National Propaganda Radio

When longtime National Public Radio employee Uri Berliner came out with a piece detailing its insufferable left wing bias, the essay was more a confirmation than a revelation. But it was a noteworthy post nonetheless given it was penned by someone on the inside who admittedly "fit the NPR mode." 

While I've always believed it's possible for employees of a news organization to simultaneously have deeply held beliefs and report with impartiality on events which may undermine said beliefs, the election of Donald J. Trump as President shattered that ability in many. Berliner cited the Trump years as the point of no return for NPR. 

As in many newsrooms, his election in 2016 was greeted at NPR with a mixture of disbelief, anger, and despair. (Just to note, I eagerly voted against Trump twice but felt we were obliged to cover him fairly.) But what began as tough, straightforward coverage of a belligerent, truth-impaired president veered toward efforts to damage or topple Trump’s presidency.

Persistent rumors that the Trump campaign colluded with Russia over the election became the catnip that drove reporting. At NPR, we hitched our wagon to Trump’s most visible antagonist, Representative Adam Schiff.

Schiff, who was the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, became NPR’s guiding hand, its ever-present muse. By my count, NPR hosts interviewed Schiff 25 times about Trump and Russia. During many of those conversations, Schiff alluded to purported evidence of collusion. The Schiff talking points became the drumbeat of NPR news reports.

But when the Mueller report found no credible evidence of collusion, NPR’s coverage was notably sparse. Russiagate quietly faded from our programming.

Shortly after his piece was published, Berliner was suspended by NPR. I'm going to guess the excerpt where he suggested his org had an obligation to cover Trump fairly is what likely caused execs to react in a way which bore resemblance to the Linda Blair character's head-spinning projectile vomiting in the film The Exorcist. 

In the days following Berliner's suspension, he was maligned by management and employees to the point where he realized there was no coming back. As such, he tendered his resignation on Wednesday. 

My resignation letter to NPR CEO @krmaher pic.twitter.com/0hafVbcZAK

— Uri Berliner (@uberliner) April 17, 2024

In the event you're curious about the worldview of NPR CEO Katherine Maher, here are a couple of her greatest hits. 

EXCLUSIVE: Katherine Maher says the "the number one challenge" in her fight against disinformation is "the First Amendment in the United States," which makes it "a little bit tricky" to censor "bad information" and "the influence peddlers" who spread it.

NPR's censor-in-chief. pic.twitter.com/0vY6hIpbmO

— Christopher F. Rufo ⚔️ (@realchrisrufo) April 17, 2024

 

NPR’s far-left CEO Katherine Maher: "Our reverence for the truth might be a distraction that’s getting in the way of finding common ground and getting things done." pic.twitter.com/yuFCKBjzjT

— Ben Kew (@ben_kew) April 17, 2024

I'm really having a tough time imagining a sane world where the top exec of a major news organization (one which is funded by the American taxpayers to boot) insinuates that truth and the First Amendment are barriers to their agenda. 

As Jim Geraghty of National Review points out, NPR will likely ride out the storm and then just go about business as usual. 

There’s something a bit refreshing, if depressing, about the way NPR responded to 25-year veteran Uri Berliner’s comprehensive indictment of his employer, published in The Free Press: NPR management denied all of his accusations and suspended him for a week, and then he resigned. “I cannot work in a newsroom where I am disparaged by the new CEO whose divisive views confirm the very problems at NPR I cite in my Free Press essay,” he said.

Chris Rufo has gone through the Twitter feed of NPR CEO Katherine Maher and found her to be a platonic ideal of left-wing, “woke,” progressive orthodoxy, sprinkled with corporate buzzwords.

This time at NPR, there is no rubbing of the chin, furrowed brows, or begrudging concession that the critic has a point, and that they must do better. Nope, NPR’s management thinks they’re doing a terrific job, and they don’t see any reason to change. In their minds, the true villain of this story is Berliner, for criticizing his employer in another publication. (Admittedly, very few employers are big fans of that move.)

I mean, if decrepit nonagenarian hack Dan Rather can have his career rehabbed, NPR surely can find a way to clear this hurdle. You know they'll have plenty of accomplices/allies in the agenda-driven media circuit. 

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