50 NPR employees demand CEO Katherine Maher, editor-in-chief publicly rebuke 'factual inaccuracies'

Uri Berliner resigned from NPR on Wednesday after being suspended over his public rebuke of the outlet

A group of 50 NPR employees on Wednesday signed a letter demanding NPR CEO Katherine Maher and Editor-in-Chief Edith Chapin publicly rebuke the "factual inaccuracies and elisions" in former editor Uri Berliner's essay, which called out the outlet's liberal bias.

"We're writing to urge stronger support for staff who have had their journalistic expertise called into question by one of their own in a public forum," read the letter, which New York Times reporter Ben Mullin posted to X. "We also urge more transparency regarding the consequences of making unauthorized public comments that seek to change NPR's editorial direction."

"[T]here are still unanswered questions about how NPR staff are expected to conduct themselves," it continued. "What and who are our standards for? Are we all being held to the same scrutiny? And will we all be going forward?" 

A group of 50 NPR employees signed a letter calling on Katherine Maher and Edith Chapin to publicly rebuke "factual inaccuracies" in Uri Berliner's essay.  (Left: (Photo by Horacio Villalobos#Corbis/Getty Images), Right: (Photo credit should read SAUL LOEB/AFP via Getty Images))

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Berliner was suspended after blowing the whistle on liberal bias at NPR, but resigned Wednesday. He had called out his employer's coverage of the Hunter Biden laptop, Russiagate, as well as the COVID-19 lab-leak theory in an April 9 essay for The Free Press.

Wednesday's letter from the employees demanded clarification from NPR leadership on how Berliner's essay and the aftermath affected the outlet's "editorial direction." 

"Staff, many from marginalized backgrounds, have pushed for internal policy changes through mechanisms like the DEI accountability committee, sharing of affinity group guidelines, and an ad-hoc content review group," the letter said. 

The NPR employees argued the Berliner essay received a bigger response from leadership than any of those efforts.

They suggested Maher and Chapin clarify what precedent had been set for NPR employees going forward, specifically calling for "detailed consequences for those who repeatedly violate NPR's codes of conduct." 

NPR's headquarters in Washington D.C.  (SAUL LOEB/AFP via Getty Images)

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The NPR employees, who didn't put theri names to the letter, also suggested the publication "offer public support and defense of those individuals whose work was directly undermined by the opinion piece." Additionally, they asked leadership to "publicly and directly call out the piece's factual inaccuracies and elisions."

Maher initially responded to Berliner's essay in a staff memo on Friday and said Berliner's essay was "profoundly disrespectful, hurtful, and demeaning."

In a statement, Berliner called NPR "a great American institution" and said he doesn't support calls to defund the organization.

Katherine Maher, former CEO of Web Summit, during a press conference at Media Village on day one of Web Summit Qatar 2024 at the Doha Exhibition and Convention Center in Doha, Qatar. (Stephen McCarthy/Sportsfile for Web Summit Qatar via Getty Images)

"I respect the integrity of my colleagues and wish for NPR to thrive and do important journalism," he wrote. "But I cannot work in a newsroom where I am disparaged by a new CEO whose divisive views confirm the very problems at NPR I cited in my Free Press essay."

NPR previously announced on Tuesday that Berliner was suspended for five days, without pay. The publication did not immediately return a request for comment.