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NPR senior business editor Uri Berliner resigned this morning, citing the response of the network's chief executive to his outside essay accusing NPR of losing the public's trust.

"I am resigning from NPR, a great American institution where I have worked for 25 years," Berliner wrote in an email to CEO Katherine Maher. "I respect the integrity of my colleagues and wish for NPR to thrive and do important journalism. But I cannot work in a newsroom where I am disparaged by a new CEO whose divisive views confirm the very problems at NPR I cite in my Free Press essay."

The Free Press, an online site embraced by journalists who believe that the mainstream media has become too liberal, published Berliner's piece last Tuesday. In it, he argued that NPR's coverage has increasingly reflected a rigid progressive ideology. And he argued that the network's quest for greater diversity in its workforce — a priority under prior chief executive John Lansing – has not been accompanied by a diversity of viewpoints presented in NPR shows, podcasts or online coverage.

Later that same day, NPR pushed back against Berliner's critique.

"We're proud to stand behind the exceptional work that our desks and shows do to cover a wide range of challenging stories," NPR's chief news executive, Edith Chapin, wrote in a memo to staff . "We believe that inclusion — among our staff, with our sourcing, and in our overall coverage — is critical to telling the nuanced stories of this country and our world."

Yet Berliner's commentary has been embraced by conservative and partisan Republican critics of the network, including former President Donald Trump and the activist Christopher Rufo.

Rufo is posting a parade of old social media posts from Maher, who took over NPR last month. In two examples, she called Trump a racist and also seemed to minimize the effects of rioting in 2020. Rufo is using those to rally public pressure for Maher's ouster, as he did for former Harvard University President Claudine Gay.

Others have used the moment to call for the elimination of federal funding for NPR – less than one percent of its roughly $300 million annual budget – and local public radio stations, which derive more of their funding from the government.

Berliner reiterated in his resignation letter that he does not support such calls.

In a brief interview, he condemned a statement Maher issued Friday in which she suggested that he had questioned "whether our people are serving our mission with integrity, based on little more than the recognition of their identity." She called that "profoundly disrespectful, hurtful, and demeaning."

Berliner subsequently exchanged emails with Maher, but she did not address those comments.

"It's been building up," Berliner said of his decision to resign, "and it became clear it was on today."

For publishing his essay in The Free Press and appearing on its podcast, NPR had suspended Berliner for five days without pay. Its formal rebuke noted he had done work outside NPR without its permission, as is required, and shared proprietary information.

(Disclosure: Like Berliner, I am part of NPR's Business Desk. He has edited many of my past stories. But he did not see any version of this article or participate in its preparation before it was posted publicly.)

Earlier in the day, Berliner forwarded to NPR editors and other colleagues a note saying he had "never questioned" their integrity and had been trying to raise these issues within the newsroom for more than seven years.

What followed was an email he had sent to newsroom leaders after Trump's 2016 win. He wrote then: "Primarily for the sake of our journalism, we can't align ourselves with a tribe. So we don't exist in a cocoon that blinds us to the views and experience of tens of millions of our fellow citizens."

Berliner's critique has inspired anger and dismay within the network. Some colleagues said they could no longer trust him after he chose to publicize such concerns rather than pursue them as part of ongoing newsroom debates, as is customary. Many signed a letter to Maher and Edith Chapin, NPR's chief news executive. They asked for clarity on, among other things, how Berliner's essay and the resulting public controversy would affect news coverage.

Yet some colleagues privately said Berliner's critique carried some truth. Chapin also announced monthly reviews of the network's coverage for fairness and diversity - including diversity of viewpoint.

She said in a text message earlier this week that that initiative had been discussed long before Berliner's essay, but "Now seemed [the] time to deliver if we were going to do it."

She added, "Healthy discussion is something we need more of."

Disclosure: This story was reported and written by NPR Media Correspondent David Folkenflik and edited by Deputy Business Editor Emily Kopp and Managing Editor Gerry Holmes. Under NPR's protocol for reporting on itself, no NPR corporate official or news executive reviewed this story before it was posted publicly.

Now some news about NPR. Longtime editor Uri Berliner resigned today, saying he could not work under NPR's new CEO. Last week, another outlet published an essay by Berliner in which he accused NPR of losing the public's trust and, he says, approaching news coverage increasingly from the left. Berliner now says the CEO's own views confirm these problems. NPR media correspondent David Folkenflik joins me. Hey, David.

KELLY: So before we begin, I want to note that the conversation you and I are about to have is, A, in line with long-standing policy. We cover ourselves as we would any other news organization. And, B, no NPR corporate official or news exec helped prepare this segment, correct?

KELLY: Yeah. OK. So Uri - Uri Berliner - he was, until today, an editor on our business desk. He wrote this essay last week that's led to where we are. Catch us up.

FOLKENFLIK: Sure. I've worked closely with him. I'm on the business desk, too. And his views aren't entirely a surprise to me. He tried to raise concern to newsroom leaders since pretty much just after then-President-elect Donald Trump won the presidency back in November 2016. Last week, he made them public in a - an essay as well as a nearly hourlong podcast on The Free Press, a site that has become a haven for journalists who believe the mainstream press has become too liberal.

And Berliner wrote that the network, in its push for diversity of the background of its workforce and the kinds of people represented on its airwaves, has not joined that with a concomitant pursuit of diversity in viewpoints, in ideology, in outlooks and sensibility, and says that really there's been - things have been viewed through a progressive prism almost exclusively.

KELLY: OK, and what has the NPR response been, if you can sum it up?

FOLKENFLIK: Well, Edith Chapin, our chief news executive, wrote a memo last week essentially rejecting the argument and rejecting the connection that there's - you know, anything in our push for greater diversity in our workforce has anything to do with that question. But it's said that she praised the work that our colleagues have done on various continents in the world, various communities around the country, various issues that we focused on.

NPR also suspended Berliner, and it cited two things. First, it said, you know, as you and I do in our code of conduct for employees, we have to get permission for all outside appearances in other press outlets, and...

FOLKENFLIK: ...Berliner acknowledges he failed to do that. And it also cited part of the ethics handbook for his distribution of certain statistics about our demographic data that wasn't authorized to get out.

KELLY: You said he was suspended. He was set to come back to work at the end of this week. Instead, he has now resigned. Why?

FOLKENFLIK: Well, he cited a note that our new CEO, Katherine Maher, circulated late last Friday to staff in which he felt that she had denigrated him. He felt that she had associated him with criticizing the effort to diversify the workforce. He thought that was disparagement.

Meantime, a lot of conservative activists online have dug up some of her old social media posts, political posts that show her - you know, let me give you two examples. Her political outlook - she called Trump a racist a few times over the years, had a Joe Biden hat on and that she seemed to minimize the concerns about rioting at social justice protests in 2020.

KELLY: Yeah. And just very briefly, what does this mean for NPR?

FOLKENFLIK: Well, it - you know, I would say that NPR says that Maher has no influence on its news coverage. This has really enraged a lot of our colleagues in the newsroom - you may have...

FOLKENFLIK: ...Heard it as well as I have - some of whom are wounded by what he said, some of whom defend it, but others who say, look, he has a real point here that's been occluded in what's happened. At the minute, though, you've seen conservative activists call for Maher's resignation and for us to be defunded.

NPR editor Uri Berliner resigns with a blast at its new CEO

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