The National Public Radio employee who recently published a scorching letter accusing the media organization of a liberal slant has been suspended without pay for five days.
Uri Berliner, an NPR senior business editor, was punished last Friday after backlash from an article he wrote for the Free Press, a website operated by the former New York Times journalist Bari Weiss.
Berliner was officially suspended for not seeking prior approval for outside work with other news outlets, a requirement for NPR’s journalists, the organization said.
NPR also accused Berliner of releasing “proprietary information” about the network’s demographics in his now viral essay.
Berliner was told he would be fired if he violated the policy again, according to an official rebuke that he provided to NPR for its report on his suspension. Berliner told NPR that he did not plan on appealing the suspension.
In the 9 April essay, Berliner argued that NPR had “lost America’s trust” because of its “absence of viewpoint diversity”.
“An open-minded spirit no longer exists within NPR, and now, predictably, we don’t have an audience that reflects America,” Berliner wrote.
Berliner criticized the broadcaster’s coverage of the Covid-19 pandemic, Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential election victory and other topics.
He also condemned NPR for its coverage of race and equity, specifically for not questioning the existence of systemic racism in their coverage after the 2020 murder of George Floyd by Minneapolis police.
Berliner’s remarks were quickly lauded by conservative pundits who have long denounced NPR for what they see as its progressivism. Far-right critics also called for the public radio network to be defunded.
In an email sent to NPR’s staff, Edith Chapin, the organization’s editor-in-chief, said she “strongly [disagreed]” with Berliner’s viewpoints and applauded her outlet’s “exceptional journalism”.
Chapin added that she and NPR’s leadership “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”.
Berliner’s essay also drew criticism from NPR colleagues, who argued that his accounts of the newsroom were not entirely accurate.
In an interview with the NewsNation host Chris Cuomo, Berliner said he was not surprised by the poor response his remarks received from NPR editorial management, adding that “they’re certainly entitled to their perspective”.
Berliner noted that, despite public perception, his essay generated “a lot of support from colleagues”.
“Some of them say this confidentially, but I think there’s been a lot of response saying, ‘Look, these are things that need to be addressed’,” Berliner added.
The Guardian could not reach NPR for a comment on Berliner’s five-day suspension.
