NPR suspends editor who criticized network's liberal bias
Fox News senior political analyst Juan Williams joins 'America's Newsroom' to discuss possible reasons behind the 5-day suspension of NPR senior editor Uri Berliner.
Fox News contributor Juan Williams warned the "political baggage" is "glaring" at NPR after the outlet suspended longtime editor Uri Berliner shortly after he spoke out against the network's liberal bias.
Williams, who was fired by the network in 2010, argued the publicly funded broadcaster is "sensitive to criticism" during "America's Newsroom" after Berliner penned a bombshell whistleblower piece in the Free Press that criticized NPR’s coverage on various topics.
NPR EDITOR'S BOMBSHELL ESSAY CAUSING 'TURMOIL' AT LIBERAL OUTLET: REPORT
"We live in a very polarized media landscape, Bill, and my sense of Uri Berliner is he's been there 25 years. This is a man who's won a Peabody... He's an accomplished journalist, but right now he has angered his colleagues inside who see themselves as… under assault from people who don't like them, who want to defund them, people who see them as… in the case of my firing, unable to deal with people who think differently, especially in my case, a Black guy who thinks differently than they think," Williams said on Tuesday.
"They are very sensitive to criticism, even though… they say, 'oh, they're all for being open-minded.' I think what Uri Berliner's pointed out is they're not that open-minded, and I think that… he may want to move on," he continued.
"I don't know if other people at other organizations are going to feel good about people who… go outside of the organization without authorization to attack… the organization itself... I understand if that's why you're being suspended, okay."
Berliner wrote an article that questioned the network's ability to fairly cover topics like Russiagate, the COVID lab leak theory, Hunter Biden’s scandalous laptop, embrace of the theory of systemic racism and accused the organization of downplaying antisemitism following Oct. 7.
"In this case, the political baggage is just so glaring. I don't know how you get away from the fact that… Uri Berliner has spoken a truth about NPR and its political bias," Williams said.
Berliner also wrote that registration records in 2021 showed an astonishing disparity between Democrats and Republicans in the NPR newsroom and said staffers didn’t want to help former President Trump, among other things, to indicate an "open-minded spirit no longer exists" at NPR.
NPR media reporter David Folkenflik broke the news that Berliner was suspended without pay starting last Friday for five days.
Williams pointed out the "intriguing dynamic" of Folkenflik, who has worked with Berliner, breaking the story about his colleague's suspension.
"NPR never spoke to... Folkenflik about this, and Berliner gave Folkenflik the release and the letter announcing that he had been suspended," Williams noted.
Folkenflik spoke to Berliner directly regarding the suspension, who told him Katherine Maher, who was named the CEO and president of the network last month, should not be running the broadcast company.
Fox News contributor Juan Williams spoke out on the news that NPR suspended long-time editor Uri Berliner.
"There's lots of strange things going on, but one of them is that you see Berliner and others, who are critics of NPR, pointing out that the new head of NPR, Katherine Maher, is someone who in the past has been tweeting critically about Donald Trump, and the question is, can she come in and be a uniter, a fair voice at NPR, given that she has been outspoken in her political views," Williams said.
Maher has gone viral for her far-left social media posts, which she has defended despite the widespread scrutiny.
"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," Berliner told Folkenflik.
"And this seems to be the opposite of that."
Fox News' Brian Flood, Hanna Panreck and Joseph A. Wulfsohn contributed to this report.
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