Leans left
AllSides and Ad Fontes Media both place NPR left of center. Both also draw a line between its news programming, which they rate closer to the center, and its commentary, which they do not.
Summarized from more than one independent rater, including AllSides and Ad Fontes Media. We do not rate outlets ourselves.
NPR is a non-profit network of member stations rather than a single newsroom, funded mostly by member station fees, corporate sponsorship and listener donations rather than by the federal government, though the federal share is the part that gets argued about. It does not endorse candidates and has no editorial board.
Critics on the right point to story selection and framing rather than factual errors, and argue that a newsroom drawn from a narrow slice of the country will pick different stories without anyone intending it. Defenders point to its correction record and to reporting that has angered both parties, and argue that unusual topic coverage is not the same thing as slant.