‘NO MORE FUNDING’: Trump Rages Against NPR After Top Editor Accuses Employer of Bias

Former President Donald Trump tore into National Public Radio on Wednesday, citing the recent criticism from senior editor Uri Berliner – who took NPR to task in a highly publicized essay earlier in the week.

“NO MORE FUNDING FOR NPR, A TOTAL SCAM! EDITOR SAID THEY HAVE NO REPUBLICANS, AND IS ONLY USED TO “DAMAGE TRUMP.” THEY ARE A LIBERAL DISINFORMATION MACHINE. NOT ONE DOLLAR!!!” wrote Trump on his Truth Social platform.

Berliner, an award-winning journalist and graduate of the Columbia School of Journalism, published his essay in Bari Weiss’s The Free Press on Tuesday. It is titled, “I’ve Been at NPR for 25 Years. Here’s How We Lost America’s Trust.”

While noting that he fits the model of a coastal elite who should work at NPR, he slammed the outlet for having succumbed to “groupthink” and a corrosive anti-Trump bias.

“Like many unfortunate things, the rise of advocacy took off with Donald Trump,” Berliner wrote, adding:

As in many newsrooms, his election in 2016 was greeted at NPR with a mixture of disbelief, anger, and despair. (Just to note, I eagerly voted against Trump twice but felt we were obliged to cover him fairly.) But what began as tough, straightforward coverage of a belligerent, truth-impaired president veered toward efforts to damage or topple Trump’s presidency.

Trump appeared to quote from that paragraph, which has garnered significant coverage in right-wing media. While Berliner may have fueled Trump’s call to defund NPR, a popular position on the right, he explicitly argues that is not what he’s after.

“Despite our missteps at NPR, defunding isn’t the answer. As the country becomes more fractured, there’s still a need for a public institution where stories are told and viewpoints exchanged in good faith. Defunding, as a rebuke from Congress, wouldn’t change the journalism at NPR. That needs to come from within,” Berliner wrote.