Newsrooms, political affiliation discussed in Society of Professional Journalists panel discussion Thursday at Tri-C Metro

Two years ago (then) NPR Editor Uri Berliner made a lot of waves in the journalism profession when he charged NPR, had completely lost a diversity viewpoint when it came to politics. Berliner did his own research, looking at 87 newsroom employees of NPR in Washington DC’s voter registration data. He found out that 87 were registered Democrats, and 0 were registered Republicans.

“And this, I believe, is the most damaging development at NPR: The lack of viewpoint diversity,” he wrote. You can see and Berliner’s story, which appeared in The Free Press, here:

The Cleveland Pro Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists chose to make the question of political balance in the newsroom the subject of a panel discussion, happening tomorrow, Thursday March 26. My employer, Cuyahoga Community College, is sponsoring the event in the lunch hour at our Metro Campus. I’m privileged to serve as the moderator of the panel.

We have a terrific panel, including Alisson Toro-Lagos of the Akron Beacon Journal, Tom Sutton, long-time political science professor at Baldwin Wallace University, and Helen Maynard with Signal Cleveland. Portia Booker of “Groove With Portia” is serving as question moderator.

In the discussion process with the panelists, I shared several stories and some research with them. All of that is below if you are interested.

The RSVP deadline has passed, but you’re more them welcome to watch the event on Cuyahoga Community College’s livestream. Here’s the link:

https://boxcast.tv/view/march-26-2026-biased-or-balanced—journalism-vmlp13kycx67ntxgzfqe

Many thanks to all those involved in helping make this possible, especially my dean, Dr. Gabe Swarts, and administrative assistant Michaela Berchak.

As one of my last “public appearances” before I retire from Tri-C later this year, hoping and praying that tomorrow’s event goes well. If you watch and have any questions, don’t hesitate to send them to me at john.kerezy@tri-c.edu I will get back to you.