NPR Editor Resigns Amid Blowback Surrounding Critical Essay

After making a splash with his bombshell article about his employer’s increasingly left-wing bias, long-time NPR editor Uri Berliner has reportedly turned in his resignation.

As he chronicled in a piece published earlier this month by The Free Press, the taxpayer-subsidized radio network, which has long been accused of fostering anti-conservative viewpoints, has lurched even further to the left in recent years. 

“It’s true NPR has always had a liberal bent, but during most of my tenure here, an open-minded, curious culture prevailed,” Berliner wrote. “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.”

His assessment sparked renewed calls among many prominent conservatives to defund NPR while drawing the wrath of his superiors.

A whistleblower who worked at NPR for 25 years revealed how this taxpayer-funded media outlet became a left-wing activist organization.

Take a listen to this shocking audio that reveals NPR's baseless efforts to smear President Trump 👇https://t.co/kCZaflXjcI pic.twitter.com/kpHls8UWJI

— Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) April 12, 2024

Reports soon surfaced that Berliner had been placed on a five-day unpaid suspension for his remarks. He sat down for an interview with NPR’s David Folkenflik on Monday during which he expounded on his concerns — including those related to Katherine Maher, who recently became the company’s CEO. 

“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,” he said. “And this seems to be the opposite of that.”

Maher, whose record of leftist opinions have come to light in the wake of Berliner’s critical article, also issued a public statement on the matter.

“In America everyone is entitled to free speech as a private citizen,” she claimed, despite suspending Berliner after he shared his opinion on a site that happened to be called The Free Press. “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.”

Upon submitting his resignation, Berliner issued one final statement aimed at his now-former boss.

“I am resigning from NPR, a great American institution where I have worked for 25 years,” he wrote. “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. But I cannot work in a newsroom where I am disparaged by a new CEO whose divisive views confirm the very problems at NPR I cite in my Free Press essay.”