(Republican Insider) – Uri Berliner, a veteran of National Public Radio, otherwise known as NPR, published an essay earlier this week that revealed just how biased the government-funded news outlet was during Donald Trump’s time in office. We all knew this to be the case, but most liberals denied it and claimed NPR was being fair and balanced, pushing the false narrative they were a trustworthy source of news. But now we can all sit back and enjoy the feeling of sweet, sweet vindication.
Berliner, who worked at NPR for a quarter of a century, alleges in his explosive essay, published by the folks at The Free Press, that the outlet was dedicated to a specific mission, which was to take down Trump while he was serving the country as the commander-in-chief, using the whole Russian-collusion narrative as their weapon of choice. All of those allegations against Trump were later completely debunked. He then states that folks at every level of the organization were working together to prioritize race and identity, which led to a lack of “viewpoint diversity” and an increase in diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives.
“Persistent rumors that the Trump campaign colluded with Russia over the election became the catnip that drove reporting,” he said in the essay. “At NPR, we hitched our wagon to Trump’s most visible antagonist, Representative Adam Schiff.”
“But what began as tough, straightforward coverage of a belligerent, truth-impaired president veered toward efforts to damage or topple Trump’s presidency,” he continued.
How NPR Lost the Trust of America
In an exclusive interview, senior business editor at @NPR @UBerliner speaks to @bariweiss about NPR’s shift from a liberal-leaning news organization to its present “knee-jerk,” “activist,” and “scolding” liberal bias.
“It was Trump’s election…… pic.twitter.com/hx1eDeJi1K
— Honestly with Bari Weiss (@thehonestlypod) April 9, 2024
Here’s more from the Daily Caller’s latest report, “Berliner also criticized the outlet’s managing editor for neglecting to cover the Hunter Biden laptop story during the 2020 presidential election, saying ‘We don’t want to waste our time on stories that are not really stories, and we don’t want to waste the listeners’ and readers’ time on stories that are just pure distractions.'”
Why haven't you seen any stories from NPR about the NY Post's Hunter Biden story? Read more in this week's newsletter➡️ https://t.co/CJesPgmGvo pic.twitter.com/jAi7PnpbZf
— NPR Public Editor (@NPRpubliceditor) October 22, 2020
“NPR also based reporting on former Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Dr. Anthony Fauci’s statements on the COVID-19 pandemic originating naturally, according to Berliner,” the piece noted.
“We became fervent members of Team Natural Origin, even declaring that the lab leak had been debunked by scientists,” Berliner wrote. “But that wasn’t the case.”
The outlet has dedicated a rather large amount of its resources to try and build a more diverse audience, but as per Berliner, their efforts have failed.
“In 2023, according to our demographic research, 6 percent of our news audience was black, far short of the overall U.S. adult population, which is 14.4 percent black,” the essay read. “And Hispanics were only 7 percent, compared to the overall Hispanic adult population, around 19 percent. Our news audience doesn’t come close to reflecting America. It’s overwhelmingly white and progressive, and clustered around coastal cities and college towns.”
“An open-minded spirit no longer exists within NPR, and now, predictably, we don’t have an audience that reflects America,” the editor penned. “That wouldn’t be a problem for an openly polemical news outlet serving a niche audience. But for NPR, which purports to consider all things, it’s devastating both for its journalism and its business model.”
He also pointed out that NPR’s audience has made a pretty big move to the left based on polling data.
“Back in 2011, although NPR’s audience tilted a bit to the left, it still bore a resemblance to America at large,” he went on to say in his writing. “Twenty-six percent of listeners described themselves as conservative, 23 percent as middle of the road, and 37 percent as liberal.”
“By 2023, the picture was completely different: only 11 percent described themselves as very or somewhat conservative, 21 percent as middle of the road, and 67 percent of listeners said they were very or somewhat liberal. We weren’t just losing conservatives; we were also losing moderates and traditional liberals,” Berliner continued.
“We were given unconscious bias training sessions,” Berliner’s essay divulged. “A growing DEI staff offered regular meetings imploring us to ‘start talking about race.’ Monthly dialogues were offered for ‘women of color’ and ‘men of color.’ Nonbinary people of color were included, too. These initiatives, bolstered by a $1 million grant from the NPR Foundation, came from management, from the top down.”
“Crucially, they were in sync culturally with what was happening at the grassroots—among producers, reporters, and other staffers. Most visible was a burgeoning number of employee resource (or affinity) groups based on identity,” the editor further explained.
John Lansing, CEO of NPR, announced in February 2023 that the outlet would be laying off 10 percent of its employees along with freezing any vacant positions. The publication remarked that the cuts were due to what they called an “erosion” in revenue from advertisers, especially for podcasts.
“NPR receives less than 1% of its funding from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, federal agencies and departments, according to its website,” the Daily Caller concluded.
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