Former President Trump took a shot at NPR after one of its editors openly blasted the public broadcaster, accusing it of bias.
“NO MORE FUNDING FOR NPR, A TOTAL SCAM! EDITOR SAID THEY HAVE NO REPUBLICANS, AND IS ONLY USED TO ‘DAMAGE TRUMP,'” the former president wrote this week on his Truth Social website. “THEY ARE A LIBERAL DISINFORMATION MACHINE. NOT ONE DOLLAR!!!”
Trump’s condemnation came after Uri Berliner, a senior editor at NPR who has worked there for more than two decades, published an op-ed saying his employer has lost its way and criticizing its editorial strategy.
“An open-minded spirit no longer exists within NPR, and now, predictably, we don’t have an audience that reflects America,” Berliner wrote.
The editor’s column sparked strong pushback from NPR’s leadership, which said in a memo to employees this week it was “proud to stand behind the exceptional work that our desks and shows do to cover a wide range of challenging stories.”
Berliner, in his column, wrote that he disagrees with the suggestion that NPR should lose funding, as Trump and other Republican critics of the network have suggested.
“Defunding, as a rebuke from Congress, wouldn’t change the journalism at NPR,” he argued. “That needs to come from within.”