This time at NPR, there is no rubbing of the chin, furrowed brows, or begrudging concession that the critic has a point, and that they must do better. Nope, NPR’s management thinks they’re doing a terrific job, and they don’t see any reason to change. In their minds, the true villain of this story is Berliner, for criticizing his employer in another publication. (Admittedly, very few employers are big fans of that move.)

And Berliner’s former colleagues are similarly indignant that anybody could possibly doubt the quality of the work that they’re doing. About 50 of them wrote to the NPR CEO, fuming, “Berliner’s public comments have made the jobs of our colleagues harder and have attracted harassment for them. For every person who might tear down their colleagues in public, there are scores of people steadily trying to make change from within.” ...

NPR management is going to treat Berliner’s arguments the same way much of the staff treated the counterevidence for the Trump–Russia collusion narrative, or the Hunter Biden laptop, or the evidence pointing to a lab leak. They’re just going to ignore it and wait for it to go away.