I worked in NPR's extremist 'bubble' for 25 years... we looked down on normal Americans while celebrating trans kids. Now Trump is coming for its 'hateful' journalism and only one thing can save it

When Uri Berliner began his career at National Public Radio 25 years ago, he did so with a sense of pride and the knowledge that his stories would be heard in all corners of the nation.

'One of the things I found really kind of inspiring was, if I worked on a story, there might be a farmer in Nebraska on his tractor first thing in the morning listening to, you know, a story I worked on,' he told the Daily Mail.

'That was one of the reasons I wanted to work at NPR, because of its reach to all kinds of people. But, you know, I don't know that farmer still listens.'

Last year, Berliner wrote an article titled: 'How We Lost America's Trust'.

It detailed how NPR had become obsessed with diversity and progressive storytelling angles, losing its way journalistically and shedding millions of listeners along the way.

On Thursday, his article was submitted as evidence in a hearing of the House DOGE subcommittee, during which Republicans advocated to defund public broadcasters NPR and PBS for becoming 'radical left-wing echo chambers.'

The Republican chairwoman, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, said: 'We believe that you all can hate us on your own dime.'

During the hearing, NPR Chief Executive Katherine Maher admitted the network had been 'mistaken' in not pursuing the Hunter Biden laptop story in 2020, and she disavowed her past social media posts calling Donald Trump a 'racist' and a 'sociopath.'

NPR is partly funded through the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) which was authorized by Congress in 1967. 

Each year, the CPB receives $500 million in taxpayer funding that it distributes to NPR and PBS.

Berliner resigned as an editor after he was suspended over his article last year.

Following the congressional hearing, he reflected on how NPR had reached this point.

'In 2011 our audience was pretty closely divided between people who said they were liberal moderates and conservatives, maybe a little bit to the left,' he explained.

'By 2023 it was six to one progressives and I think the programming, pretty clearly, has been tailored to them. People in in the middle, the moderates, certainly the conservatives, have left. They've just gone, and they've lost that audience.'

He added: 'I think it was not sudden, it was gradual and just built on itself. One of the things was Donald Trump, when he won in 2016, I think the newsroom was stunned, shattered. People were distraught, and it was unexpected.

'I mean, I think there were two things going on. One was that people were personally devastated, but also journalistically, we missed the story. We missed the support that Trump had.'

Berliner said it was clear by that point that NPR was 'living in a bubble' and needed to 'connect to the rest of the country better.'

But that message was not heeded, and storytelling and narratives became 'very fixed and progressive,' including around transgender issues, climate change and Covid-19 school closures,' he said.

'It struck me as wrong, and I was vocal about that, and I thought it was damaging us,' Berliner said.

'I noticed the way our audience was shifting, losing a whole chunk of the country, and that was telling me something.'

Meanwhile, NPR's leadership promoted diversity as the organization's 'North Star,' making it 'the crucial thing, even above journalism,' he said.

'I do think a lot of the Covid coverage really was very misleading, and I think being unwilling to consider the idea that it came from a lab and the science there that supported that possibility.'

As to whether the farmer in Nebraska will tune in again, it is always possible.

'I would hope so,' Berliner said. 'I haven't seen real evidence of that. But look, I always have to be optimistic. I think there are still good people who work there.

'I just think they need to really have much more of a reckoning and soul-searching. And I do think they'd need to hire people with different perspectives.

'I would like to emphasize this more than anything else - that NPR, when I was there, was really suffering from a lack of viewpoint diversity, with people with different political viewpoints, and people willing to express different viewpoints.'

A consensus developed because 'we were sort of in echo chamber,' Berliner said.

He suggested that NPR should 'go out and actively recruit people with different perspectives' such as journalists who went to a religious institution, grew up in a different part of the country, or served in the military.

'There's a way to address that, but I don't think they have,' he said. 'I haven't seen any evidence of that.'

Berliner said the congressional hearing had been a bit like 'watching a WWE match.'

'The Republicans were going to attack aggressively, and Democrats were going to sort of want the conversation to be about cuddly animals and local news in Alaska, and I think that's what we got,' he said.

'I don't think anything was resolved. I think both sides are kind of locked into their position.'

Berliner offered a different solution: Instead of NPR battling against defunding, it should actively refuse public money and become completely transparent about its progressive political stances.

'NPR says that they receive about four, maybe five percent of their funding either directly from the CPB or indirectly through its member stations when they buy NPR programming,' he explained.

Out of NPR's roughly $300 million budget, that would come out to about $15 million.

Berliner said the organization could raise that money elsewhere.

'And it would send a message saying, "We're standing on our own, we're independent," he said. 

'I think they could. It would be a fundraising opportunity for them to say, "We are a progressive network in this time of Trump." And I think there are wealthy, left-leaning people who might want to support them in that effort.'

Berliner acknowledged that there would be 'some fallout' for small rural radio stations if all public funding was lost, but Congress could dedicate a smaller amount specifically for them.

Meanwhile, NPR could get more money from corporate sponsorships, which already make up a large amount of its revenue.

Between 2020 and 2024, NPR's weekly listeners plummeted from 60 million to 42 million.

Becoming an openly progressive network would be unlikely to entice listeners in all corners of America.

'But I don't think they're getting that now,' Berliner said. 'I think that's the problem.'