Is National Public Radio Bias Left

Is the the tax payer funded NPR bias left? Is the Pope a catholic? (Actually some pundits were shocked to learn that the Pope was, in fact, a catholic and wasn't going to approve abortions, gay marriage or women priests).

But I digress. Jacob Lakin, in an op-ed A Turn of the Dial posted on WSJ Opinion Journal has some interesting obsevations.
He writes "Well, one way is to look at an NPR show (On the Media) that is itself devoted to the media. Surely this is one place where NPR's objectivity would be thunderously vindicated, assuming that it exists at all."

-snip-

Jeffrey Dvorkin, NPR's ombudsman has said NPR "comes under attack quite frequently for its apparently left-wing bias, but most of these criticisms come from media organizations that are openly conservative. So I take those kinds of criticisms with a certain amount of salt."

"Mr. Dvorkin also noted that liberal bias, far from being a problem, should be seen as an occupational quirk among journalists: 'There is some kind of liberal empathy on the part of some journalists, because their curiosity about how other people live tends to involve a certain liberal stance,' he said."

In theory, On The Media disclaims any partisan agenda. (More) http://www.opinionjournal.com/taste/?id=110006657