My afterthought arises out of the adage "follow the money." I wonder if the leftist ideological bias NPR exhibits arises from a survey of the subset of listeners who actually pledge and donate. It is possible they've learned only the ideologically radical left is willing to contribute significantly, and thus NPR content is pitched directly at that audience subset who donate.
I can certainly imagine the logic of paying attention to the wishes of donors even if it is at the expense of driving away non-donor listeners. Be clear, I am not alleging this is the actual NPR paradigm, only that it is one possible explanation of their observed behavior.
