• A publicly created and funded network whose programs are heard by 20 million listeners each week via 750 stations   
• Routinely violates the "objectivity and balance" rule of the Public Broadcasting Act of 1967 which created it

In 1985, National Public Radio (NPR) adopted a policy stating that member stations were required to provide "nonsectarian, non-political, noncommercial" educational programming. But as of today (May 1), NPR has changed its policy to read as follows: "NPR Member Stations shall provide ONLY [emphasis added] nonsectarian, non-political, noncommercial educational content on all broadcast channel(s) and related media distribution platforms such as member partners that use the NPR member brands." Consequently, any NPR stations that have been airing religious programming will no longer be permitted to do so.

Founded in 1970 with 90 public radio stations as charter members, National Public Radio (NPR) is today a loose network of more than 750 U.S. radio stations across the country, many of which are based on college and university campuses. It claims to reach each week approximately 20 million listeners. According to its own research, the average NPR listener is 50 years old, college-educated, and earns $78,000 per year.

NPR was established by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB), a nominally private entity that disperses public taxpayer money, created by the 1967 Public Broadcasting Act. While commercial broadcasters are no longer bound by the strict equal-time requirements of what used to be called the "Fairness Doctrine," CPB in theory still has such requirements. The Public Broadcasting Act directs CPB to develop public telecommunications "with strict adherence to objectivity and balance in all programs or series of programs of a controversial nature."

 Perhaps the closest NPR has come to balance was its 1994-98 show "Bridges: A Liberal/Conservative Dialogue," on which liberal host Larry Josephson would discuss issues and ideas with a variety of conservative guests. The program ended, according to its co-producer Paul Beston, when NPR executives decided that the Republican-dominated Congress elected in 1994 was no longer likely to make good on its threats to cut NPR's budget.

Yet problems with Congress persisted. In May 1994 NPR announced plans to air prison-life commentaries by convicted cop-killer and former Black Panther Mumia Abu-Jamal, a cause celebre of the academic left. Public outcry prompted cancellation of Abu-Jamal's program. "This episode raises sobering questions," said then-Senator Bob Dole (R.-Kansas), "not only for NPR, but for the taxpayer-funded Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which has oversight authority over NPR and provides much of its funding."

NPR's bias is not confined to American domestic politics. "NPR is the biggest provider of anti-Israel propaganda outside the Arab world," asserted the weblog Little Green Footballs in 2003. NPR's Foreign Editor Loren Jenkins "has called Israel a 'colonizer' in Jerusalem," wrote Andrea Levin in 2003 in the New York Post, "and has linked it to the Nazis in his writing." "National Palestine Radio" is what Marty Peretz, publisher of The New Republic, has called NPR. According to one analysis, "NPR devotes 2/3 of its stories about Arab conflict with Israel to anti-Israel, pro-Palestinian voices/talking heads/partisans." NPR has made it "official" policy not to label suicide bombers in Israel as "terrorists" because this label would be prejudicial.

NPR is a radio landscape crowded with liberal and leftist voices but nearly devoid of conservative hosts and anchors, using tax dollars to fund the broadcasting of predominantly, disproportionately left-of-center views.Today's typical NPR anchor is Scott Simon, host of "Weekend Edition Saturday." This veteran liberal reporter's official NPR biography notes that he also appears as an essayist and commentator on PBS's "NOW with Bill Moyers." Among the credits in Simon's biography: "He also won a 1982 Emmy for the public television documentary 'The Patterson Project,' which examined the effects of President Reagan's budget cuts on the lives of 12 New Jersey residents."

Another NPR program is "Day to Day," hosted by Alex Chadwick. It features reports and interviews by reporters and editors of the liberal Microsoft-owned online magazine Slate.com. In a forthright poll of the partisan views of its reporters, editors, writers and staffers published prior to election day, Slate.com reported that more than 40 of those who create this magazine planned in the 2004 election to vote for Democratic candidate John Kerry. Only 2 planned to vote for the incumbent, President George W. Bush.