The extreme left-wing bias of NPR’s new CEO has added to the controversy surrounding the taxpayer-funded outlet, which began when a former editor for the outlet published a report highlighting the company’s coordinated efforts to under former President Donald Trump.
“Today, those who listen to NPR or read its coverage online find something different: the distilled worldview of a very small segment of the U.S. population,” said former NPR editor Uri Berliner in an article for The Free Press, “An open-minded spirit no longer exists within NPR, and now, predictably, we don’t have an audience that reflects America.”
That report, which revealed that the taxpayer funded media outlet has turned from journalism which covered all opinions with relative fairness into an anti-conservative propaganda machine.
Berliner is no conservative, and proudly proclaimed in his article that he happily opposed Trump in 2016 and 2020, but he nevertheless believes that a public news service like NPR ought to give fair representation to both political parties.
Following that report, multiple prominent public figures called for NPR to lose its federal funding.
“NO MORE FUNDING FOR NPR, A TOTAL SCAM! EDITOR SAID THEY HAVE NO REPUBLICANS, AND IS ONLY USED TO “DAMAGE TRUMP.” THEY ARE A LIBERAL DISINFORMATION MACHINE. NOT ONE DOLLAR,” said Former President Donald Trump on social media.
As NPR was suffering negative attention from Berliner’s article, the outlet’s new far-left CEO, Katherine Maher, began to add fuel to accusations of bias.
Maher, former CEO at Wikimedia, the non-profit that hosts Wikipedia, also serves as a “Young Global Leader” with the World Economic Forum and holds a bachelors degree in Islamic studies, according to her LinkedIn account.
She also has a history of posting radically left-wing tweets, raising questions as to her fitness to run an allegedly unbiased, taxpayer-funded news outlet.
Her tweets show an obsession with race, the idea of “whiteness” as a negative trait, and a devotion to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) ideology.
“And I’m white, so my hair doesn’t automatically carry with it the fright of my race, worth, and everyone else’s encoded assumptions and biases,” said Maher in a 2019 tweet.
Her bias continued into 2020 where she voiced her tentative support for looting during the Black Lives Matter (BLM) riots sparked by the death of career criminal George Floyd.
“I mean, sure, looting is counterproductive. But it’s hard to be mad about protests not prioritizing the private property of a system of oppression founded on treating people’s ancestors as private property,” said Maher.
Since announcing in January that she would be taking over as NPR CEO in late March, Maher has been far less vocal about her political views, posting only four tweets in all of 2024, none of which contained explicit political bias.
Her most recent politically oriented tweet came in November, and was a criticism of OpenAI, the company which created advanced Large Language Model (LLM) chatbot ChatGPT, for failing to meet DEI standards.
“‘AI that benefits all humanity’ without a single woman or person of color on the OpenAI board. Where have I heard this story before,” said Maher.
As Maher’s tweets were circulating on the internet, Elon Musk took the opportunity to weigh in on NPR.
“Defund NPR,” said Musk in a laconic X post which constituted his only response to the controversy.
Amid the controversies, Maher sent out an internal message to all NPR employees defending the organization, and criticizing Berliner for his article without mentioning his name.
“Questioning whether our people are serving our mission with integrity, based on little more than the recognition of their identity, is profoundly disrespectful, hurtful, and demeaning,” said Maher.
Her statement went on to deny claims that NPR had lost public trust and ceased to be an unbiased source, and assert that NPR’s employees are diverse and representative of America in general.
She also praised the organization for attracting a younger, more “diverse” audience despite the loss of many other listeners.
Maher did not directly address any claims from Berliner, only denying criticism broadly without engaging with the particular arguments behind his claim.
<span class="dsq-postid" data-dsqidentifier="27424 https://www.themainewire.com/?p=27424">2 Comments
Did anyone expect NPR to hire Tucker Carlson as their new CEO? These cultural Marxists will never change their stripes. Musk is correct, they need to be defunded but don’t count on it happening.
You mean there are still people who listen to NPR? That this station is publicly supported is a disgrace and it should be defunded immediately. Let it survive on its own. A degree in Islamic studies? What a joke. Oh I still don’t know what the hell cis white means. She is a Marxist through and through and obviously a product of one of our excellent universities er I mean indoctrination centers. God help us. We are in trouble.