri Berliner, an editor with National Public Radio (NPR), announced his resignation on Wednesday just over a week after he published an essay accusing the outlet of being fixated on race and identity and lacking “viewpoint diversity”.

“I am resigning from NPR, a great American institution where I have worked for 25 years. I don’t support calls to defund NPR. I respect the integrity of my colleagues and wish for NPR to thrive and do important journalism,” Berliner said in a resignation letter posted on X.

 

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