Ex-NPR Editor Who Quit After Scorched Earth Essay Accusing Outlet of Liberal Bias Joins Bari Weiss’ Free Press

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Journalist Uri Berliner is now senior editor at The Free Press — joining the masthead at the outlet which ran his controversial essay that let loose on his former employer, National Public Radio (NPR), accusing them of liberal bias.

Ex-New York Times journalist Bari Weiss and founder of The Free Press welcomed Berliner to the publication in an announcement on Tuesday that praised him as a “natural fit” for the team and for his “commitment to viewpoint diversity.”

“I’m joining The Free Press because it provides America with groundbreaking, fearless, and independent-minded journalism. I’m inspired to join this team,” Berliner commented.

Berliner, a 25-year veteran at NPR, resigned from the organization in April after being suspended without pay days earlier in retribution for what he’d written in The Free Press.

In the essay, Berliner lamented NPR’s shift from its once “open-minded, curious culture” to a more rigidly “liberal bent” which he argued has alienated a significant portion of its audience.

In his resignation letter to NPR’s CEO Katherine Maher, Berliner expressed his discontent with the direction of the organization under her leadership: “I cannot work in a newsroom where I am disparaged by a new CEO whose divisive views confirm the very problems at NPR I cite in my Free Press essay.”

At the time, in response, Maher defended NPR’s editorial independence and commitment to public service: “NPR is independent, beholden to no party, and without commercial interests.”