1. Audience Insight
and Research
Perceived Political Orientation of News Coverage
• According to recent research commissioned by NPR, half of all NPR listeners perceive NPR’s
news coverage to be “balanced,” and more than 40% perceive it to be “liberal.”
• Core listeners are significantly more likely to perceive the news coverage as balanced.
Source: NPR Listener Survey, conducted by Lightspeed Research; April 2009 (n=506) 1

2. Audience Insight
and Research
Perceived Political Orientation of News Coverage
• Over half of listeners who describe their own political outlook as conservative rate NPR news
coverage as liberal.
• Listeners with a liberal or “middle of the road” political outlook are most likely to describe
NPR news coverage as balanced.
Source: NPR Listener Survey, conducted by Lightspeed Research; January & April 2009 (n=948) 2

3. Audience Insight
and Research
Perceived Political Orientation of News Coverage
• Independent data from Roper suggests that NPR is somewhat more likely than commercial
news outlets to be perceived by the American public as “mostly fair” in its coverage.
Don’t know
enough to rate
15%
12%
12%
17%
30%
16%
14%
23%
* Percentages based on those who could rate each organization
Source: 2009 GfK Roper Public Affairs & Media survey, January 2009 3

4. Audience Insight
and Research
Credibility of News Organizations
• In May 2008, Pew examined which news organizations are seen as most credible or
believable by the American public. Of all American adults who could rate NPR, 27% said they
believe “all or most” of what they hear – a relatively high percentage compared to that of
other media organizations.
* Percentages based on those who could rate each organization
Source: Pew Research Center, Biennial News Consumption Survey; May 2008 4