What Does Uri Berliner’s Criticism of NPR Tell Us About Liberal Media Bias?

Earlier this week, Uri Berliner, a senior editor at NPR (Lean Left bias), published an opinion in The Free Press (Center bias) critiquing NPR for its liberal bias, sparking media dialogue.

Not Enough Balance: Roger Ream, writing for The Hill (Center bias) suggested that Berliner’s account reveals why American journalism is in decline: “Americans these days just don’t trust the news.” Ream cited the virtual nonexistence of balanced newsrooms as part of the problem and criticized many since former President Trump took office as being “focused more on political correctness and political point scoring than on traditional journalistic ethics.”

Activism Not Journalism: Tim Murtaugh of Washington Times (Lean Right bias) noted how Berliner found that zero of the 87 editors working at NPR’s Washington headquarters were Republicans and criticized the outlet for claiming to model itself around diversity. Murtaugh said the outlet is a “political operation” based on Berliner’s claim that the outlet tried to “topple” Trump’s presidency, and argued it should not continue to be able to receive taxpayer funding because of this.

Trump-Russia Collusion: Jonathan Chait of New York Magazine (Left bias) argued that “some evidence supports” Berliner’s claim that NPR lost portions of its audience “by growing too dogmatically progressive,” but that he undermines his claim by presenting the Trump-Russia scandal as a “nothingburger.” Chait claims “it is simply not true that the Mueller report ‘found no credible evidence of collusion,’” and that Berliner’s “misunderstanding of the story shows the bias is not as bad as he thinks.”