NPR suspends journalist who publicly accused network of liberal bias

Playing right into the “cancel culture” characterization of progressives.

They pretty much proved his criticism was correct.

Do not step out of line while everyone else is goose-stepping.

I mean surely he understood the consequences (which are slap on the wrist) when he took that risk. Even workers at McDonalds know you can’t discuss company business without going through appropriate channels. I work in finance at a company that is frequently in the news. We have to take a course every year that reminds us not to talk to the press.

That’s not why he’s being punished, r3. “Berliner was told by management last week that he violated company policy by failing to secure its approval to supply work for other news outlets” I wonder if that rule is generally enforced.

Berliner is pissed that NPR isn’t toeing the Zionist line on Israel. It is evident that his real intention was not to be plainly unbiased in his criticisms because the with one breath he bemoans NPR going hyper woke, and in the next that NPR has shuttered four podcasts and fired employees while failing to mention that the four podcasts were the four “wokest” on the entire roster.

He wasn’t operating in good faith, he was trying to push a personal agenda fueled by his Zionism.

“Fueled by his Zionism”

“Dirty Jew!”

FIFY

I’m sure he expected this. Criticizing from within is always a problem. If you want to hear about BIPOC, immigrants, trans and nonbinary issues and Gaza, it’s your destination of choice. You can play NPR bingo. A story about a black nonbinary migrant with relatives in Gaza is a Bingo. All done in the same voice by someone who graduated from an elite school and has parents with great jobs or inherited wealth.

If you are correct, r5, he would not be alone in being alone in being shocked into a reassessment of the state of progressive ideology by the exposure of its antisemitism. Those who were content to humor the oppressor/victim dichotomy when it meant “calling out white men for their privilege” and other silliness are rightfully appalled when it justifies terrorism and excuses Hamas on the grounds that Arabs are the oppressed and Jews are the oppressors. Seeing a complex problem reduced to brown/good— white/bad has opened a lot of eyes.

Balance to the Berliner article.

“ decline in NPR’s audience levels is due to a move toward liberal political advocacy ”

In the circles I hang out in, NPR gives too much credence to conservative views, along the lines of the NYT’s “how X is bad for Biden”.

I only listen to the classical music half now.

Wait. Wait. Don’t Fuck With Me.

I think the previous DL thread on this subject was disappeared

I get a little tired of so many hours of programming being devoted to one racial or ethnic group or another. I'd prefer to turn it on and actually hear some news of general interest, but the weekends seem devoted to every minority getting it's own hour to complain about being oppressed. Too bad the Car Talk guys aren't around/alive anymore. That was funny and of general interest, even if you didn't own a car.

R13, that’s your local NPR affiliate. They get to choose what programs they air and when. On the weekends my affiliate plays stuff like Wait Wait, The Splendid Table, The New Yorker Radio Hour, The People’s Pharmacy, Sound Opinions, On The Media, and Revealed.

R14, that's interesting. Here in Chicago, it seems like it's all Latino USA, It's Been a Minute, etc., at least at the prime hours when I'm running errands on Saturday and Sunday mornings.

Easy mark, white male, likely hetro. This is poor optics for NPR. The real statement is " we do not allow diversity in thought" which one would think is their primary mission. Their listener base is dwindling, the core demographic now does not have the income to support the pledge drives..

I remember when Nina Totenberg got caught lying about Sotomayor and Gorsuch and the two justices came together to debunk Totenberg’s story. I’m sure she was surprised to get pushback for making stuff up, but she responded in the NPR way by saying the organization stood by the reporting, instead of apologizing and promising to do better. Totenberg faced no consequences at NPR and she knew she wouldn’t, which is what emboldens her.

If NPR stood by the story, I doubt she was “caught lying.”

Totenberg and NPR were fortunate that the SC wouldn’t sue like Dominion Voting Systems sued Fox News. However, knowing that people in government won’t sue (or at least won’t succeed), plays a big part in journalists considering what they can get away with.

Is THIS what you’re talking about? Who would sue over such a trivial story?

On Wednesday, Sotomayor and Gorsuch issued a statement saying that she did not ask him to wear a mask. NPR's report did not say that she did. Then, the chief justice issued a statement saying he "did not request Justice Gorsuch or any other justice to wear a mask on the bench." The NPR report said the chief justice's ask to the justices had come "in some form."

NPR stands by its reporting.

R17 shows his bias when he says she was "caught lying". The court was clearly parsing words about Sotomayor and Roberts not specifically "asking" Gorsuch to wear a mask and they issued their "denial" to keep the peace. If I say "I'm working from home if my coworkers won't wear masks" and one holdout won't wear one, I can say I didn't "ask" them to wear a mask - I just based my own behavior on theirs. Totenberg got caught in the middle.

r13, when I was working in the Boston area for a few months, I really liked their programming. They had an interesting program called, "The Hidden Brain" and for nostalgia, "The Prairie Home Companion".

You can listen to the NPR stations from all over the US streaming online. Even old Car Talk episodes (last I checked).

He's resigned:

Are you still listening to NPR everyday usually morning edition on my way to work and in the mornings at work and then throughout the day and listened all the things considered on the way home. Even on the weekends I usually almost always had our NPR station on all day. But right about 6 or 7 years ago it just became unbearable with its constant need to beat The germ of oppressed minorities which I believe is important to cover but every single story had to be told through the lens of how it affects people of color more than anybody else.

Also pushing terms like latinx and garbage like that turned me off as well.

*self congratulatory NPR listeners like this* 👍

From the new CEO’s response, it sure sounds like a place that does not tolerate dissent.

[quote] Though Ms. Maher didn’t mention Mr. Berliner by name, she put out a statement days after his essay ran in The Free Press, a popular Substack publication, saying that questioning whether NPR journalists are serving our mission with integrity is “profoundly disrespectful, hurtful, and demeaning.”

“You hurt our feelings!”

[quote]On Monday, conservative activists resurfaced years old social media posts by current NPR Chief Executive Katherine Maher, in which she expressed her disdain for former President Trump. In one 2020 post, she called Trump a racist.

Speaking plain truth is now liberal bias?

Her statements were not the cause of his complaints.

Fox is looking for talented magats and CNN too

The other thread regarding this topic was nuked by Muriel.

R31 Do you know why, or was it just the usual plunge into the anti-trans-Israel-Palestine blind alley?

I don't know why. The conversation was toxic but not extraordinarily so. I stay the hell out of the Israel conversation and sidestep most trans threads.

I know who won’t throw me off a building and I know authenticity doesn’t need to be advertised.

I miss the old NPR, including Jonathan Schwartz on Sundays. The stories seemed credible and the hosts had soothing voices. Now it’s all upspeak and vocal fry.

Indeed r35, I miss the standard radio enunciation and neutral accent.

Katherine Maher, the newly installed chief executive of National Public Radio, said she sought to crack down on the “free and open” ethos at her previous job running Wikipedia because it was based on a “white male Westernized construct” that led to “exclusion of communities and languages.”

Maher, whose “woke” social media posts came to light following the damning essay written by former NPR journalist Uri Berliner about rampant liberal bias at the outlet, made the comments in a video unearthed by Christopher Rufo, an author and researcher at the Manhattan Institute.

Berliner, who penned a lengthy indictment of NPR last week in Bari Weiss’ online publication The Free Press, resigned from NPR on Wednesday after he accused Maher of having “disparaged” him while espousing “divisive” views that “confirm the very problems at NPR I cite in my Free Press essay.”

Prior to her being named CEO at NPR late last month, Maher, 41, was CEO of the Wikimedia Foundation, the San Francisco-based nonprofit that hosts Wikipedia, the free, open-content online encyclopedia which is one of the most visited web sites in the world.

In an interview that was cited by Rufo, Maher said that the idea of “free and open” was “recapitulating many of the same power structures and dynamics that existed offline prior to the advent of the internet.”

Maher said that the “free and open” approach was problematic because it resulted in the “exclusion of communities and languages” where “the idea of a written tradition is [not] particular [to them].”

She said that “the way in which we ascribe notability which comes from this white male Westernized construct” is how society determines “who matters” and “whose voice is elevated.”

“Radical openness did not end up living into the intentionality of what openness can be,” Maher said.

Elon Musk, the Tesla CEO, scoffed at Maher’s comments about “free and open” Wikipedia, writing on his X account: “That’s literally the point of Wikipedia.”

Larry Sanger, who co-founded Wikipedia alongside Jimmy Wales in 2001, has said that the site can no longer be trusted because it has been taken over by left-wing “volunteers” who cut out news that doesn’t fit their agenda.

Rufo on Wednesday posted another video of comments Maher made during the Atlantic Council’s 360/Open Summit in 2021.

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.

People, anyone who works for a decent-sized, decently run enterprise is never allowed to speak publicly about their company without approval to do so.

It’s a fireable offense pretty much everywhere.

And to bad-mouth them? Yeah, you’re fired.

[quote] People, anyone who works for a decent-sized, decently run enterprise is never allowed to speak publicly about their company without approval to do so.

Do you understand what whistleblowing is?

Congress should provide legal protection to whistleblowers in the news industry.

Was listening to an NPR story about the AZ abortion decision. After about the 2nd or third reference to “pregnant people”, I changed the station. The comments section of the NYT story about the whistleblower were running heavily against NPR, surprisingly. Apparently nothing but gender, race and Gaza stories has even Times readers tuning out.

More authoritarian left-wing fascism.

Whistleblowing is going to the appropriate authorities to report a crime.

It’s not trashing your employer in the press.

It’s not remotely the same.

[quote] Whistleblowing is going to the appropriate authorities to report a crime.

You’re referring only to whistleblowing related to a crime. Whistleblowing can be for any wrongdoing.

[quote] Whistleblowing (also whistle-blowing or whistle blowing) is the activity of a person, often an employee, revealing information about activity within a private or public organization that is deemed illegal, immoral, illicit, unsafe or fraudulent. Whistleblowers can use a variety of internal or external channels to communicate information or allegations. Over 83% of whistleblowers report internally to a supervisor, human resources, compliance, or a neutral third party within the company, hoping that the company will address and correct the issues. A whistleblower can also bring allegations to light by communicating with external entities, such as the media, government, or law enforcement.

As a whistleblower, Berliner did the right thing by communicating outside the company, knowing that NPR would have buried the allegations.

You’re wrong.

Thank God we have Fox News and the 5 who are Fair and Balanced and never get criticized by our own listeners like you silly Libs even in the face of 787 million lawsuit for pushing false info and voting machines.

Interesting that this happened during fund drive season.

Federal funding to NPR is laundered through the Corporation for Public Broadcasting which then passes around the loot.

Why is taxpayer money being spent to maintain a 𝘭𝘪𝘣𝘦𝘳𝘢𝘭 𝘱𝘰𝘭𝘪𝘵𝘪𝘤𝘢𝘭 𝘢𝘥𝘷𝘰𝘤𝘢𝘤𝘺 𝘤𝘢𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘰 “𝘢 𝘥𝘪𝘴𝘵𝘪𝘭𝘭𝘦𝘥 𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘭𝘥𝘷𝘪𝘦𝘸 𝘰𝘧 𝘢 𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘺 𝘴𝘮𝘢𝘭𝘭 𝘴𝘦𝘨𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘵 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘜.𝘚. 𝘱𝘰𝘱𝘶𝘭𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯.”

R45, Fox News is private.

NPR purports to be public, and it receives government funding for serving largely as a propaganda for progressivism.

It is no longer a serious news service.

#47, the same reason my gay tax dollars fund your kids' Christian charter schools?

Never say anything against the kgb.

While it's virtually impossible to report without some sort of bias, this does raise an interesting question for me.

Is it the responsibility of journalists to report facts with as little bias as possible or to report with a diversity of opinions.

Is it necessary to report the fact - the 8oz glass contains 4oz of water - then report that some people view it as half full while others view it as half empty? Or is it merely sufficient to report that the glass is filled to the halfway point?

Does it represent a reporting bias to not that the glass filled to the halfway point is insufficient to quench a person's thirst or is that merely factual?

While I do believe that good journalism includes alternate interpretations of facts when that variety adds context or when the conflicting interpretations are, in fact, the story, I don't believe it's necessary to provide diversity of opinions purely for the sake of it. That's how we ended up in the absurd reporting in the last two elections.

NPR is nothing but reports about microagressions, pronouns, and appropriation. It’s a complete joke.

Ich bin Uri Berliner!

I agree, r52, and hate it for that reason. But Berliner's critique was more like "NPR didn't give the Hunter Biden story that serious attention that it deserved!" "NPR did not credit Trump for his many wins while in office!" I so, so wanted to like his essay, but it was just not that good. I don't think any credible media outlet reported on the things that he felt NPR should have. Maybe in retrospect they were mistakes, but that's not why people are tuning out NPR.

“Billy Carter should have been jailed for Billy Beer” “Jared should have influenced peddled 2 Billion from every country he visited”

It’s all the same, for christsakes 🤷🏻‍♂️

"Left, Right and Center" is the only program from NPR that providing an alternative view. Originating at KCRW, buried at 6:00AM on Saturday or Sunday, when they don't want you to hear it. Berliner said of the more than 80 employees at NPR, there are no Republicans. Because of their bias, MSNBC in the industry is known as "Dem S NBC"

Ick! Uri Beliner

NPR receives less than one percent of its budget through federal funding.

Nice try.

What does he say about FUCKS NEWS? Fair? Even?? AM Talk Radio???

R51, you clearly never listen to it, but, sure, go ahead and pretend you’re an expert.

R57, again, that’s your local NPR affiliate’s choice. It airs at 9pm on Tuesday night in my area.

National Pravda Radio

The comparison to Pravda is beyond retarded. In what way does NPR spread the US government's POV? NPR is the point of view of overeducated, underemployed white ladies who think their lifestyle choices "make a difference."

R48, Fox News is private.....NPR purports to be public,

Irrelevant, since they both claim to be part of the public conversion and Fox NEWS even more influence since they have the largest percent of viewers of all the networks. Not to mention they call themselves NEWS.

It is not irrelevant, r65.

NPR has PUBLIC in its name and receives government funding, which may constitute a small slice of their operating budget but which they fight like hell to maintain whenever it’s questioned.

MSNBC is also biased toward progressives, but that isn’t the same issue as NPR. MSNBC a private entity; moreover, it owns its bias, for the most part, just as FOX does on the right.

R66, you’re arguing as if the premise that NPR has an obvious bias is established fact, unassailable truth.

Berliner’s essay, nor the posts on this thread suggesting similar, have been persuasive arguments based on fact. That’s why they haven’t been a big story, or any story really, other than his resigning.

His whole premise, like most Trump cultists and extremist Republicans, is that Liberalism is a VERY BAD THING that must be eradicated, which is obviously bullshit.

It’s just as valid a world view as any other, if not more so.

[quote]His whole premise, like most Trump cultists and extremist Republicans, is that Liberalism is a VERY BAD THING that must be eradicated, which is obviously bullshit.

Complete fail. That wasn't his premise at all. You pulled that out of your ass.

FUCKS NEWS is also “legally entertainment” and not actually news

[quote] you’re arguing as if the premise that NPR has an obvious bias is established fact, unassailable truth

This can be verified by anybody who listens to NPRs schedule for even a week, much less for years.

R71, I disagree. I listen to my local affiliate regularly and have for years and I don’t see all the rampant , open bias you claim.

As I have pointed out several times in this thread to people who complain about the overwhelming wokeness of NPR, it’s all about the local NPR affiliate. They chose and play the programming they think will appeal to their audience. My local affiliate, WUNC, doesn’t play all of the shows everyone has complained about here. Hell, a significant portion of the programming WUNC plays isn’t even produced by NPR, but rather PRX.

Be all of that as it may, the news programming of NPR like Morning Edition and All Things Considered are some of the only news I see that regularly have both sides on, interviewing Republicans as often as Democrats, even though the Republicans often aren’t able to be held to account for openly lying because NPR, in its wisdom, doesn’t even believe in calling obvious untruths “lies” because they can’t be sure the person knows the truth and thus is knowingly spreading misinformation.

PBS NewsHour is probably the best news outlet in the US. It has none of the grating lifestyle pieces that make NPR so fucking annoying.

The rCorporation for Public Broadcasting will receive $535 million in FY2025, an increase from the $525 million it will get in FY24. CPB's base appropriation is funded two years in advance of the annual federal budget process. The corporation asked for $565 million in March 2022.

Balanced does not mean giving equal time and attention to crackpot ideas and unsupported allegations.

It is NOT editorial bias when one side spouts nonsense and you refuse to report it.

R74, you’ll notice that more than 75% of the money the CPB administers goes to public tv and is justified by the fact that 70% of those stations are in rural “news deserts” that are not served, or underserved, by for-profit broadcast television. Because of this funding, 99% of Americans have free access to PBS.

I can’t imagine that any rational person would say that Sesame Street should be defunded due to rampant “woke-ism”.