NPR essay on losing "America's trust"

If I take Wesley at his word and with sincerity, I suppose my question back would be: What position could one hold, according to Wesley Lowery, that disagrees with Wesley Lowery, that isn't merely a working out of identitarian power dynamics?

 

WBUR, which has been the primary Boston NPR station since NPR was a thing, just went through spring fundraising. The station drilled on the point that it lost 40% of business sponsorship in the last 5 years. The station manager claims it is a movement to online advertising, which doesn't make sense to me.

 

I could ask the same of you and the question would be just as condescending and purposeless.

 

And also beside the point: I don't renounce objectivity.

Isn't is condescending to blithely reduce Berliner's piece to "in fact reactionary boomer/Gen X rejection rhetoric of newsroom integration?"

But I can understand the theoretical value Wesley Lowery brings to the conversation even if I think he responds to critiques by suggesting his worldview can't be reduced or even understood through the lens of critique.

 

Shoulda done this a couple weeks ago. Honestly? Weakens the piece and the critique to do it now. New CEO may be progressive, but is no particular issue here.

https://x.com/uberliner/status/1780610524411048183

 

I have to think NPR is "skewed" somewhat because they lean on their local stations for content, and those local stations are very hit and miss. I get the impression that there isn't a lot of "news direction" at the network - beyond politics. So much of their content is "canned" - reports on "new studies" or programs being launched - I just don't get much of a sense of "what has happened TODAY" in their broadcasts. The story selection is like one of those shops that sells a lot of interesting stuff, but nothing you really need.

 

free link:

https://wapo.st/3xx6P5x

Uri Berliner had worked at NPR for a quarter-century when he wrote the essay that would abruptly end his tenure. On April 9, the Free Press published 3,500 words from Berliner, a senior business editor, about how the public radio network is guilty of journalistic malpractice — for conforming to a politically liberal worldview at the expense of fairness and accuracy.

“It’s true NPR has always had a liberal bent, but during most of my tenure here, an open-minded, curious culture prevailed,” Berliner wrote. “We were nerdy, but not knee-jerk, activist, or scolding. In recent years, however, that has changed.”

The essay, whose arguments were disputed by NPR management and many staffers, plunged the network into a week-long public controversy.

Last week NPR’s new CEO, Katherine Maher, indirectly referenced Berliner’s essay in a note to staff that NPR also published online. “Asking a question about whether we’re living up to our mission should always be fair game: after all, journalism is nothing if not hard questions,” she wrote. “Questioning whether our people are serving our mission with integrity, based on little more than the recognition of their identity, is profoundly disrespectful, hurtful, and demeaning.”

The drama reached a pinnacle Wednesday, when Berliner resigned while taking a shot at Maher.

 

free link:

https://www.wsj.com/business/media/...vb601vnmees&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink

National Public Radio prohibits staff from publishing work for other media outlets without permission. Senior editor Uri Berliner broke that rule when he published a searing, 3,000-word critique of his own storied news organization in the Free Press, a media upstart.

His actions led to a five-day suspension without pay. Then on Wednesday, he posted his resignation letter on X, in which he accused the public radio network’s new chief executive of having divisive views that “confirm the very problems” he cited in his Free Press piece.

A spokeswoman for NPR declined to comment on personnel matters.

 

Ms. Sullivan

NPR needs a serious critique not a politically charged parting shot | Margaret Sullivan


It took only days from Uri Berliner’s publishing his fiery essay about his employer, NPR, to his suspension, to his resignation in a blaze of bad-faith glory.


“You knew the martyrdom was coming,” was how journalist Issac Bailey put it.


And that’s a shame, because every news organization – National Public Radio included – could benefit from more self-scrutiny, more openness to criticism, more willingness to change.

 

I will say this - NPR could use a more eclectic mix of stories and views. There is a "sameness" that permeates the programming it airs.

 

". . . factual inaccuracies and elisions."