Multiple Bills Introduced in Congress to Defund NPR; NPR Reels From Editor’s Public Rebuke, Allegations of Liberal Bias; NPR Whistleblower Uri Berliner Resigns: ‘I cannot work in a newsroom where I am disparaged’

Multiple bills introduced in Congress to defund NPR:

Several U.S. House Republicans introduced multiple pieces of legislation to defund National Public Radio following new allegations of “leftist propaganda” from the taxpayer-funded news source.

House Freedom Caucus Chair Bob Good, R-Va., Rep. Jim Banks, R-Ind., and Rep. Claudia Tenney, R-N.Y., introduced similar legislation to prohibit federal funding for NPR, including barring local public radio stations from utilizing money from federal grants to “purchase content or pay dues to NPR.”

Over the years, Republicans have made multiple attempts to defund NPR, citing similar complaints. The latest outrage follows an editorial from former NPR Editor Uri Berliner, who criticized the news source claiming it had “lost America’s trust.”

Berliner criticized NPR’s coverage of alleged Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election, the COVID-19 lab leak theory and of Hunter Biden’s abandoned laptop as examples of the outlet’s left-leaning bias. He described “the most damaging development at NPR: the absence of viewpoint diversity.”

Banks took aim at NPR’s new Chief Executive Officer Katherine Maher, who has expressed criticism of the First Amendment in efforts to combat “misinformation.”

“NPR’s new CEO is a radical, left-wing activist who doesn’t believe in free speech or objective journalism. Hoosiers shouldn’t be writing her paychecks. Katherine Maher isn’t qualified to teach an introductory journalism class, much less capable of responsibly spending millions of American tax dollars,” said Banks.

The Indiana congressman continued by describing the news outlet as a “liberal looney bin” under prior leadership, drawing attention to a systemic problem.

“It’s time to pull the plug on this national embarrassment. Congress must stop spending other people’s hard-earned money on low grade propaganda,” Banks lamented. —>READ MORE HERE

NPR reels from editor’s public rebuke, allegations of liberal bias:

NPR is reeling from an ugly and contentious internal fight after an editor offered a scathing public criticism of his newsroom, saying left-wing bias threatened to erode trust with its listeners.

The editor, Uri Berliner, resigned just days after many of his furious colleagues expressed outrage that his public attacks on the outlet were not only wrong and self-serving but also deeply unfair.

Longtime critics of NPR in the Republican Party, meanwhile, have piled on, saying the criticism from Berliner and the newsroom’s reaction to it confirm their long-held views of the outlet.

Berliner’s public lambasting of his own outlet, brief suspension and then swift resignation created a spiraling mess for NPR’s newly hired leadership.

Those executives now find themselves in the crosshairs of their employees as they try to solidify trust inside the company and fend off a steady stream of attacks coming daily from the political right in the wake of Berliner’s essay.

Tobe Berkovitz, a Boston University professor who focuses on the media, said it was clear Berliner was going to have to go.

“The problem is many at NPR consider him a traitor, while he sees himself, not so much as a whistleblower, but as someone who wants the company to take a look at themselves and assess what they are doing right and wrong,” said Berkovitz.

Berliner, a senior editor for NPR’s business desk who has worked at the public broadcast service for more than two decades, argued in his controversial op-ed that the outlet has skewed disproportionately to the left and alienated a broader audience in the process.

“It’s true NPR has always had a liberal bent, but during most of my tenure here, an open-minded, curious culture prevailed. We were nerdy, but not knee-jerk, activist, or scolding,” Berliner wrote, adding the outlet was increasingly only providing its audience with “the distilled worldview of a very small segment of the U.S. population.” —>READ MORE HERE

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+++++NPR whistleblower Uri Berliner resigns: ‘I cannot work in a newsroom where I am disparaged’+++++

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