In the back and forth between NPR and its senior business editor, Uri Berliner, it appears Berliner has gotten in the last shot.
It’s a case of you can’t fire me, I quit.
Berliner resigned Wednesday at the end of a week of controversy that began with his publication of an article, critical of NPR editorial practices, in The Free Press. For those just catching up with the story, Berliner accused his employer of 25 years of leaning reflexively too far left and allowing diversity, equity and inclusion goals to warp editorial decision making.
The network responded by suspending him without pay for five days.
Berliner responded to that by tendering his resignation:
“I am resigning from NPR, a great American institution where I have worked for 25 years,” Berliner wrote in an email to CEO Katherine Maher. “I respect the integrity of my colleagues and wish for NPR to thrive and do important journalism. But 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.”
So there!
