NPR relied on 'ever-present muse' Adam Schiff during Russiagate to 'damage' Trump, editor says

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NPR interviewed Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., for its Russiagate coverage dozens of times between 2016 and 2019, so much so that he was characterized as the outlet's "ever-present muse" by one of its own editors.

In a bombshell essay published in The Free Press, veteran NPR senior business editor Uri Berliner said the 2016 election of Donald Trump quickly encouraged NPR journalists to find ways to "damage or topple" his presidency, saying that the narrative that the Trump campaign colluded with Russia to win the White House "became the catnip that drove reporting" and that "we hitched our wagon to Trump’s most visible antagonist, Representative Adam Schiff."

"Schiff, who was the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, became NPR’s guiding hand, its ever-present muse," Berliner wrote. "By my count, NPR hosts interviewed Schiff 25 times about Trump and Russia. During many of those conversations, Schiff alluded to purported evidence of collusion. The Schiff talking points became the drumbeat of NPR news reports."

Berliner actually undercounted the number of interviews NPR did with Schiff specifically about Russia between 2016 and 2019. A Fox News Digital review found at least 32 interviews Schiff gave to the taxpayer-backed outlet between Dec. 11, 2016, and July 24, 2019,