The reason NPR was not defunded was because of support from the public not the other way around as you assert. The "they" you are referring to was a single individual that was terminated as a result.
Are you aware how much of NPR's funding comes from the government? Here's a chart of the breakdown:
http://cjrarchive.org/img/posts/NPR2.jpg
It would seem to me there are much bigger economic issues at hand than NPR's funding. It also is apparent that it was simply a partisan attack that was initiated by a pseudo journalist named James O'keefe, who is considered to be a joke and a hack by journalist, and Andrew Breitbart who has a reputation for editing video to mislead and submitting it as evidence. Breitbart and O'keefe both have been both been accused and repudiated by the courts for this. This is one of the many reasons why Republicans have lost credibility on this issue and why this is no longer being addressed.
Now as to whether or not NPR is left leaning, I would argue that comparing NPR to Fox news is an unbalanced approach considering that Fox is simply a shill for Corporate America and Republicans, and I can prove that by the way, as to where NPR does spotlight community and cultural issues (and this is BAD only to conservatives whom are not mainstream America) and does so far less frequently than Fox and their inarguable conservative approach.
