www.newsbusters.org
New NPR CEO Haunted by Woke‚ Anti-Trump Tweets As Editor Exposes Bias
New NPR CEO Katherine Maher tried to rally the troops on Friday with a memo to staff that vaguely attacked NPR senior editor Uri Berliner's expose of the taxpayer-funded network's viewpoint diversity. She never actually mentioned Berliner‚ or seemed to engage with his overall argument.
Instead‚ she vaguely expressed insult at Berliner noting the existence of a pile of identity groups among the employees: &;quot;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.&;quot;
Maher just unfurled rah-rah &;quot;we have the best people&;quot; verbiage: &;quot;This is the work of our people‚ and our people represent America‚ our irreducibly complex nation. Given the very real challenges of covering the myriad perspectives‚ motivations‚ and interests of a nation of more than 330 million very different people‚ we succeed through our diversity. This is a bedrock institutional commitment‚ hard-won‚ and hard-protected.&;quot;
“Our people represent America‚ our irreducibly complex nation‚” she added. “We succeed through our diversity.” No. NPR doesn't not represent the simplest diversity‚ letting conservatives have a voice. This is why Berliner turned from internal conversations to public expression.
In the end‚ Maher just supports more internal talk‚ not an engagement with &;quot;the enemy‚&;quot; the conservatives who are shut out. She announced they were &;quot;establishing quarterly NPR Network-wide editorial planning and review meetings‚ as a complement to our other channels for Member station engagement.&;quot;
The New York Post reports that Maher's history of woke tweets before she joined NPR is now haunting this new controversy:
In January‚ when Maher was announced as NPR’s new leader‚ The Post revealed her penchant for parroting the progressive line on social media — including bluntly biased Twitter posts like “Donald Trump is a racist‚” which she wrote in 2018. This wouldn't hurt her with a hiring panel at NPR. It would certainly be a plus&;#33;Â
“I mean‚ sure‚ looting is counterproductive‚” Maher wrote on May 31‚ 2020. “But it’s hard to be mad about protests not prioritizing the private property of a system of oppression founded on treating people’s ancestors as private property.” (This perfectly matches a network whose &;quot;Code Switch&;quot; team touted the book In Defense of Looting and lauded a professor saying anti-police riots should be described as &;quot;rebellions.&;quot;)
The next day‚ she lectured her 27‚000 followers on “white silence.”
“White silence is complicity‚” she scolded.
“If you are white‚ today is the day to start a conversation in your community.”
NPR is also the network that took the founders of Black Lives Matter announcing they were &;quot;Marxist-trained&;quot; and attempted to argue that they weren't really pushing communism.Â
The Post noted Maher came to NPR from the Wikimedia Foundation. &;quot;Maher earned a bachelor’s degree in Middle Eastern and Islamic studies from New York University‚ according to her LinkedIn account‚ and grew up in Wilton‚ Conn. — a town that her mother‚ Ceci Maher‚ now represents as a Democratic state senator.&;quot;