04-16-2024, 01:28 PM
(04-16-2024, 01:01 PM)Sociopathicsteelerfan Wrote: The author of the piece in OP has been officially suspended for five days by NPR for publishing the article.
https://www.npr.org/2024/04/16/1244962042/npr-editor-uri-berliner-suspended-essay
In presenting Berliner's suspension Thursday afternoon, the organization told the editor he had failed to secure its approval for outside work for other news outlets, as is required of NPR journalists. It called the letter a "final warning," saying Berliner would be fired if he violated NPR's policy again. Berliner is a dues-paying member of NPR's newsroom union but says he is not appealing the punishment.
On Friday, CEO Maher stood up for the network's mission and the journalism, taking issue with Berliner's critique, though never mentioning him by name. Among her chief issues, she said Berliner's essay offered "a criticism of our people on the basis of who we are."
Berliner took great exception to that, saying she had denigrated him. He said that he supported diversifying NPR's workforce to look more like the U.S. population at large. She did not address that in a subsequent private exchange he shared with me for this story. (An NPR spokesperson declined further comment.)
I'm of two minds here. One if he broke company policy then he deserves to face consequences. But even within that, a five day suspension without pay for a first offense is rather heavy (I am obviously assuming it's a first offense). In my department progressive discipline is the rule. Unless an action is egregious, e.g. lying in a report, falsifying evidence, committing a crime, working another job while on the clock, etc. you're going to go through the steps of discipline, and suspension is right before termination. On a scale of 0-10, suspension is a 9.
I also have to think that if his piece was praising NPR then he would not have been punished nearly as severely, if at all. The misrepresentation of his position by the new CEO (I would think deliberate) also lends some credence to this possibility. While the suspension can be justified under policy the severity of it rather reeks of revenge for airing the organization's dirty laundry. I would certainly not go so far as to call this man a whistle blower, but given the public funded nature of NPR I think he has more leeway in exposing this type of ideological partisanship in his workplace. An interesting response either way.
He is a member of the Union, punishments are usually spelled out in their contract
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