National Public Radio (NPR) has 87 registered Democrats in editorial positions at its Washington, DC, headquarters, while there are no Republicans in similar roles, according to NPR Senior Editor Uri Berliner. Berliner, who has left-leaning views, criticized NPR’s newsroom in a recent article, highlighting the network’s failure to address what he described as a “diversity problem.”
In a piece for the Free Press, Berliner expressed his disagreement with NPR’s coverage of topics such as the coronavirus “lab leak theory,” Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA), the “Don’t Say Gay” bill, Hunter Biden’s laptop, former President Donald Trump, and the 2016 Russia hoax.
“[P]olitics were blotting out the curiosity and independence that ought to have been driving our work,” he explained.
erliner reported:
“So on May 3, 2021, I presented the findings at an all-hands editorial staff meeting. When I suggested we had a diversity problem with a score of 87 Democrats and zero Republicans, the response wasn’t hostile. It was worse. It was met with profound indifference. I got a few messages from surprised, curious colleagues. But the messages were of the “oh wow, that’s weird” variety, as if the lopsided tally was a random anomaly rather than a critical failure of our diversity North Star.
“In a follow-up email exchange, a top NPR news executive told me that she had been “skewered” for bringing up diversity of thought when she arrived at NPR. So, she said, “I want to be careful how we discuss this publicly.”
“For years, I have been persistent. When I believe our coverage has gone off the rails, I have written regular emails to top news leaders, sometimes even having one-on-one sessions with them. On March 10, 2022, I wrote to a top news executive about the numerous times we described the controversial education bill in Florida as the “Don’t Say Gay” bill when it didn’t even use the word gay. I pushed to set the record straight, and wrote another time to ask why we keep using that word that many Hispanics hate—Latinx. On March 31, 2022, I was invited to a managers’ meeting to present my observations.”
NPR’s newsroom has leaned left for years leading up to being exposed. In 2011, he said the network’s “audience tilted a bit to the left” but “still bore a resemblance to America at large.” He described NPR listening as 26 percent conservative, 23 percent “middle of the road,” and 37 percent far-left.
By 2023, there was a shift in the demographics of listeners, with only 11% identifying as conservative, 21% as moderate, and 67% as liberal.
“That wouldn’t be a problem for an openly polemical news outlet serving a niche audience,” he wrote, “but for NPR, which purports to consider all things, it’s devastating both for its journalism and its business model.”
NPR’s financial structure seems to be weakening. The publicly funded entity reduced its staff by ten percent, decreasing from around 1,200 to about 1,050 employees due to insufficient revenue generation, as reported by the organization in 2023. Approximately 11 percent of NPR’s budget was supported by taxpayer funds.