A longtime editor at National Public Radio, Uri Berliner, is resigning from his post after publishing a bombshell essay criticizing the institution that led to his suspension last week. 

“I don’t support calls to defund NPR. I respect the integrity of my colleagues and wish for NPR to thrive and do important journalism,” Mr. Berliner wrote in his resignation letter. “But I cannot work in a newsroom where I am disparaged by a new CEO whose divisive views confirm the very problems at NPR I cite in my Free Press essay.”

Mr. Berliner, who had worked at NPR for 25 years, wrote in a essay last week that the public radio institution “lost America’s trust” by skewing its news coverage far to the left. NPR announced on Tuesday that it was suspending him for five days without pay for violating the company’s policies about writing for other press outlets without management approval. 

Following publication of the essay, NPR’s chief executive, Katherine Maher, accused Mr. Berliner of “questioning whether our people are serving our mission with integrity…based on little more than the recognition of their identity.” She called the journalist’s criticism of his colleagues “profoundly disrespectful, hurtful, and demeaning.”

Ms. Maher came into her role last month — her first at a news organization. Critics like conservative activist Christopher Rufo have been targeting Ms. Maher for social media posts she published before joining the network, such as tweets calling President Trump racist and appearing to side with the riots that swept the country in 2020.

Mr. Berliner told NPR on Monday that it needs “a leader right now who’s going to be unifying and bring more people into the tent and have a broader perspective on, sort of, what America is all about. And this seems to be the opposite of that.”