NPR’s top editor has tendered her resignation days after the radio station lost $500million in federal funding for an alleged bias against conservatives.
Edith Chapin, who serves as editor-in-chief and acting chief content officer at National Public Radio, announced her departure on Tuesday.
Chapin told an NPR reporter she quit rather than being fired and that she was not leaving due to the funding cuts.
She also said she handed in her notice two weeks ago ahead of the cuts, which Trump repeatedly promised on the campaign trail.
NPR has long been blasted by conservatives, former listeners, and even former staffers for taking extreme progressive viewpoints on issues pertaining to race and transgenderism in recent years
Supporters of the cuts to federal funding – which also affected PBS – said it was unfair to expect all Americans to subsidize a network with such an isolated worldview.
Katherine Maher, the chief executive of NPR, told Status over the weekend the decision was politically motivated, framing it as one that would be devastating toward rural communities she said relied on public broadcasting from local affiliates.
In her statement to NPR Tuesday, Chapin said Maher was left surprised by her decision, and that she would continue to stay with NPR until October the latest – the same month funding is set to cease to coincide with the next fiscal year.
NPR’s top editor Edith Chapin (pictured) has announced her departure from the network after it lost $500 million in federal funding over claims its broadcasts have an anti-conservative bias
The cuts came as a major win for Trump (pictured on the South Lawn of the White House in June), who repeatedly promised to defund NPR on the campaign trail
‘I have had two big executive jobs for two years and I want to take a break. I want to make sure my performance is always top-notch for the company,’ she said, after joining NPR from CNN in 2012 as chief international editor.
‘It’s not a good time to do it, but it’s never a good time.’
‘I needed to pick a date and share my decision.’
‘The best thing we can do is do the best work possible every day,’ she said as debate continues over whether the company really engaged in systemic bias as the administration claims.
‘We need to hear from all kinds of people – and that is our job.
‘And we need to be as clear and transparent as we possibly can, and our audiences can decide how useful we are for them.’
‘One of the things that was attractive when I came here was this philosophy of all things considered,’ she continued.
‘There is room for so much here in a way there is not in so many places.
Katherine Maher, the chief executive of NPR, told Status over the weekend the decision was politically motivated. She was surprised by Chapin’s decision to step down, the editor said in a statement
‘In offering that fulsome package of things, some people are going to find things they don’t find of interest or agree with – and that’s okay,’ Chapin eventually concluded.
‘I think we have to continue with that philosophy of all things considered.’
In a separate note to staff, Maher thanked Chapin for 13 years of service, during which time she rose through the rans to lead NPR’s national newsroom on a day-to-day basis and its entire news division.
For the past three years, Chapin controlled reporting, shows and podcasts for the company as well, as the company’s top exec alongside Maher, who joined NPR last year.
“Edith has been an indispensable partner during my first year at NPR, a steady leader for a large part of this organization, and a fantastic collaborator as a member of the executive team,” she wrote.
Maher – a 41-year-old former tech exec who holds progressive views personally did not offer any details about any transition or interim leadership, instead saying she would share more once she had it.
Last week, to Status, Maher promised to reduce its operating budget by $8 million in the year ahead to pass along the saving as relief to far-flung stations set to most affected by the looming loss off funding.
And while NPR only receives a paltry one percent of funds from federal sources, member stations’ rake in an average about 8-10 percent for their revenue, while some in more rural setting have more than half of the budget provided for by the US.
For the past three years, Chapin controlled reporting, shows and podcasts for the company, which will loose all future federal funding on October 1
‘Lawmakers from both parties continuously acknowledge—in public and private—how important their local stations are to their constituents,’ Maher told Status on Sunday.
‘This eviscerates funding for those independent, community-based stations.
‘And for what purpose? Scoring political points by saying you voted against NPR and PBS,’ she added.
Back in March, at a hectic House Oversight and Government Reform Committee hearing presided over by Marjorie Taylor Greene, Maher admitted to oversights prior to her being brought on that could be perceived as siding with progressives.
‘I do want to say that NPR acknowledges we were mistaken in failing to cover the Hunter Biden laptop story more aggressively or sooner,’ she said at a point, before being confronted by Greene for opinionated comments posted to her social media prior to be named NPR’s CEO.
This included statements to social media penned in the past, like one that slammed Donald Trump as a ‘racist’ and ‘sociopath’ in 2020.
When asked by GOP Rep. Tim Burchett about such tweets, Maher said: ‘I regret [them] today.’
Maher also addressed statistics that showed the broadcaster having 87 registered Democrats on-staff this time last year and not a single Republican.
Chapin was tasked with hiring a new team of senior editors to review broadcast segments, digital stories and podcasts back in 2023. Her responsibilities including ensuring stories stories were fair and balanced
The disparity, Maher conceded, was ‘concerning – if true.’ She insisted NPR does not track such affiliations.
Joining Maher at the time was PBS boss Paula Kerger, who has also said that many of PBS’s local stations ‘would not exist’ without the federal funding it routinely receives.
As for Chapin, she was tasked with hiring a new team of senior editors to review broadcast segments, digital stories and podcasts back in 2023. Her responsibilities including ensuring stories stories were fair and balanced.
Back in March, former longtime NPR business editor Uri Berliner gave a glimpse of what it was like working during Chapin’s tenure.
In an op-ed for The Free Press, he slammed the broadcaster for peddling what he perceived as propaganda during and after the pandemic.
‘Though I tried flagging my concerns to my bosses, it fell on deaf ears,’ he wrote.
He described how for ‘most of the 25 years’ he worked at NPR, he felt ‘honored’ to call himself a staffer, but soon became troubled by instances of bias that he said stemmed from a lack of diversity amongst his fellow co-workers.
The year before, he penned a separate piece titled, I’ve Been at NPR for 25 Years. Here’s How We Lost America’s Trust.
Veteran NPR business editor Uri Berliner, who spoke out about the broadcaster’s alleged bias in a piece for the Free Press in March as well
Trump’s order demands the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, a private broadcasting corporation responsible for providing the federal funding from Congress, ‘cancel existing direct funding to the maximum extent allowed by law’ due to NPR’s ‘bipartisan coverage’
After the essay went viral on sites like X, NPR introduced it 24/7 vetting process overseen by Chapin ‘to ensure that all coverage receives final editorial review,’ he said.
Trump’s order, meanwhile, demands the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, a private broadcasting corporation responsible for funneling the federal funding from Congress, ‘cancel existing direct funding to the maximum extent allowed by law.’
It also states that NPR and PBS regularly produce ‘biased and partisan news coverage’.
The freeze will go into effect on October 1.