The NPR whistleblower that exposed the news outlet for liberal bias last year says its embrace of "fringe progressivism" was the reason for its defunding that became official this week."Its a self-inflicted wound, a product of how NPR embraced a fringe progressivism that cost it any legitimate claim to stand as an impartial provider of news, much less one deserving of government support," Uri Berliner wrote in a Thursday op-ed entitled "Happy Independence Day, NPR."Berliner resigned from NPRlast April after he was suspended for not getting approval to do work for other outlets following anessay he wrote in The Free Press. The bombshell piece lambasted his former employers coverage of contentious topics likeRussiagate, Hunter Biden's laptop, and the COVID lab leak theory.NPR HEAD ASKS CRITICS TO 'SHOW ME A STORY' THAT PROVES LIBERAL BIAS AMID DEFUNDING THREATSHe said that his decision to leave was due in part to "absence of viewpoint diversity" at the outlet.Republicans in the Senate and House narrowly passed the rescissions package this week that yanked over $1 billion in federal broadcast funding for the fiscal year."I witnessed that change firsthand in my 25 years at the networkand I tried to do something about it," he said. "I was a senior business editor at NPR when, a little more than a year ago, Ipublished my account in The Free Press of how the network had lost touch with the country, and, like the legacy media everywhere, forfeited the trust of the public."He said that the outlet eventually "became a boutique product for a well-heeled audience clustered around coastal cities and college towns" and "shed moderate and conservative listeners.""Once fairly evenly divided between liberals, moderates, and conservatives, NPRs news audience shifted sharply to the left," Berliner wrote.NPR PUBLIC EDITOR CLAIMS ALLEGED 'POLITICAL BIAS' IS ACTUALLY 'GEOGRAPHIC BIAS'The former NPR editor, who is now a contributing editor at The Free Press, said that NPR eroded the trust of its readers through slanted coverage of theCOVID "lab leak" theory, as well as not covering the Hunter Biden laptop scandal.The outlet instead became part of what Berliner called the "Great Awokening," publishing headlines like "WhichSkin Color Emoji Should You Use? The Answer Can Be More Complex than You Think," "Bringing Diversity to MainesNearly All-White Lobster Fleet," and "TheseDrag Artists Know How to Turn Climate Activism into a Joyful Blowout.""We were told to avoid the term biological sex, warned notto say illegal immigrant (a hurtful label)," Berliner wrote.He said his hope for NPR is it will return to its founding principles."Now NPR will be like any other media organization, free to be as partisan as it chooses, stripped of its unique claim to taxpayer support, still protected by the First Amendment, but subject to the same financial and competitive pressures as everyone else," Berliner wrote.Fox News Digital reached out to NPR for comment, but did not immediately receive a response.