(Dmytro “Henry” Aleksandrov, Headline USA) NPR has suspended Senior Business Editor Uri Berliner after he publicly accused the network of spreading far-left rhetoric in an essay that began a media firestorm.
Berliner received a letter last week that informed him that he would be suspended without pay beginning Apr. 12, 2024, NPR’s media correspondent David Folkenflik wrote in his report.
Berliner was told that he failed to follow NPR’s rules and get approval for outside work for other news outlets after the Free Press published his essay and follow-up interviews.
Additionally, Berliner was accused of publicly releasing proprietary information about audience demographics that NPR considered confidential, the report said.
Berliner would be fired for another policy violation, the letter, which was called a “final warning,” said.
Berliner, a dues-paying member of NPR’s newsroom union, told Folkenflik that he would not appeal the punishment by the far-left network.
He also claimed the figures discussed in his essay “were essentially marketing material.”
“If they had been really good, they probably would have distributed them and sent them out to the world,” he said.
Berliner conceded that he did not get permission to speak with Folkenflik, but noted that he thinks it would be “extraordinary” if he were fired for speaking to an NPR journalist.
NPR’s chief executive of less than a month, Katherine Maher, released a statement that said “everyone is entitled to free speech as a private citizen” in America, even though she previously criticized and downplayed Berliner’s rhetoric. Additionally, people on social media revealed that Maher has an extreme far-left bias.
NPR emphasized that “the CEO is not involved in editorial decisions,” the report said.
Some people in the newsroom acknowledged that Berliner’s critique was valid, while leftists who work for NPR said they are no longer willing to work with him, Folkenflik wrote.
