Katherine Maher the embattled CEO of NPR who recently suspended and ultimately lost a veteran editor for exposing the outlet’s extreme left-wing slant has been revealed to hold a surprising position as the chair of purportedly free-speech advocate Signal Foundation.
This revelation comes as calls to defund NPR have resurfaced due to its clear anti-conservative tilt.
On top of recently publicized events with Maher and her former editor, Maher’s past criticism of freedom of speech has also resurfaced adding fuel to the controversy.
During her tenure as CEO of Wikipedia from 2016 to 2021 Maher gave a TED Talk that has now gone viral. In the speech she suggested that the truth is subjective and can be an obstacle to achieving goals.
Former CEO of Wikimedia and National Public Radio Katherine Maher has been called out by bias-detector-in-chief Christopher Rufo recently. Maher essentially supported the idea that truth is subjective, and Wikipedia too committed to free speech, which is apparently against her… pic.twitter.com/EHvEX2pAky
— Sean Bw Parker (@seanbwparker) April 21, 2024
The Signal Foundation’s app boasts over 40 million users drawn to its reputation as a secure platform independent of Big Tech players who are prone to censorship. The app’s end-to-end encryption positions it as a vanguard for free speech.
However Maher’s recent actions at NPR have raised serious questions about the organization’s true commitment to free speech and the safety of user data under the leadership of such a biased decision maker. Her suspension of veteran editor Uri Berliner for exposing the agenda-driven reporting of his colleagues sparked a firestorm of controversy.
Berliner a 25-year NPR veteran wrote an essay for the Free Press describing the far-left ideology that drives the NPR newsroom and is embraced by virtually the entire staff. For his honesty Maher suspended Berliner for five days without pay.
Tech entrepreneur and philanthropist Sean Parker expressed his alarm on Twitter. “Alarming to see the head of @SignalApp – which claims to be a bastion of free speech – simultaneously running @NPR which just forced out a 25-year veteran for criticizing newsroom bias. The hypocrisy is staggering,” he wrote.
Many of Berliner’s colleagues expressed contempt for his candor leading him to resign. Maher’s troubling history of opposing First Amendment protections of freedom of expression has also come under scrutiny.
In a 2021 speech by Maher she indicated that controversial issues should not be encumbered by objective truth. “These contentious conversations tend to erupt over a disagreement about what the truth actually is. But the people who write these articles they’re not focused on the truth,” she said referencing the Wikipedia model.
