A senior editor at National Public Radio (NPR) says the outlet’s response to the election of then-President Donald Trump and the death of George Floyd — and subsequent riots — transformed the news organization for the worse. Uri Berliner, a senior business editor, admits NPR has always been liberal, but contends it used to foster an “open-minded, curious culture.” In contrast, its reaction to Trump and the post-Floyd panic regarding “systemic racism” caused its tone to become “knee-jerk, activist, [and] scolding.”
HOOKED ON SCHIFF.
Berliner claims NPR initially began its descent into extreme ideological bias after becoming one of the primary outlets pushing Rep. Adam Schiff‘s (D-CA) conspiracy theory that the 2016 Trump campaign colluded with the Russian government to rig the U.S. presidential election. “By my count, NPR hosts interviewed Schiff 25 times about Trump and Russia. During many of those conversations, Schiff alluded to purported evidence of collusion,” Berliner writes, adding: “The Schiff talking points became the drumbeat of NPR news reports.”
Despite investing a lot of time in coverage of Rep. Schiff’s claims, the outlet gave little attention to the fact that multiple investigations exonerated Trump of the California Democrat’s charges. “But when the Mueller report found no credible evidence of collusion, NPR’s coverage was notably sparse. Russiagate quietly faded from our programming,” the business editor says.
THE LAPTOP FROM HELL.
In another instance of editorial malpractice, Berliner details how NPR failed to cover the Hunter Biden laptop story. At the time, the news organization stated, “We don’t want to waste our time on stories that are not really stories.” Further, NPR said stories covering the laptop were “pure distractions.” Berliner, however, admits that “Its contents revealed [Hunter Biden’s] connection to the corrupt world of multimillion-dollar influence peddling and its possible implications for his father.”
Berliner described an editorial meeting as follows: “I listened as one of NPR’s best and most fair-minded journalists said it was good we weren’t following the laptop story because it could help Trump.”
COVID-19 PROPAGANDISTS.
Taking on NPR’s coverage of the COVID-19 pandemic, Berliner says its editorial staff quickly decided that the ‘natural origin’ theory was correct and that the ‘lab leak’ theory was either “racist or a right-wing conspiracy theory.” According to Berliner, the internal stance on COVID-19 was partly prompted by the outlet implicitly trusting the word of Anthony Fauci and former NIH head Francis Collins.
‘ENDING SYSTEMIC RACISM.’
The business editor says former CEO John Lansing enabled the internal cultural changes and editorial bias. Following the death of George Floyd, Berliner recounts how Lansing, rather than challenging staff to explore whether systemic racism was prevalent in America, tasked the news organization with “identifying and ending systemic racism.” Following Lansing’s “systemic racism” challenge, the organization was overtaken by racial affinity groups who pushed for tailored, niche coverage — increasingly alienated listeners and readers alike.
While Berliner insists that he believes NPR can be saved from itself, he does lament that “[w]ith declining ratings, sorry levels of trust, and an audience that has become less diverse over time, the trajectory for NPR is not promising.”
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