Berliner's Case Against NPR is Shaky

Thursday, April 18, 2024

Dan Kennedy: I want to return one more time to NPR senior business editor Uri Berliner's long essay in The Free Press about what he regards as his employer's move to the fringe left. Mainly he seems to be worked up about diversity workshops and a change in NPR's audience from one that was more or less balanced ideologically to one that is overwhelmingly liberal and progressive -- which, as I wrote earlier this week, is more a consequence of the great national sorting-out than of anything NPR itself has done. But there were also three factual assertions he made. One is flat-out false; one is devoid of crucial context; and one is questionable.

Posted by Gal_Tuesday at 07:33 PM | 15 COMMENTS | permalink | Comment on This Entry |

Alternate links: Google News | Twitter

Comments

Admin's note: Participants in this discussion must follow the site's moderation policy. Profanity will be filtered. Abusive conduct is not allowed.

FTA:

"By going public with his complaints about the culture inside NPR, Berliner may have accomplished the impossible: He's made it so that his continued tenure at NPR is untenable while at the same time rendering himself unfirable. I detect a resignation and a fat contract with Fox News in Berliner's immediate future."

His prediction is proving prophetic:

Uri Berliner
@uberliner
My resignation letter to NPR CEO @krmaher
10:53 AM Apr 17, 2024

twitter.com

How long before Berliner becomes a regular on Faux News?

#1 | Posted by Gal_Tuesday at 2024-04-18 08:52 AM | Reply | Newsworthy 2

NPR has become unbearable for me. It used to be the preferred station for commutes to catch up on news and current events.

When I stopped listening a few years ago, it was because it was turning into pandering trash. Interviews with no name artists, authors and artists who fit some extreme minority profile so they could breathlessly talk about how brave they were to be so visible as a trans furry quadriplegic lesbian man.

There were still interviews and segments on current events and news, they were just much less frequent, and I figured if I was turning it off for 75% of the time when the nonsense about an artist making dream catchers from recycled diapers came on...why bother going back?

#2 | Posted by jpw at 2024-04-18 09:27 AM | Reply | Funny: 1

www.npr.org

I found this report on making dream catchers from recycled diapers from 2002. Did they do a follow up on the report more recently?!?

#3 | Posted by Gal_Tuesday at 2024-04-18 09:54 AM | Reply

LOL is that really what they talk about in that segment?

#4 | Posted by jpw at 2024-04-18 09:56 AM | Reply

Nah, just diaper recycling, ;-)

#5 | Posted by Gal_Tuesday at 2024-04-18 09:57 AM | Reply

Damn! Would have made my day if that entirely made-up joke was inadvertently true.

#6 | Posted by jpw at 2024-04-18 09:59 AM | Reply

I did discover making dream catchers out of recycled diapers is a real thing. There are even how to tutorials. To be fair some of them look nice, at least from a distance in the photos.

#7 | Posted by Gal_Tuesday at 2024-04-18 10:03 AM | Reply

How long before Berliner becomes a regular on Faux News?

Are you saying Fox News is a balanced news organization?

#8 | Posted by oneironaut at 2024-04-18 10:04 AM | Reply

Nobody says that, idiot.

#9 | Posted by LegallyYourDead at 2024-04-18 12:05 PM | Reply

Are you saying Fox News is a balanced news organization?
#8 | POSTED BY ONEIRONAUT

No, of course not, but balance isn't really the hallmark of great journalism:

Why We Need Press Objectivity, Not Balance

When the news is "balanced" in an unbalanced world, it becomes an instrument of deception. This has made producing the news extremely difficult in an era of mass delusions and hyper-polarization.

www.forkingpaths.co

#10 | Posted by Gal_Tuesday at 2024-04-18 03:44 PM | Reply | Newsworthy 6

"When the news is "balanced" in an unbalanced world, it becomes an instrument of deception."

THANK YOU.

Drew Curtis, creator of Fark, writes about this in his book. He calls it:

Equal Time For Nutjobs

The example he gives is a TV station reporting on the anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing, and to be "balanced" they also have a guest who claims the moon landings were faked. It's complete horses---.

And then JeffJ says, they both deserve a platform. Like there's a debate to be had on fact vs fiction.

#11 | Posted by snoofy at 2024-04-18 04:27 PM | Reply | Newsworthy 5

Shaky?

The dude said russiagate turned out to be NOTHING. Despite successful prosecutions, coverups, corruption of the DOJ, and trump picking a russian asset as his campaign manager.

This "scandal" ends there. His credibility is zero.

#12 | Posted by SpeakSoftly at 2024-04-19 04:25 PM | Reply

Are you saying Fox News is a balanced news organization?

#8 | Posted by oneironaut

Do you think they are a news organization at all, after they admitting to intentionally lying to their viewers so that they wouldnt change the channel?

They weren't delivering news, they were delivering fiction. Knowingly. On purpose.

#13 | Posted by SpeakSoftly at 2024-04-19 04:26 PM | Reply | Newsworthy 1

Uri Berliner (born 1956)

What makes old white men do the same thing Nullifidian did, which is become white nativists?

#14 | Posted by snoofy at 2024-04-19 07:06 PM | Reply

Mr Berliner seems to me to be an old, possibly, Reagan-era Republican who morphed into a MAGA cultist.

Back in his earlier days NPR appreciated his view, but as he may have morphed into MAGA, NPR refused to propagate the lies that the MAGA cult requires to be believed.

So, my view of this whole episode....

Did NPR change, or did Mr Berliner change?

My guess is the latter.

#15 | Posted by LampLighter at 2024-04-19 08:00 PM | Reply