NPR journalist blows whistle on network's obsession with DEI and progressive diktats and reveals how stories like Hunter Biden laptop were ignored: 'Here's how we lost America's trust'

A veteran NPR editor has blown the whistle on how the publicly-funded broadcaster has become an activist organization obsessed with pushing progressive ideals. 

Uri Berliner, a business editor at NPR for 25 years, has offered a glimpse into his belief that NPR has gone from a respected information source to one that can't be trusted to honestly cover the news. 

In an essay for The Free Press, Berliner notes that while NPR has always had a liberal bent, the publication was not 'not knee-jerk, activist, or scolding' - something he says changed when Donald Trump entered the political arena. 

Berliner uncovers how NPR knowingly kept information from its audience during the 2016 and 2020 presidential elections. 

He says NPR editors were quick to jump on claims that Donald Trump was a Russian asset - but far more reticent to cover their subsequent debunking.

It was a similar story with the Covid lab leak theory, which NPR continues to discredit, as well as the Hunter Biden laptop, which bosses declined to cover, Berliner says.  

'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,' Berliner writes.

Uri Berliner, a business editor at NPR for 25 years, has offered a glimpse into how he believes NPR has gone from a respected information source to one that can't be trusted to honestly cover the news

Berliner puts much of the blame for NPR's shift to the ultra left on former CEO John Lansing, seen with president Joe Biden in 2023

Berliner tracks the last days of the old NPR to 2011, when he says it still had a leftist tilt, but 'still bore bore a resemblance to America at large,' and an audience that described themselves as 26 percent conservative, 23 percent moderate and 37 percent liberal.

But by 2023, only 11 percent of listeners described themselves as very or somewhat conservative, while 21 percent said they were 'middle of the road,' and 67 percent reported they were very or somewhat liberal. 

'That wouldn’t be a problem for an openly polemical news outlet serving a niche audience. But for NPR, which purports to consider all things, it’s devastating both for its journalism and its business model,' the veteran editor says in his essay.

Berliner explains that Trump's 2016 candidacy for presidency changed how NPR covered politics, writing: 'what began as tough, straightforward coverage of a belligerent, truth-impaired president veered toward efforts to damage or topple Trump’s presidency.'

NPR, Berliner writes, became obsessed with rumors about Trump colluding with Russia to defeat Hillary Clinton, repeatedly covering Representative Adam Schiff as he led the fight against Trump.

Schiff, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, was interviewed by NPR, by Berliner's count, as many as 25 times about Trump and Russia. According to Berliner, Schiff would often allude to alleged evidence of collusion, and his talking points eventually 'became the drumbeat of NPR news reports.'

However, when special council Robert Mueller's report found no credible evidence of collusion between Trump and Russia, 'Russiagate quietly faded from our programming,' Berliner writes.

The journalist cites NPR's former managing editor for news, Terence Samuels, who explained NPR did not cover Hunter Biden's laptop because: 'We don’t want to waste our time on stories that are not really stories, and we don’t want to waste the listeners’ and readers’ time on stories that are just pure distractions.'

'It’s bad to blow a big story,' Berliner adds. 'What’s worse is to pretend it never happened, to move on with no mea culpas, no self-reflection.'

Berliner also slams NPR for ignoring the New York Post's report on Hunter Biden's abandoned laptop and its sordid contents in October, 2020, as the presidential election approached.

The journalist cites NPR's former managing editor for news, Terence Samuels, who explained the decision by saying: 'We don’t want to waste our time on stories that are not really stories, and we don’t want to waste the listeners’ and readers’ time on stories that are just pure distractions.'

As Berliner writes, we now know the laptop did belong to Hunter Biden, and the device revealed concerns about influence peddling by the president's son.

Yet, Berliner recalls hearing a colleague say 'it was good we weren’t following the laptop story because it could help Trump.'

NPR also refused to fully report on the origin of the Covid-19 pandemic, with editors deeming the lab leak theory 'racist' or a 'right-wing conspiracy theory.'

Berliner writes: 'We became fervent members of Team Natural Origin, even declaring that the lab leak had been debunked by scientists.'

He adds: 'Over the course of the pandemic, a number of investigative journalists made compelling, if not conclusive, cases for the lab leak. But at NPR, we weren’t about to swivel or even tiptoe away from the insistence with which we backed the natural origin story.'

Berliner mentions a colleague who compared the lab leak theory to the Bush administration’s unfounded argument that Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction.

'But these two events were not even remotely related. Again, politics were blotting out the curiosity and independence that ought to have been driving our work,' Berliner says of the comparison.

The journalist shares that there is currently 'an unspoken consensus about the stories we should pursue and how they should be framed.' The stories usually cover 'instances of supposed racism, transphobia, signs of the climate apocalypse, Israel doing something bad, and the dire threat of Republican policies.'

Berliner puts much of the blame for NPR's shift to the ultra left on former CEO John Lansing, who he says became a more visible figure after the 2020 killing of George Floyd by a police officer. 

The journalist explains: 'Floyd’s murder, captured on video, changed both the conversation and the daily operations at NPR.'

Instead of exploring the question of systemic racism in America, Berliner writes that the message from the top was clear: 'America’s infestation with systemic racism was declared loud and clear: it was a given. Our mission was to change it.'

Lansing then reportedly declared that 'diversity' would now be NPR's 'North Star', an initiative bolstered by a $1million grant from the NPR foundation. 

Journalists would now be required to ask everyone they interviewed about their race, gender and ethnicity, before entering their answers in a centralized tracking system.

Berliner explains: 'A growing DEI staff offered regular meetings imploring us to 'start talking about race.' Monthly segregated dialogues were offered for “women of color” and “men of color.” Nonbinary people of color were included, too.'

Several employee resource groups based on identity emerged, including 'MGIPOC (Marginalized Genders and Intersex People of Color mentorship program), Mi Gente (Latinx employees at NPR) and NPR Noir (black employees at NPR).'

The groups became so important to NPR's union, SAG-AFTRA, that a current DEI section in the contract requires the company to 'keep up to date with current language and style guidance from journalism affinity groups' and to inform employees with the language diverts from the diktats of the groups.

If it does, Berliner writes,  'the dispute could go before the DEI Accountability Committee.'

Berliner sums it up as: 'In essence, this means the NPR union, of which I am a dues-paying member, has ensured that advocacy groups are given a seat at the table in determining the terms and vocabulary of our news coverage.'

For Berliner, however, 'the most damaging development at NPR' is 'the absence of viewpoint diversity.'

Berliner ends his essay by wishing good luck to NPR's new CEO Katherine Maher, declaring: 'I’ll be rooting for her. It’s a tough job. Her first rule could be simple enough: don’t tell people how to think. It could even be the new North Star'

The journalist shares that there is currently 'an unspoken consensus about the stories we should pursue and how they should be framed.'

The stories usually cover 'instances of supposed racism, transphobia, signs of the climate apocalypse, Israel doing something bad, and the dire threat of Republican policies.'

'It’s almost like an assembly line,' the writes laments.

Berliner writes about a document called the Transgender Coverage Guidance, which asks journalists to avoid the term 'biological sex.'

He goes on to cite the 'bizarre' stories that have stemmed from NPR's DEI obsession: one story claims The Beatles and bird names are racially problematic, others justify looting and suggest fears about crime are racist.

Berliner shares that after finding there were zero Republicans in editorial positions in his DC newsroom, he presented the information in an editorial meeting and suggested there was a diversity problem. 

The journalist says he been persistent, writing emails to top bosses when he thinks the coverage has gone 'off the rails.' He has flagged NPR's use of the term 'latinX,' asking why they use it if most Hispanics hate it.

Berliner says bosses have been respectful of his concerns, 'but nothing changes.' 

'I’ve become a visible wrong-thinker at a place I love. It’s uncomfortable, sometimes heartbreaking,' he writes.

Berliner ends his essay by wishing good luck to NPR's new CEO Katherine Maher, declaring: 'I’ll be rooting for her. It’s a tough job. Her first rule could be simple enough: don’t tell people how to think. It could even be the new North Star.' 

DailyMail.com has reached out to NPR for comment.