Dozens of National Public Radio (NPR) employees signed on to a letter suggesting that their now-former senior business editor Uri Berliner was spot on in his assessment of the liberal bias that has taken over the network.
New York Times media reporter Ben Mullin shared screenshots of the letter, addressed to CEO Katherine Maher and Editor in Chief Edith Chapin, which claimed that Berliner’s essay in The Free Press had left many of them feeling as though they’d been personally attacked.
“About 50 NPR employees sign a letter to CEO Katherine Maher and top editor Edith Chapin calling for, among other things, a public rebuke of the ‘factual inaccuracies and elisions’ in Uri Berliner’s Free Press essay,” Mullin’s caption read.
new: About 50 NPR employees sign a letter to CEO Katherine Maher and top editor Edith Chapin calling for, among other things, a public rebuke of the “factual inaccuracies and elisions” in Uri Berliner’s Free Press essay. pic.twitter.com/jXc1R4J0G3
— Ben Mullin (@BenMullin) April 17, 2024
“We’re writing to urge stronger support for staff who have had their journalistic expertise called into question by one of their own in a public forum,” the letter read. “We also urge more transparency regarding the consequences of making unauthorized public comments that seek to change NPR’s editorial direction.”
The letter went on to say that while both Chapin and Maher had shared their objections to Berliner’s claims — namely that the outlet been wholly disinterested in presenting stories that might hurt President Joe Biden or help former President Donald Trump — the employees were concerned that their efforts to spur policy changes through Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) initiatives were being undermined by Berliner’s public comments.
“Staff, many from marginalized backgrounds, have pushed for internal policy changes through mechanisms like the DEI accountability committee, sharing of affinity group guidelines, and an ad-hoc content review group,” they wrote, complaining that Berliner was getting more attention and apparent change from a short essay than they had after years of work.
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Their concern on that point, they said, was that others within the network might get the idea that a pointed editorial was more effective at forcing change than going through proper channels.
They also complained that Berliner’s essay had “made their jobs harder” and called on Maher and Chapin to clearly “offer public support and defense of those individuals whose work was directly undermined by the opinion piece.”