George Washington University law professor Jonathan Turley on Wednesday said National Public Radio’s (NPR) new chief executive officer appears unwilling to shift the outlet’s coverage after an essay revealed left-wing bias at the taxpayer-funded media organization.
NPR CEO Katherine Maher previously defended the outlet’s news coverage after Uri Berliner, an editor who worked 25 years at the taxpayer-funded outlet, cited examples of the network’s bias in an essay published by the Free Press on April 9, during which he outlined the network’s lack of “viewpoint diversity.” Berliner was later suspended for five days by NPR for publishing the essay without clearance, prompting Turley to comment on what the suspension meant for the network’s direction under Maher. (RELATED: ‘Not Allowed To Respond’: Turley Blasts Gag Order, Says Witness ‘Campaigning’ Against Trump)
“He said, look, there is no viewpoint tolerance at NPR and he said that publicly so they suspended him,” Turley told “Fox and Friends” co-host Steve Doocy. “But, you know, the larger problem here is that he was really articulating something many of us have written for years: That NPR has radically changed.”
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“Many people had hoped that the new CEO would be an opportunity to bring in someone that was a traditional journalist,” Turley elaborated. “Someone who would say, look, we need to tack towards the middle, particularly because we are a publicly-supported media organization. Instead they picked someone who was pretty far left and fairly activist and the situation has gotten even worse and she basically responded by saying go pound sand. We’re not going to change a thing.”
NPR hyped allegations of collusion between Trump’s 2016 campaign and Russia that were brought forth by the Steele Dossier, which was later discredited.
“Why does NPR need federal funding?” Doocy asked Turley. “I mean MSNBC doesn’t need federal funding and they’re doing just fine.”
“That’s the real question, Steve,” Turley responded. “I don’t think it matters what the slant or bias is, most of us see a very heavy-slanted NPR. But the issue is really should we have a state-funded media at all?”
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