Under fire new NPR chief breaks her silence to accuse critics of 'a very bad ... trends now
NPR's embattled new chief has broken her silence to accuse critics of 'distorting' her views.
Katherine Maher, who joined the company last month, faced a backlash after an old tweet calling former president Donald Trump 'deranged' emerged.
Maher was also slammed last week after a video began circulating where she claims the First Amendment is the 'number one challenge' when battling 'bad information'.
She was also skewered by her own member of staff member who blew the whistle on the site's liberal bias in a bombshell article for the Free Press.
But in an interview with the Wall Street Journal she now claims she has a 'robust belief in the First Amendment' and says critics took her comment out of context.
NPR's new CEO Katherine Maher has broken her silence after her old tweets emerged and a longtime editor turned whistleblower accused the station of having a liberal bias
NPR whistleblower editor Uri Berliner resigned after being suspended for blowing the whistle on the company's liberal bias
'It is by no means a personal perspective; it’s a very bad faith distortion of a nuanced perspective on a policy landscape issue.
'All of this frankly is a bit of a distraction relative to the transformation our organization needs to undergo in order to best serve our mandate.'
The NPR chief also addressed claims by whistleblower Uri Berliner, who resigned from the station after being suspended over an essay he wrote for the Free Press where he accused the company of having lost its way.
'We have robust conversations across the organization, including in response to the article,' Maher said, citing 'clear and well-reasoned pieces' from reviewers that have 'found that our journalism is really solid.'
Berliner, who claimed the publicly-funded broadcaster became an activist organization obsessed with pushing progressive ideals, called Maher 'divisive' in his resignation.
He sparked a storm when he penned an open essay for The Free Press, where he slammed the outlet for being made up almost entirely of Democrats which he argued 'lost America's trust.'
In response to the 25-year NPR veteran's article, the network suspended him for five days for violating its policy of working or reporting for another outlet without permission.
Berliner announced he submitted his resignation letter to Maher last week.
'I cannot work in a newsroom where I am disparaged by a new CEO whose divisive views confirm the very problems I cite in my Free Press essay,' Berliner said.
'I am resigning from NPR, a great American institution where I have worked for 25 years. I don't support calls to defund NPR. I respect the integrity of my colleagues and wish for NPR to thrive and do important journalism.'
Maher insisted in a statement that the company remains committed to 'serving all of the American public.'
'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,' she said.
Berliner said in an interview that the emergence of Maher's old tweets undercuts her message.
The tweets in question included a veiled shot at Trump branding him a 'deranged
