25-year NPR veteran Uri Berliner recently came forward to call out his employer and colleagues for being liberally biased in a way that was harming the credibility of their reporting. And in a Tuesday night appearance on NewsNation’s Cuomo, host Chris Cuomo shared his concern that NPR would target him and “kick [him] to the curb.” But Berliner said he was getting a lot of support from colleagues, including from surprising sources.
“On that issue of media trust, there was a bombshell today, a whistleblower in effect on bias in the media,” Cuomo announced at the top of the show. “Among his claims: NPR was stacked with like-minded people who appealed to an ever-narrow, progressive worldview catering to a select audience and losing its audience as a result.”
Cuomo agreed with Berliner’s assessment that “political diversity” was not something newsrooms prioritized, adding that it was one of the reasons he chose to join NewsNation:
87 Democrats, not a single Republican. Does he have a point? Yup! Do newsrooms lack diversity? Well, depends what boxes you want to check. Political diversity. It's a big at NewsNation. We've got all kinds here. The disagreement is organic and so are the common concerns.
When asked about what the response was in-house at NPR, Berliner said he got the expected pushback from the managers he called out but was getting a lot of support from many others, including some surprising individuals:
I'm not surprised by the response that, you know, came from management and the same managers that I’ve been making a lot of these points about. And they're certainly entitled to that perspective.
I will say, I've had a lot of support from colleagues, many of them unexpected, who say they agree with me. 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. We haven't. We've been too reluctant, too frightened, too timid to deal with these things. And I think that this is the right opportunity to bring it all out in the open.
This seemed to preemptively relieve Cuomo of some of his concern for Berliner’s future at the station. “I hope you saved up your money. You are a business editor, so hopefully you’re good with your own investing because they're going to kick you to the curb and nobody’s going to want you,” he quipped.
“I’m not worried. You know, I think people want open dialogue. I think people want to have honest debates,” Berliner replied.
On how NPR had gotten so liberally biased, Cuomo wondered: “Are you saying that's the truth or are you saying it's something that has evolved? What do you want people to feel about NPR and what you feel about the media in general?”
Berliner felt that NPR had “a liberal orientation” at first but “evolved” to be a place of “much narrower kind of niche thinking, a group think that's really clustered around various selective progressive views.” He added that “they don't allow enough air and enough spaciousness to consider all kinds of perspectives.”
Reminiscing about how things used to be, he suggested they used to be “kind of nerdy and really like[d] to dig into things and understand the complexity of things.”
The transcript is below. Click "expand" to read:
NewsNation’s Cuomo
April 9, 2024
8:09:54 p.m. EasternCHRIS CUOMO: On that issue of media trust, there was a bombshell today, a whistleblower in effect on bias in the media. One of the most, you know, the biggest, most respected names in the news, National Public Radio.
Today, senior business editor Uri Berliner published a story in Free Press, Substack. The headline? “I've been and NPR for 25 years. Here's how we lost America's trust.” Among his claims: NPR was stacked with like-minded people who appealed to an ever-narrow, progressive worldview catering to a select audience and losing its audience as a result.
He also says stories were ignored, mistakes made, corrections never issue, and that all, quote, “shatters trusted and engenders cynicism about the media.” And when he dug into voter registration at NPR in Washington, guess what he found. 87 Democrats, not a single Republican. Does he have a point? Yup!
Do newsroom's lack diversity? Well, depends what boxes you want to check. Political diversity. It's a big at NewsNation. We've got all kinds here. The disagreement is organic and so are the common concerns.
So, I want to bring in brother Berliner because that was a brave thing he did, man. Your competition is your critic base in this business. And you knew when you wrote this, you aren’t going to get a chorus of amens, you're going to get people probably digging garbage and saying it's not true. And sure enough, colleagues came forward to do what you had to expect that we're going to do, which is say, ‘We disagree. Uri’s entitled to his opinion. But we disagreed about the nature and quality of our reporting.’
What do you make of their response? What do you make of the attention?
URI BERLINER: I'm not surprised by the response that, you know, came from management and the same managers that I’ve been making a lot of these points about. And they're certainly entitled to that perspective.
I will say, I've had a lot of support from colleagues, many of them unexpected, who say they agree with me. 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. We haven't. We've been too reluctant, too frightened, too timid to deal with these things. And I think that this is the right opportunity to bring it all out in the open.
CUOMO: So, for those who are sitting there saying, “I knew it! NPR, those laconic lefties, you know, with the slow delivery and just feeding us all of this.” Are you saying that's the truth or you saying it's something that has evolved? What do you want people to feel about NPR and what you feel about the media in general?
BERLINER: I think it's evolved. You know, I've been at NPR a long time. 25 years. You could say I'm a lifer. And it's a place that always loved working. But when I started there was a liberal orientation. But I think we were more guided by curiosity, open mindedness. You know, you said talked about policy. We're kind of nerdy and really likes to dig into things and understand the complexity of things. I think that's evolved over the years into a much narrower kind of niche thinking, a group think that's really clustered around various selective progressive views that don’t – they don't allow enough air and enough spaciousness to consider all kinds of perspectives.
CUOMO: So, you used some very powerful words that people kind of see as sacrosanct. Whether it's, you know, indicating bias of what people call “woke” these days or “political correctness” or “cancel culture.” You know, these are often seen as instruments of the left.
One, were you worried that – I hope you saved up your money? You are a business editor, so hopefully you’re good with your own investing because they're going to kick you to the curb and nobody’s going to want you. Especially as you a white guy, you know, who's not 18. So, what do you make of going after these sacred cows?
BERLINER: I’m not worried. You know, I think people want open dialogue. I think people want to have honest debates.
(…)
