Biden-fawning NPR boss says her comments on First Amendment being a 'challenge' for journalists were 'taken out of context'

NPR's embattled new chief has broken her silence to accuse critics of 'distorting' her views.

Katherine Maher, who joined the company last month, faced a backlash after an old tweet calling former president Donald Trump 'deranged' emerged.

Maher was also slammed last week after a video began circulating where she claims the First Amendment is the 'number one challenge' when battling 'bad information'.

She was also skewered by her own staff member who blew the whistle on the site's liberal bias in a bombshell article for the Free Press.

But in an interview with the Wall Street Journal she now claims she has a 'robust belief in the First Amendment' and says critics took her comment out of context. 

NPR's new CEO Katherine Maher has broken her silence after her old tweets emerged and a longtime editor turned whistleblower accused the station of having a liberal bias

NPR whistleblower editor Uri Berliner resigned after being suspended for blowing the whistle on the company's liberal bias 

'It is by no means a personal perspective; it's a very bad faith distortion of a nuanced perspective on a policy landscape issue.

'All of this frankly is a bit of a distraction relative to the transformation our organization needs to undergo in order to best serve our mandate.'

The NPR chief also addressed claims by whistleblower Uri Berliner, who resigned from the station after being suspended over an essay he wrote for the Free Press where he accused the company of having lost its way.

'We have robust conversations across the organization, including in response to the article,' Maher said, citing 'clear and well-reasoned pieces' from reviewers that have 'found that our journalism is really solid.'

Berliner, who claimed the publicly-funded broadcaster became an activist organization obsessed with pushing progressive ideals, called Maher 'divisive' in his resignation.

He sparked a storm when he penned an open essay for The Free Press, where he slammed the outlet for being made up almost entirely of Democrats which he argued 'lost America's trust.' 

In response to the 25-year NPR veteran's article, the network suspended him for five days for violating its policy of working or reporting for another outlet without permission.

Berliner announced he submitted his resignation letter to Maher last week.

'I cannot work in a newsroom where I am disparaged by a new CEO whose divisive views confirm the very problems I cite in my Free Press essay,' Berliner said. 

'I am resigning from NPR, a great American institution where I have worked for 25 years. I don't support calls to defund NPR. I respect the integrity of my colleagues and wish for NPR to thrive and do important journalism.'

Maher insisted in a statement that the company remains committed to 'serving all of the American public.'

'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,' she said. 

Berliner said in an interview that the emergence of Maher's old tweets undercuts her message. 

The tweets in question included a veiled shot at Trump branding him a 'deranged racist sociopath', and sharing her support for President Biden by sharing selfies wearing his campaign hats. 

Berliner confirmed his suspension as he sat down for a follow-up interview with NPR, and the network said he would be fired if he overstepped again. 

But the business editor argued Maher's tweets make her unable to steer the taxpayer-funded company in a moderate and fair way. 

'We're looking for a leader right now who's going to be unifying and bring more people into the tent and have a broader perspective on, sort of, what America is all about,' he said. 

'And this seems to be the opposite of that.' 

The tweets also included Maher saying: 'I do wish Hillary wouldn't use the language of 'boy and girl' - it's erasing language for non-binary people.'

In November 2020, she tweeted: 'Lots of jokes about leaving the US, and I get it. But as someone with cis white mobility privilege, I'm thinking I'm staying and investing in ridding ourselves of this spectre of tyranny.' 

Amid the BLM riots, Maher also contended: '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.'  

Before publishing his scathing essay on the state of NPR, Berliner said he tried on numerous occasions to raise his concerns about its liberal tilt. 

In particular, he said coverage of issues dominating the last few years had been tainted by NPR's liberal bias, including the Israel-Hamas war, transgenderism and Covid-19. 

Berliner added that, in his opinion, other outlets have similar issues, but feels that NPR's public funding and insistence that it is moderate mean it has an obligation to remain impartial. 

'I love NPR and feel it's a national trust,' he said. 'We have great journalists here. If they shed their opinions and did the great journalism they're capable of, this would be a much more interesting and fulfilling organization for our listeners.' 

In his article for The Free Press, a popular Substack site, Berliner said the rise of 'advocacy' in journalism especially surged at the same time Donald Trump's political career did. 

'As in many newsrooms, his election in 2016 was greeted at NPR with a mixture of disbelief, anger, and despair,' he wrote. 

Berlinger argued in his article that NPR has 'lost America's trust' because it was filled almost entirely by Democrats 

Berliner also uncovered 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.

Berliner has since been slapped with what NPR dubbed a 'final warning', suspending him for five days but cautioning him that if he worked for another outlet without permission, he would be out of the job. 

He wrote that when he probed the staffers' voting registrations, he shockingly found that not a single Republican was in a leadership position. 

'Concerned by the lack of viewpoint diversity, I looked at voter registration for our newsroom,' he wrote.

'In D.C., where NPR is headquartered and many of us live, I found 87 registered Democrats working in editorial positions and zero Republicans. None.'