Uri Berliner wrote an essay for The Free Press, a Democrat-run outlet pushing back against the party’s increasing Maoism, in which he excoriated the fact that taxpayer-funded NPR has stopped even pretending to report political news. Instead, he explained, it shapes the news to align with Democrat party values (confirming what conservatives have long known). NPR got huffy about the whole thing, very publicly refuted Berliner’s contentions, and suspended him for five days without pay. On Wednesday, Berliner announced that he had left NPR, and did so in a way that makes it possible for him to sue the institution.

If you’re just catching up on the whole Berliner saga, Berliner’s original essay is here. In my analysis, I admit to being a bit jaded. I noted out that, while Berliner is correct that NPR is not an honest reporter about core national issues, he is still enmeshed in leftist shibboleths.

That’s rather amazing when you think about it. Most people, once aware that they’re dealing with dishonest brokers, view askance everything those brokers sell…but not Berliner. He still buys into the leftist narrative about race and Trump, and I’m sure he does on such issues as transgenderism, the border, and other leftist issues and values. He’s only halfway down the road to Damascus. Still, his views may still change.

Image by Andrea Widburg.

That’s because, typically for leftists, once the exposé hit the news, the powers that be at NPR didn’t pause for a moment of self-reflection. Instead, they attacked.

NPR’s chief news executive, Edith Chapin, promptly wrote a memo to staff insisting that NPR’s policy of “inclusion…is critical to telling the nuanced stories of this country and our world.” She also accused Berliner of being “profoundly disrespectful.” Meanwhile, the new CEO, Katherine Maher, wrote a public message about the wonders of NPR, insisting that it’s keeping the “public trust.” It’s possible to read those messages as attacks on Berliner’s credibility.

While NPR’s female leaders were trying to convince the world of their intellectual probity, NPR suspended Berliner for five days without pay. That happened even as people started examining Maher’s values, which were an amusing revelation of every Democrat shibboleth, as well as being a concerning window into the kind of people in charge at NPR.

On Wednesday, Berliner finally had enough and let the world know that he’d quit:

My resignation letter to NPR CEO @krmaher pic.twitter.com/0hafVbcZAK

— Uri Berliner (@uberliner) April 17, 2024

Let me repeat his message:

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. 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 cite in my Free Press essay.

Berliner's claim that Maher “disparaged” him speaks volumes, as it sets up Berliner’s lawsuit against Maher and NPR for defamation. That would be fun. Of course, given that Berliner attacked NPR for abandoning journalistic ethics, I’m confused that he still “respect[s] the integrity of [his] colleagues.” Some of them, maybe, but all of them?

However, there’s another interesting legal question lurking here. One could say that the suspension and verbal abuse in response to Berliner’s revealing NPR’s inner secrets drove Berliner to quit. That matters because NPR isn’t just another corporation.  Instead, it was established by an act of Congress and receives almost 40% of its funding from taxpayers. This means that it isn’t an ordinary non-profit but, instead, can be viewed as a quasi-governmental entity.

Given that NPR is a government organization both in origin and funding, I would argue that unique status means that it’s subject to the Whistleblower Protection Act (5 U.S.C. § 1201 et seq.). That holds that people who work for the government—and NPR employees sort of do—cannot be subject to retaliation when they speak out about illegal conduct, mismanagement, the gross waste of funds, or the abuse of authority. It would be very interesting to see Berliner include a whistleblower claim in any action he files against NPR.

Ultimately, Berliner’s stand isn’t going to change much at NPR—that is, it won’t change much unless Trump wins and has a Republican-majority Congress at his side. Even if Maher is replaced as a PR move, the problem isn’t Maher. Someone—indeed, many someones—hired her. Thus, the problem is the institution itself, and a Democrat-dominated federal government will never touch it while you keep paying for it.