NPR whistleblower finds new gig after exposing alleged liberal bias at taxpayer-funded outlet
Former NPR editor Uri Berliner, who left the organization after exposing alleged liberal bias, has found a new gig at the same outlet where he blew the whistle on NPR's problems.
"I’m joining The Free Press because it provides America with groundbreaking, fearless, and independent-minded journalism. I’m inspired to join this team," Berliner said in a statement published on Tuesday.
Berliner resigned in April after he was suspended for not getting approval for outside work for other outlets, concerning a Free Press essay lambasting NPR’s coverage of Russiagate, the COVID lab leak theory, Hunter Biden’s aptop, and other polarizing topics.
The Free Press was founded by ex-New York Times opinion editor Bari Weiss, who also called out liberal bias at her former employer before going independent. Weiss' 2020 resignation letter painted the Times as a toxic workplace where she was bullied by colleagues in an "illiberal environment."
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Berliner was initially suspended in April for five days without pay before deciding to resign.
Berliner’s claims about NPR rocked the media industry, as he wrote that his then-employer drifted from only being "a bit to the left" in 2011 to its current form, where he said an "open-minded spirit no longer exists." He wrote that NPR’s "absence of viewpoint diversity" plagued the company and the claims sparked calls from the right to defund NPR.
Berliner will be a senior editor of The Free Press.
"We’re lucky to have him," Weiss wrote.
NPR editor-in-chief Edith Chapin previously said she and her team "strongly disagree" with Berliner’s assessment of the quality of NPR's journalism and integrity.
"We’re proud to stand behind the exceptional work that our desks and shows do to cover a wide range of challenging stories. We believe that inclusion — among our staff, with our sourcing, and in our overall coverage — is critical to telling the nuanced stories of this country and our world," she wrote as part of a lengthy memo in April.
Amid the furor over Berliner's revelations, resurfaced social media posts from new NPR President and CEO Katherine Maher revealed a strong progressive tilt.