{"id":2220819,"date":"2024-04-14T16:24:02","date_gmt":"2024-04-14T20:24:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/white-silence-is-complicity-nprs-new-ceo-sounded-more-like-an-activist-than-a-journalist-in-2020-tweets\/"},"modified":"2024-04-14T16:27:10","modified_gmt":"2024-04-14T20:27:10","slug":"white-silence-is-complicity-nprs-new-ceo-sounded-more-like-an-activist-than-a-journalist-in-2020-tweets","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/white-silence-is-complicity-nprs-new-ceo-sounded-more-like-an-activist-than-a-journalist-in-2020-tweets\/","title":{"rendered":"NPR&#8217;s New CEO Shifted Towards Activism in 2020 Tweets, Emphasizing &#8216;White Silence is Complicity"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">28<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fwhite-silence-is-complicity-nprs-new-ceo-sounded-more-like-an-activist-than-a-journalist-in-2020-tweets%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2220819&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>NPR&#8217;s new CEO, Katherine Maher, faced scrutiny for \u200cdownplaying the 2020 riots \u200cthat caused up to $2 billion in damages, stating \u2062it&#8217;s &#8220;hard to be mad&#8221; about the destruction amid <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/new-washington-blm-alliance-begins-lobbying-state-legislature-demands-gov-inslee-declare-racism-a-public-health-crisis\/\" title=\"New \u2018Washington BLM Alliance\u2019 Begins Lobbying State Legislature, Demands Gov. Inslee Declare Racism A Public Health Crisis\">social justice protests<\/a>. Her comments sparked controversy as NPR deals with accusations of a perceived <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/snopes-posts-bogus-pro-aoc-fact-check-ends-up-exposing-its-left-wing-bias\/\" title=\"Snopes Posts Bogus Pro-AOC \u2018Fact Check,\u2019 Ends Up Exposing Its Left-Wing Bias\">left-wing bias<\/a> and\u2063 a shift in its editorial stance over the years.\u200b NPR&#8217;s recently appointed CEO, Katherine Maher, attracted criticism for minimizing the impact of the 2020 riots that inflicted \u200bdamages of up to $2 billion. Her remarks, suggesting it\u2062 was difficult to be upset about the\u2062 destruction \u2064during social justice protests, stirred controversy. The incident added fuel to ongoing debates about NPR&#8217;s alleged left-wing bias and evolving editorial direction.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"readmore\">\n    <button onclick=\"showReadMore()\" id=\"readmorebtn\">Read more&#8230;<\/button>\n<\/p>\n<hr id=\"line\">\n<span id=\"more\"><\/p>\n<div>\n<h2>Katherine Maher said \u2018it\u2019s hard to be mad\u2019 about riots that caused up to $2 billion in damage<\/h2>\n<figure><figcaption> \t\t\t\t \t\t\t\tThe headquarters for National Public Radio \/ Getty Images\t\t\t<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div>\n<p><span>NPR\u2019s new CEO, Katherine Maher, shrugged off widespread looting and property damage during the 2020 riots, saying it was &#8220;hard to be mad&#8221; about the destruction.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>&#8220;I mean, sure, looting is counterproductive. But it\u2019s hard to be mad about protests not prioritizing the private property of a system of oppression founded on treating people\u2019s ancestors as private property,&#8221; Maher <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/krmaher\/status\/1266974026053767169?s=46&#038;t=yRFQgvXogFzhP2pNg7ZSIw\"><span>wrote<\/span><\/a><span>  in a May <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/founder-of-uk-drag-queen-story-hour-raises-money-for-pedophiles-funeral\/\" title=\"Founder of UK Drag Queen Story Hour Raises Money for Pedophile's Funeral\">2020 social media post<\/a>. &#8220;White silence is complicity. If you are white, today is the day to start a conversation in your community,&#8221; she <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/krmaher\/status\/1267624457897537536\">wrote<\/a> one day later.<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote data-width=\"500\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">I mean, sure, looting is counterproductive. But it\u2019s hard to be mad about protests not prioritizing the private property of a system of oppression founded on treating people\u2019s ancestors as private property.<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Katherine Maher (@krmaher) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/krmaher\/status\/1266974026053767169?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">May 31, 2020<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<blockquote data-width=\"500\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">White silence is complicity. If you are white, today is the day to start a conversation in your community.<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Katherine Maher (@krmaher) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/krmaher\/status\/1267624457897537536?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">June 2, 2020<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><span>The Black Lives Matter riots, which took place in the summer of 2020 following George Floyd\u2019s death, caused a historic level of damage to private property and businesses. A September 2020 <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/freebeacon.com\/latest-news\/nationwide-protests-caused-up-to-2-billion-in-property-damage\/\"><span>report<\/span><\/a><span>  found that damage caused by demonstrations from May 28 to June 8 of that year cost insurance agencies anywhere from $1 to $2 billion\u2014more than any other event of civil unrest in U.S. history.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>The riots had human costs, too. David Dorn, a 77-year-old retired St. Louis police captain, was <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/83b1ecab54f039bbd30346a218a4c994\"><span>killed<\/span><\/a><span>  on June 2, 2020, while defending a local pawn shop from looters. That same day, four St. Louis officers were shot and wounded while responding to riots in the city.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Maher&#8217;s posts are emerging as NPR battles claims that it suffers from a left-wing bias that has gotten a lot worse over the past 10 years.<\/p>\n<p><span>On April 9, senior editor Uri Berliner <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thefp.com\/p\/npr-editor-how-npr-lost-americas-trust\">wrote<\/a> an op-ed for the <\/span><i><span>Free Press<\/span><\/i><span>  titled, &#8220;I\u2019ve Been at NPR for 25 Years. Here\u2019s How We Lost America\u2019s Trust,&#8221; in which he lamented how the outlet developed a &#8220;devastating&#8221; bias over the years. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>&#8220;It\u2019s true NPR has always had a liberal bent, but during most of my tenure here, an open-minded, curious culture prevailed. We were nerdy, but not knee-jerk, activist, or scolding,&#8221; Berliner wrote. &#8220;In recent years, however, that has changed. Today, those who listen to NPR or read its coverage online find something different: the distilled worldview of a very small segment of the U.S. population.&#8221;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Berliner, a senior editor &#8220;on the business desk,&#8221; admitted to having a liberal bent himself. Still, he argued that the publicly funded outlet lost its &#8220;open-minded spirit&#8221; over time, leading to an audience that he said does not reflect the United States.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>&#8220;By 2023, the picture was completely different: only 11 percent described themselves as very or somewhat conservative, 21 percent as middle of the road, and 67 percent of listeners said they were very or somewhat liberal,&#8221; Berliner wrote. &#8220;We weren\u2019t just losing conservatives; we were also losing moderates and traditional liberals. An open-minded spirit no longer exists within NPR, and now, predictably, we don\u2019t have an audience that reflects America.&#8221;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>&#8220;That wouldn\u2019t be a problem for an <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/employee-npr-tracks-race-sex-of-sources-and-lets-trans-activists-police-its-language\/\" title=\"Employee: NPR monitors the race and gender of sources, allowing transgender activists to oversee its language\">openly polemical news outlet serving<\/a> a niche audience,&#8221; he continued. &#8220;But for NPR, which purports to consider all things, it\u2019s devastating both for its journalism and its business model.&#8221;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>NPR did not respond to a request for comment. The outlet&#8217;s<\/span><span>  chief news executive, Edith Chapin, stood behind NPR&#8217;s work in an April 10 <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.npr.org\/2024\/04\/09\/1243755769\/npr-journalist-uri-berliner-trust-diversity\"><span>statement<\/span><\/a><span>.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>&#8220;We&#8217;re proud to stand behind the exceptional work that our desks and shows do to cover a wide range of challenging stories,&#8221;\u00a0 Chapin wrote. &#8220;We believe that inclusion\u2014among our staff, with our sourcing, and in our overall coverage\u2014is critical to telling the nuanced stories of this country and our world.&#8221;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>The newsroom will have discussion on how to &#8220;serve the public as a whole,&#8221; Chapin said.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span> &#8220;None of our work is above scrutiny or critique. We must have vigorous discussions in the newsroom about how we serve the public as a whole.&#8221;<\/span>\t<\/p>\n<p><span>Maher echoed Chapin in a <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.npr.org\/sections\/npr-extra\/2024\/04\/12\/1244456600\/from-npr-president-and-ceo-katherine-maher-thoughts-on-our-mission-and-our-work\"><span>memo<\/span><\/a><span>  two days later. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>&#8220;Asking a question about whether we&#8217;re living up to our mission should always be fair game: after all, journalism is nothing if not hard questions,&#8221; Maher wrote. &#8220;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.&#8221;<\/span><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>NPR&#8217;s new CEO, Katherine Maher, downplayed the 2020 riots that led to up to $2 billion in damages, stating, &#8220;it&#8217;s hard to be mad.&#8221; Maher seemed unfazed by the widespread looting and property destruction, a perspective that raised eyebrows among many<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2020,"featured_media":2220820,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/freebeacon.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/NPR.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[544],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2220819","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-free-beacon"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/freebeacon.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/NPR.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2220819","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2020"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2220819"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2220819\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2220820"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2220819"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2220819"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2220819"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}