Seven Republican senators issued an ultimatum to NPR CEO Katherine Maher on Monday, demanding she “start a course correction” to make up for the company’s lack of political and ideological diversity in the newsroom.
The letter, led by Senator Kevin Cramer (R., N.D.), expressed “deep concerns regarding the editorial direction under NPR’s national leadership” after former senior editor Uri Berliner published a scathing essay of his employer earlier this month.
In the Free Press essay, the longtime editor criticized NPR for its politically progressive approach in reporting certain topics, including questions surrounding Covid-19 origins and allegations accusing former president Donald Trump of colluding with Russia during the 2016 election. Moreover, the public radio network neglected to report on the Hunter Biden laptop story.
NPR also declared diversity to be its guiding “North Star,” which led to the formation of affinity groups based on a given employee’s racial and sexual identity. Meanwhile, viewpoint diversity was overlooked. When Berliner looked into the partisan affiliations of NPR’s editorial employees based in Washington, D.C., he found 87 registered Democrats and zero registered Republicans.
Berliner, who worked at NPR for 25 years, resigned a week after the essay was published due to the CEO’s “divisive” left-wing views on social media.
In a series of resurfaced tweets circulated by conservative journalist Christpoher Rufo, Maher called Trump a racist and minimized the rioting and looting during the George Floyd protests in 2020. Maher, who started her job as NPR’s new CEO in late March, also received flak for a 2022 TED Talk in which she downplayed the importance of truth — a core principle of journalism.
“Perhaps for our most tricky disagreements, seeking the truth and seeking to convince others of the truth, might not be the right place to start,” she said. “In fact, our reverence for the truth might be a distraction that’s getting in the way of finding common ground and getting things done.”
The group of senators — consisting of Roger Marshall (R., Kan.), Bill Cassidy (R., La.), Dan Sullivan (R., Alaska), John Barrasso (R., Wyo.), Eric Schmitt (R., Mo.), and Marsha Blackburn (R., Tenn.) — called the ideological homogeneity at NPR an “ethical failure.” The radio network, they wrote, is “responsible for providing impartial coverage that accurately informs all Americans, regardless of political affiliation” because NPR receives funding from U.S. taxpayers. For these reasons, the GOP lawmakers urged Maher to course correct.
“If NPR does not want to devolve into a one-sided opinion outlet, it should take a page from its local affiliates and embrace a culture of intellectual diversity and focus on balanced reporting,” they concluded.
The letter, first reported by Fox News, comes as Blackburn and Senator Ted Cruz (R., Texas) are separately pushing to defund NPR due to its former editor’s critical essay. Berliner notably did not want NPR to be defunded; rather, he hoped institutional change would come from the top down.
“As the country becomes more fractured, there’s still a need for a public institution where stories are told and viewpoints exchanged in good faith,” he wrote. “Defunding, as a rebuke from Congress, wouldn’t change the journalism at NPR. That needs to come from within.”