National Public Radio (NPR) Editor Uri Berliner shared his resignation letter to NPR CEO Katherine Maher, stating on X:
I am resigning from NPR, a great American institution where I have worked for 25 years. 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.
Berliner was suspended by NPR after publishing an essay in the Free Press, and cited Maher’s handling of the situation as the reason for his resignation, stating, “I cannot work in a newsroom who I am disparaged by a new CEO.”
Maher alleged Berliner’s essay was unprofessional, stating in a response sent to all NPR staff:
Questioning whether our people are serving our mission with integrity, based on little more than the recognition of their identity, is profoundly disrespectful, hurtful, and demeaning.
Berliner’s Free Press essay exposed the bias held by the federal government-funded media organization. Berliner claimed in his essay that the “progressive worldview” bias is widespread throughout NPR, stating,
Conflicts between workers and bosses, between labor and management, are common in workplaces. NPR has had its share. But what’s notable is the extent to which people at every level of NPR have comfortably coalesced around the progressive worldview. And this, I believe, is the most damaging development at NPR: the absence of viewpoint diversity.
