• by Ray Schultz , April 17, 2024

Uri Berliner, the NPR business editor who ignited a firestorm with his article criticizing NPR as too left-wing and was suspended for five days without pay, has resigned.  

"I am resigning from NPR, a great American institution where I have worked for 25 years," Berliner said 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."

Berliner’s article appeared in The Free Press. NPR’s disciplining of him was based on his doing work outside NPR without its permission, NPR reports.

In an interview with NPR reporter David Folkenflik, Berliner criticized Maher for her statement suggesting that he had questioned "whether our people are serving our mission with integrity, based on little more than the recognition of their identity." According to NPR, Maher said that was "profoundly disrespectful, hurtful, and demeaning."