What Does Uri Berliner’s Criticism of NPR Tell Us About Liberal Media Bias?
Summary from the AllSides News Team
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.”
Featured Coverage of this Story
From the Center
NPR editor’s tell-all confirms what we already knew about the media2024 has not been kind to American journalism. Mainstream news outlets — including NBC News, CBS, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, TIME and Business Insider — have laid off hundreds of staffers. Publishers and media analysts have been casting about for possible explanations, whether difficult economic headwinds, the collapse of ad revenue or Americans’ “news fatigue” ahead of another presidential election.
But we can thank Uri Berliner, a senior business editor at NPR, for revealing the main reason for journalism’s dire situation: Americans these days just don’t trust the news....
From the Right
Brutal critique from within NPR proves it’s a leftist-only zoneBashing National Public Radio‘s leftward bias is a favorite pastime of conservatives, especially since it is funded by taxpayer money, but critics received a boost this week from an unlikely source.
Uri Berliner, a 25-year veteran of NPR who is now a senior business editor there, published a lengthy essay this week that was remarkable because it absolutely blasted his employer’s approach to journalism. It was such a complete takedown that I found myself marveling, “He wrote this while he still works there?”
My next question was, “Will it do any good?”
From the Left
The Media Did Not Make Up Trump’s Russia ScandalNPR reporter Uri Berliner wrote an essay for The Free Press arguing that the network has lost chunks of its audience by growing too dogmatically progressive. Some of the evidence supports his claim. Unfortunately, he undermines his case by leading with an example that in no way vindicates the thesis, and actually undermines it: coverage of the Trump-Russia scandal.
Berliner presents the story as a nothingburger that NPR breathlessly hyped and then ignored when it turned out to exonerate the president:
“Persistent rumors that the Trump campaign colluded with Russia over the election...
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