April 16, 2024

"NPR has formally punished Uri Berliner, the senior editor who publicly argued a week ago that the network had 'lost America's trust' by..."

"... approaching news stories with a rigidly progressive mindset. Berliner's five-day suspension without pay, which began last Friday, has not been previously reported. Yet the public radio network is grappling in other ways with the fallout from Berliner's essay for the online news site The Free Press.... In an interview...."

In presenting Berliner's suspension Thursday afternoon, the organization told the editor he had failed to secure its approval for outside work for other news outlets, as is required of NPR journalists. It called the letter a "final warning," saying Berliner would be fired if he violated NPR's policy again....
His essay and subsequent public remarks stirred deep anger and dismay within NPR. Colleagues contend Berliner cherry-picked examples to fit his arguments and challenge the accuracy of his accounts. They also note he did not seek comment from the journalists involved in the work he cited....

79 comments:

RideSpaceMountain said...

Your tax dollars are being used by mask-wearing Karens to scold you. How dare he bring that to light.

mezzrow said...

There's some introspection for you.

Narayanan said...

punished for using outside resources to publish his whistleblower complaint without clearing with higher authority

wendybar said...

Not surprised. They fired Juan Williams for saying to Bill O'Reilly "But when I get on the plane, I got to tell you, if I see people who are in Muslim garb and I think, you know, they are identifying themselves first and foremost as Muslims, I get worried. I get nervous."

You see, you can't have an opinion, other than what Progressives approve, and if they DON'T, you get treated like MAGA. Get used to it. If they have their way, YOU will get cancelled if you don't fall in line.

Gusty Winds said...

Ich bin ein Berliner

Fits, doesn't it?

The Vault Dweller said...

I'm legitimately shocked.

Original Mike said...

"Yet the public radio network is grappling in other ways with the fallout from Berliner's essay for the online news site The Free Press…"

What fallout? It's common knowledge to those who are to the right of NPR's listeners. The NPR faithful will simply discount it.

Enigma said...

Streisand effect in progress.

NPR's federal funding will be sliced to $0 at the next Republican opportunity, and the Rs stand to mimic the Ds in turning the enforcement arms of government on them. As with Roe v. Wade this may take 50 years, but it's surely an R action item now.

Berliner might team up with Matt Taibbi, Bari Weiss, Catherine Herridge, and Joe Rogan to create an "integrity news outlet" that the center left will prefer over MSNBC and the State Media clan. Anarchy ends only when the center left grows a backbone.

The Vault Dweller said...

If NPR wanted to persuade people it didn't have a far left bias, this was perhaps the worst course of action to choose. I'm assuming the new CEO signed off on this at the minimum. If so, based on that and her public statements that have been circulating, her judgment is awful and her instincts seem to be authoritarian.

Paddy O said...

Maher is also having him stay after work for several weeks so he can write "I must not tell lies" over and over again using Maher's special quill.

cubanbob said...

I hope that Trump gets Congress to sell off each station to the highest bidder.

Larry J said...

“Who says we don’t have viewpoint diversity at NPR? Why, we have people ranging from Stalinist to Maoist!”

Original Mike said...

"If NPR wanted to persuade people it didn't have a far left bias, this was perhaps the worst course of action to choose. I'm assuming the new CEO signed off on this at the minimum. If so, based on that and her public statements that have been circulating, her judgment is awful and her instincts seem to be authoritarian."

Yes, her public statements paint her as a far left zealot. There was a time when they would have disqualified her from leading an organization which sought to be more discreet regarding its political sympathies. That time has passed.

The Vault Dweller said...

If Republicans are smart (they usually aren't) they will use whatever appropriate House committee or sub-committee has sway and call up the NPR CEO and some other executives at NPR, along with Uri and review the whole matter publicly. Something tells me Uri would be enthused to give his views on the situation.

Jimmy said...

New head of NPR might give you an idea of what they really think

"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."

Just a normal left wing feminist. the reason we got biden,Obama, Clinton. The cheerleader for killing babies, bringing in criminals, no bail et al.
Berliner grew back the balls he gave away when he joined NPR. That is a sin, and he will pay for it.
Enigma is spot on, Berliner should go the Bari Weiss route.

Mike (MJB Wolf) said...

Classic "kill the messenger" strategy. They realize they'll still be defunded next January, right?

Randomizer said...

NPR is grappling with public criticism, but no mention of abandoning their Leftist slant.

After reading tweets from Katherine Maher, the new CEO of NPR:

“I mean, sure, looting is counterproductive,” she wrote in a separate post that month. “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.”

It would be interesting to know who hired her and what made a controversial person with no experience managing a news organization, the best person for the job.

Chuck said...

Do all of the TrumpWingers understand that Berliner isn't being suspended for criticizing NPR, but rather for going to another news outlet without authorization (a basic standard in the industry) and for not contacting the NPR hosts, reporters and producers whose stories he cited for criticism.

I don't think NPR is beyond criticism; NPR has had an independent Public Editor/Ombudsman for decades. I do think that Berliner's essay was a garbage-y effort at that. There has been some NPR blowback versus Berliner and I have enjoyed reading it.

Original Mike said...

Blogger Chuck said..."Do all of the TrumpWingers understand that…"

What in the hell does this have to do with Trump?

Vance said...

Who here had Chuck endorsing the punishment of anyone who dissents from the totalitarian left?

Put yer hands down... I realize it's unanimous!

Everyone, but everyone, knew that Chuck would endorse anything that smacks of censorship and fascism.

Paddy O said...

The sad thing to me is I really did like NPR (regularly KPCC listener for many years) and really want NPR to actually be what they say they are. But the fact they are so blind to their bias is either shameful incompetence or outright mendacious arrogance. And I genuinely think that Berliner's article was written because he too wants NPR to be better, to succeed, to truly exemplify what they say that are, what they've been commissioned to be. His frustration about not being heard came out in the only way left for him.

And that they respond how they do both show the truth of his statements and the likelihood it's just plain fully aware partisan, journalistic lying. They know he's right and they don't want at all to change. Which isn't surprising. It's very sad.

We need good, fair journalists who can dig into the issues of the day and ask hard questions to all those in power. We need a genuinely good NPR. But we have hollow people taking over and lying in ways that everyone knows they are lying--just some are perfectly fine with that.

Paddy O said...

Chuck, not a Trumpwinger here (I just wish all politicians were treated with the same examination as Trump is). But it's either very naive or likewise mendacious to not see that NPR is punishing him in a way that isn't illegal but also is precisely because of the content of his article. Like a company punishing any whistle-blower for whatever nitpicky regulation they can. That's how revenge against whistleblowers works.

Smilin' Jack said...

NPR used to have some entertaining and even informative shows (e.g. Car Talk). Now diworsity and Trump-derangement syndrome have made it completely unlistenable. Their "inclusivity" obsession included me out some time ago, as both a listener and a contributor. I suspect I'm not alone in that.

Original Mike said...

Amusing to watch a commenter pretending to be conservative rush to the aid of an organization pretending to be nonpartisan.

Temujin said...

The current head of NPR, Katherine Maher, is enjoying her 60+ minutes of fame on X and other blog spaces as her past tweets over the last 6 or so years are being unveiled. She is even more awful, more of a caricature of the ultra prah-grah-sahv than you could even imagine in a living human being.
Don't expect any changes in attitudes or perspectives coming out of NPR- ever. And though I know they don't exist entirely on Government funding, it does seem ridiculous that organizations that are clearly at odds with at least half the nation, and in some cases, even more- regularly receive millions of taxpayer dollars to help keep them operating. Planned Parenthood and NPR come to mind.

If they are important enough, those who use or love their services can pay for them- like any other business with a specific mission or mandate. I see no reason why my tax dollars should pay for any of it. It does not serve the public good.

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

There’s too grappling going on out there… Senator Hollings

Gusty Winds said...

Blogger Chuck said...
Do all of the TrumpWingers understand that Berliner isn't being suspended for criticizing NPR, but rather for going to another news outlet without authorization (a basic standard in the industry) and for not contacting the NPR hosts, reporters and producers whose stories he cited for criticism.

Chuck is the perfect embodiment of the modern day American leftists. He fully believes the bullshit propaganda and narratives. Regurgitates them without hesitation, thought, reflection or analysis. He doesn't look for what lies underneath.

This is because for the modern day leftist, there is nothing underneath their own skin. It's why skin color matters, and colorblindness is now racist. It's why gender defines morality.

Berliner was suspended for the content of his criticism. Which for me, strengthens the content of his character. This is foreign and forbidden by American liberals.

RideSpaceMountain said...

NPR singled out for blatant journalistic bias. Transgendered ketamine-addicted Malaccan child prostitutes hardest hit. And now a brief word on why you should donate your car to National Public Radio.

Real American said...

Berliner accused NPR of being run by woke censors who fear alternative viewpoints and they went out of their way to immediately prove him right.

Mr. O. Possum said...

NPR jumped the shark when it went into the tank for Bill Clinton.

Stopped listening more than 20 years ago.

Its annual praise for Susan Stanberg's ghastly cranberry sauce recipe was enough to gag anyone.

Old and slow said...

I used to listen to my local NPR station constantly even though it was politically quite opposed to my views generally. I even donated to the fund raising drive once or twice. I guess it was 5 or 6 years ago that I stopped listening. I just couldn't stand the dreary political repetition and dishonesty anymore. I still listen to This American Life via podcasts, but that's it. I would LOVE to have a more even handed NPR back again, and I would I would support it.

Howard said...

Free speech we like

Original Mike said...

Years ago I was a regular NPR listener and contributor. Now when I occasionally dial in, it feels like a parody channel. Last piece I heard was handwringing on the (apparent) fact that not enough People Of Color were buying EVs and how "we" could fix that.

Seriously?

TaeJohnDo said...

chuck, do you have a mirror in your house? If so, how can you stand to look at yourself?

Enigma said...

@Temujin: it does seem ridiculous that organizations that are clearly at odds with at least half the nation, and in some cases, even more- regularly receive millions of taxpayer dollars to help keep them operating. Planned Parenthood and NPR come to mind.

If they are important enough, those who use or love their services can pay for them- like any other business with a specific mission or mandate. I see no reason why my tax dollars should pay for any of it. It does not serve the public good.


The fully explicit intent of post-1965 Great Society government is to ensure that competitive losers become guaranteed winners through government intervention. They took the Christian afterlife notion of "the last shall be first" and turned it into policy. That's Marxist leftism in a nutshell: bring the Christian idea of heaven to earth by any means possible.

Forced outcomes do not work, they cannot work, and they violate the inherent brutality of competition, nature, and evolution, but fragile utopian dreamers are going to dream. I blame the billionaire oligarchs for pandering to this crowd (buying votes; buying a blind eye to their monopolies) as they keep shallow peons happy with NPR, PBS, bread, and circuses.

Bill Gates = MSNBC & Slate, Jeff Bezos = Washington Post, Bloomberg = Bloomberg, etc.

MalaiseLongue said...

To those urging Uri Berliner's defection to The Free Press, what makes you think this deal isn't already in the works, and that it wasn't in progress before Berliner published his article there? As soon as I read it, I thought Berliner must have decided to exit NPR the way Bari Weiss left the New York Times. Kudos to both of them.

rehajm said...

As line item spending priorities go NPR is well below the keep/dump line. Trench at the bottom of the Pacific below…

Jupiter said...

"Do all of the TrumpWingers understand that Berliner isn't being suspended for criticizing NPR, but rather for going to another news outlet without authorization (a basic standard in the industry) and for not contacting the NPR hosts, reporters and producers whose stories he cited for criticism."

Yeah, Chuck, we understand that. Now shut up. Shut your hole, Chuck.

Dave Begley said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Hassayamper said...

Quite on-brand for the statist scum at NPR.

As an educated and cultured right-wing extremist, I used to have NPR playing in my car half or more of the time. (Science Friday was a particular favorite.) Only one out of every ten or twelve of their stories made me notice their political bias, and could be tolerated as a peek behind enemy lines to see what they were thinking.

I quit listening to them routinely at the end of the Bush Jr. administration, when the ratio of stories changed from one in twelve being whiny left-wing jeremiads to one in three. Since 2016 they have provided essentially nothing else and I have not listened to them a single time since then, unless it was background noise someplace I was visiting.

I want them to be completely de-funded of tax monies, and run off the campuses of all public educational institutions. They are parrots. Shills. Puppets. Craven propaganda mouthpieces. Mere stenographers to the rich and powerful. Fuck them.

Richard said...

I am only surprised that it took NPR this long to punish him. I expect that they will shortly follow through with their threat to fire him.

Drago said...

Vance: "Who here had Chuck endorsing the punishment of anyone who dissents from the totalitarian left?"

Drago: "Ooh! Ooh! Right here..."

Vance: "Put yer hands down... I realize it's unanimous!"

Drago: "Oh. Ok"

Vance: "Everyone, but everyone, knew that Chuck would endorse anything that smacks of censorship and fascism."

Bears repeating. This has been the modus operandi of our lying faux "lifelong republican" Chuck for well over 8 years.

I must admit, one of my favorite Chuck-Self-Owns was Meade's public takedown and complete exposure of LLR-democratical And Violent Homosexual Rage Rape Fantasist Chuck's hilariously stupid and far left immigration and border policy preferences (spoiler: complete open borders...but saying "really strong borders" over and over...sound familiar?) was a masterpiece.

If you dig long enough on any, and I do mean any, issue or politician or policy, you will inevitably and invariably find Chuckles not just on the dem side (which he has always been), and not just on the left, but actually on the farthest of the far left.

In fact, the farther on the extreme left Chuckles self-exposes himself to be, the more vociferous and often violent and threatening he becomes in professing to be a "true conservative"!

Sometimes its so funny you'll find your sides hurting from laughter!

And that's a good thing since we can all use more laughter in our lives, don't you think?

Meanwhile, its also fun to watch Chuck's other fake conservative-y amigos (online alter egos one wonders?) Rich and lonejustice try and catch up with the subterfuge! Good luck with that!

Amadeus 48 said...

I haven't listened to NPR in years. The issue is never the issue. The issue is the revolution.

The new NPR CEO Katherine Maher is a hoot. She pursues a determined policy of adopting the progressive thought of the day. And, as Matt Taibbi points out, "Maher’s timeline reads so much like the Titania McGrath site spoofing overeducated nonsense-babbling white ladies that it’s difficult to believe she’s real — she even looks like the fictional McGrath, if Titania had more money to spend on personal upkeep."

Drago said...

Lem the artificially intelligent: "There’s too grappling going on out there… Senator Hollings"

A classic!

This actually came up in conversation a couple days ago in a "loose" business meeting over lunch. So good timing.

That particular impression by Rush of Senator "Fresh Out Of Central Casting" Hollings was recalled as (in damn near Foghorn Leghorn mode) "Why, there's just too much consumin' goin' on roun' he-ah!"

Jeff C said...

Show me the man, and I'll show you the crime. --Levrenti Beria

Drago said...

Paddy O: "Chuck, not a Trumpwinger here (I just wish all politicians were treated with the same examination as Trump is). But it's either very naive or likewise mendacious to not see that NPR is punishing him in a way that isn't illegal but also is precisely because of the content of his article."

We are so far down the pathway of Post-Chuck's Exposure As A Far Left Democratical Liar that its astonishing that there are still moderates or moderate republicans and even conservatives that give him any benefit of the doubt.

Admittedly, the number will to do that over time has decreased. But the fact that some still do shows why republicans/conservatives always lose to the dems. The republicans/conservatives still want to play by Marquis of Queensbury rules believe this is the 1960's and golly gee whiz can't we all just get along and find a compromise on the pathway to shared beliefs and desired outcomes?

I guess I'll catch you chaps at the yacht club where we can watch the regatta while eating cucumber sandwiches!

Drago said...

Ugh. Marquess, not Marquis.

exhelodrvr1 said...

"Who here had Chuck endorsing the punishment of anyone who dissents from the totalitarian left?"

That's the free spot in the middle of the bingo card.

Art in LA said...

I can't wait for NPR's new show, "Some Things Considered." I better break out my checkbook, it's always fundraising season over there, right?

Robert Marshall said...

Punishing Berliner for a "process" violation (expressing his opinion through another outlet without permission from NPR) is wrong, because he made quite an effort (described in the Free Press article he wrote) to get a "sit-down" with NPR brass to discuss his complaints, and they wouldn't hear him out. He approached it the right way, trying to express himself to the folks up the chain of command from him, and they ignored him. I hope Congress de-funds NPR; they deserve it.

Michael said...

My drift from NPR began 25 years ago this month. In the wake of the Columbine shooting, Morning Edition had someone who ranted on how the whole massacre was about race. Since only of of the kids shot was black I thought it was a curious take.

Soon after I began to notice more and more how each story was being filtered thru race, gender, ethnicity,etc. Increasingly I found myself thinking, "Well that's a stupid take.". And soon the emerging internet radio gave me options.

Berliners comments were something I understood decades ago.

PM said...

Great read. Did some work for NPR in the Eighties in DC. Had been in many boardrooms before that, and was surprised to see mostly women around the table - couple of them black. It was refreshing. Different. Calendar pages ripping off to Mr Berliner. Yow.

hawkeyedjb said...

Enigma said...
"NPR's federal funding will be sliced to $0 at the next Republican opportunity"

Not a f**king chance. What universe do you live in?

Marcus Bressler said...

Did he get paid for that interview? If not, how is it outside work?

Former Illinois resident said...

Fine start for Maher. Expect her to implode with the month. Her tweets, her white-apologist demeanor, her constant woke-progressive narrative will quickly exhaust the remaining listenership and tank fundraising altogether.

NPR and its affiliates have lost substantial proportion of their traditional older white listener-base, the same older white folks who were substantial proportion of their indiviual annual-membership fee-contributor base. Chicago's NPR affiliate, WBEZ, is on its last legs, likely to become wholly preprogramed format with little original content, and mere fraction of its former listenership base.

Sad turn of events, evolving over the decades. There was a time we listened to NPR morning, noon and night, day after day, month after month, year after year. Sent that check each year too. No more, none of it.

James said...

NPR stonewalls the journalist who brings the story to their attention, then punishes the journalist for taking the story to other news outlets. In other words, NPR's strategy was "catch and kill."

Quaestor said...

"Colleagues contend Berliner cherry-picked examples to fit his arguments and challenge the accuracy of his accounts."

The NPR myrmidons could demolish Berliner's criticisms by citing just one example of unreservedly pro-Trump commentary broadcast by their news division, or three unreservedly Trump-neutral items. But they cannot. These are things that do not exist within the entire corpus of NPR. Consequently, they are reduced to accusing him of cherry-picking. Quite deliciously ironic, one must say.

I remember listening to NPR while on a horse-buying trip to Pennsylvania in October of 1988. Pulling a four-stall trailer five hundred miles is mentally exhausting, and good radio content is a welcome relief or would be if not for NPR's desperate leftism. The starter's gun for the White House race had well and truly sounded; it was Michael Dukakis, a hopeless accomplishment-free dweeb who thought riding a tank would cure his dweebishness, versus Vice-President George H. W. Bush, who thought riding Ronald Reagan's legacy would inflate his opponent's dweebishness to the nth power. And he was right. Dukakis was doomed according to the polls.

NPR's rescue plan involved an hour-long Terry Gross interview with hack writer peddling Gary Sick's "October Surprise" disinformation. Perhaps you remember this bullshit, that during the Iran hostage crisis, then running-mate George Bush made a deal in Paris with representatives of Ayatollah Khomeini to hold the Americans prisoner past the end of the Carter presidency? Sick could not make the timeline of his alleged conspiracy jibe with Bush's campaign stops, so he declared that he was given a ride aboard an SR-71 from Seattle to Paris through connivance with CIA Director William Casey. Not once did Terry Gross ask a question regarding actual evidence.

JaimeRoberto said...

Do all of the guidos understand that Capone isn't being sent to jail for being a gangster, but rather for tax evasion?

walter said...

Original Mike said...
Blogger Chuck said..."Do all of the TrumpWingers understand that…"
What in the hell does this have to do with Trump?
--
Understand Chuck!'s computer desk is surrounded by Trump dartboards and empty jugs of Tanqueray.

One of my last listens to NPR was an interview with a Hispanic guest who equated Trump's border wall with the Berlin wall.
Inside out brain fart delivered with pseudo gotcha pretension and zero awareness. Back then, I tried to communicate with the guest via email to try to explain the difference...to no avail.
A bit later, the zealous CAGW spewing sealed the deal.

Quaestor said...

Howard writes, "Free speech we like."

Yes, the Democrats interpret the First Amendment as a license to lie, deceive, falsely, defame, slander, and libel. And Howard approves. Ho-hum.

Could you surprise us, Howard? Please, just once to break the monotony of your irksome scribbles?

YoungHegelian said...

Even after I turned to the conservative Dark Side back in the early 2000's, I still listened to NPR out of a combination of years of habit and to keep up with how the "Other Side" thought.

And, then in 11/2016, Trump was elected. Overnight, almost as if a switch had been clicked on, NPR went insane. They became unlistenable for anyone who was not a true believer. More and more, shows had one overarching mission -- stop Trump to protect the Democratic establishment.

Even my wife, nowhere near as politically rabid nor right-wing as her spousal unit, told me one day in late 2016 "They (NPR) have just lost their fucking minds".

Jamie said...

protests not prioritizing the private property ofa system of oppression founded on treating people’s ancestors as private property.

So many silly errors in such a short space.

1. "Protests" against (supposed, alleged) police brutality do not involve stealing high-dollar items from stores. That is looting, just as she initially identifies it.

2. "Prioritize" is not the opposite of "trample and destroy." (But she couldn't bring herself to say "respect," because - I infer - to do so would imply that private property rights might actually be Worthy of respect.)

3. Slavery wasn't the foundation of private property rights; in fact, it continues to thrive in places where such rights are very much... not prioritized, shall I say?

4. And of course - your Afternoon Pedantry Moment - that "system of oppression" to which she refers, slavery, isn't about treating people's ancestors as property.

Drago said...

Quaestor: "NPR's rescue plan involved an hour-long Terry Gross interview with hack writer peddling Gary Sick's "October Surprise" disinformation. Perhaps you remember this bullshit, that during the Iran hostage crisis, then running-mate George Bush made a deal in Paris with representatives of Ayatollah Khomeini to hold the Americans prisoner past the end of the Carter presidency? Sick could not make the timeline of his alleged conspiracy jibe with Bush's campaign stops, so he declared that he was given a ride aboard an SR-71 from Seattle to Paris through connivance with CIA Director William Casey. Not once did Terry Gross ask a question regarding actual evidence."

Great callback


Long time readers of Althouse blog may remember a back and forth I had with an Althouse lefty on this very subject. It might very well have been Robert Cook.

I hit the lefty with this insane SR-71 hop HWBush somehow finagled while Cater was President and you'd think an SR-71 flying low over the French countryside might be a noticeable thing.

First off, it would have immediately resulted in at least 17 million Frenchmen surrendering on the spot and offering to cook dinner for the SR71 pilotos while the SR71 pilots channeled their inner Naval Aviator and bedded the Frenchmen's mistresses (not their wives, naturally, as there is protocol that must be maintained for this sort of thing.)

The lefty remained convinced HWBush and Reagan were guilty of Treason based on this hilarious book. Just not sufficiently guilty to prove in a court of law.

This was 44 years ago, 36 years before Trump. But "Trump changed everything!"

Uh huh.

Did you know Truman called Dewey a "Hitler AND a Stalin" during the 1948 campaign?

But "Trump changed everything!"

Uh huh.

Jamie said...

Do all of the TrumpWingers understand that Berliner isn't being suspended for criticizing NPR, but rather for going to another news outlet without authorization (a basic standard in the industry) and for not contacting the NPR hosts, reporters and producers whose stories he cited for criticism.

I dunno, Chuck, are you familiar with the concept of plausible deniability?

And, just to gauge your credulousness, do you believe that the 91 indictments against Trump are prima facie evidence that he must be guilty of something? And, as these indictments either fail to bear fruit one by one on grounds that they're a bizarre and unprecedented interpretation of a law, that no one's ever been prosecuted under the law in question, that the accuser was scouted and recruited by a well-known opponent of Trump and oddly can't remember anything about the incident of which she accused Trump, and so forth, or actually boost Trump's popularity, do you find yourself thinking, "Hmm, maybe there's some prosecutorial overreach here" (I won't go so far as to ask if you detect lawfare) or rather, "Shoot! Well, at least there are still a bunch out there. They're going to get him on something!"

And finally, if the latter, what would it take to change your mind? Not about Trump as a person - I'm no fan of his in that regard - but that the ridiculously large number of indictments are not evidence of inchoate guilt but instead evidence that Trump's opponents will go to any lengths necessary to "get" him?

They picked a great test case, didn't they? Trump is so "polarizing," as they say, that his opponents can try pretty literally anything to defenestrate him. They, after all, control what the great mass of passive information consumers will see about Trump - all they have to do is keep banging the "Obviously he deserves it - maybe not for this, but surely for one of the 90 other things, or if not for any of those, then surely for his general grossness [as our friend Vicki from Pasadena said on a different thread today that is actually about Trump]!" drum, and those passive consumers won't be alerted to the danger to everyone's civil liberties.

And by doing it to Trump, his opponents get to see what works best with the least blowback, so they can use those particular tactics against the next person, who may not be so "polarizing."

grimson said...

In looking at Althouse posts with the journalism tag, I'm surprised to see that she never posted about James Bennet's Economist article, "When the New York Times lost its way."

It details how things have deteriorated there, which culminated in Bennet's forced resignation after publication of an op-ed by Tom Cotton.

It covers some of the same ground as Berliner as far as institutional bias, ("The reality is that the Times is becoming the publication through which America's progressive elite talks to itself about an America that does not really exist"), but also goes into how buying out experienced staff and bringing in young writers from digital media had fundamentally changed the culture there. Journalism and the free exchange of ideas are now out. ("To me, publishing conservatives helped fulfil the paper's mission; to them, I think, it betrayed that mission.")

Now all we need is an insider's account about the internal biases of AP.

Aggie said...

I was wondering what form the punishment would take. So they managed to find a broken rule and have dialed up the sentence to its extreme, making it a 'final offense'. Did they mention the 'other' offenses that have been building in the Subject Employee's personnel file, that merit making this one the runner-up to the 'straw that broke the camels back'?

Now I'm wondering what that charged offense will look like, and when it will hit - and you know, it will.

NPR has become unlistenable. They had always been biased, but the bias started getting shrill in the 90's. And then bias began to dictate which stories they would cover, ignoring the rest. Then it became absurd, where the dialog became so ridiculous that one couldn't decide whether it was self-parody or not. Now it has moved past that, even more extreme. Now it's like listening to the most tedious, self-involved, mundane discussion imaginable, on the most arcane subjects imaginable. It's boring, and unlistenable. Sad.

MadisonMan said...

I did notice that WPR here in Madison is shifting their stuff to more canned and less original content in the near future. I think I saw that somewhere. I assume it's because of declines in fund-raising probably linked to their obvious left-leaning, even in Madison.

gspencer said...

You mean that "All Things Considered" doesn't consider all things?

You know, this could change my thinking that lefties are not really being honest.

walter said...

Some things considerd deplorable.

Josephbleau said...

I decided I did not need anymore NPR tote bags after Garrison Kielor was fired.

Big Mike said...

The Babylon Bee has the best take so far:

A journalist and senior editor at National Public Radio has been suspended, leading to the astounding revelation that there was a journalist working at NPR.

MadisonMan said...

I just noticed the headline: "NPR suspends veteran editor as it grapples with his public criticism"
(laugh) Like that will do anything but amplify the criticism.

effinayright said...

Funny thing about that SR-71 nonsense: that plane WAS a two-seater, but the guy in the back seat did all the navigating, while the pilot hung on for dear life as he flew the ornery sumbitch, which had a habit undergoing compressor stalls and flame outs, at Mach 3+.

The plane did have an autopilot, but the extremes the SR-71 went though at such high speeds required constant vigilance and feedback by that pilot AND the back-seater.

A untrained George HW Bush sitting passively would have been worse-than-useless.



WWIII Joe Biden, Husk-Puppet + America's Putin said...

LOL - the CEO is a complete leftist Stalinist woke white left fem-Nazi.

Bunkypotatohead said...

Maher is like a bleach blond version of Alissa Heinerscheid, though she probably won't wreck the corporation with her woke outbursts.
Berliner should send her a bag of Schweddy balls to suck on.

Mike (MJB Wolf) said...

Amusing to watch a commenter pretending to be conservative rush to the aid of an organization pretending to be nonpartisan.

I'm not amused by the banned commenter but YMMV.

Tachycineta said...

And now Berliner has resigned, which I believe was inevitable, given his story in The Free Press.

It is profoundly sad to observe what has become of NPR and also their affiliates. 1A produced by WAMU for example., Their Friday News Roundup has on some Fridays become an outlet for journalists to not analyze the news as much as offering criticisms of those they disagree with. Arthur Delaney from Huff Post is one of the worst - it makes for a tedious listen.

Rusty said...

Who let Chuck ooze in under the doorjamb?

Anthony said...

I used to listen to the UW public radio station in the mornings for classical music (early 1980s). Listened for several years in the later 1990s to Talk of the Nation and Science Friday (the former's host, Ray Suarez, was excellent and, although obviously a leftist, stayed very balanced), but by 9/11 they'd gone full Pravda. Well, even before that, every other ToTN was about gays and every other SF was about global warming, so stopping wasn't difficult.