I know, you’re shocked that the publicly-funded network, responsible for firing Juan Williams because he expressed a politically incorrect sentiment, is run by a bunch of leftists. You probably thought the Board of Directors was dominated by fiscal conservatives who support the Tea Party movement. You silly person, you.

On Sunday, October 17, the New York Times reported that NPR had accepted a $1.8 million grant from George Soros’s left-leaning Open Society Institute. To some, it appeared to be a watershed, especially when Pres. Vivian Schiller went on in short order to fire and insult Juan Williams. But in fact, in his politics, Soros isn’t that different from the people who already control and raise money for NPR.

I investigated the political sympathies of every power player on two boards of directors: that of NPR itself, and that of the NPR Foundation, which controls the flow of private money from donors to NPR. I obtained lists of board members from guidestar.com, a website that keeps up-to-date information on non-profits, as NPR was not eager to provide information about the Foundation. I found information about their political sympathies on campaignmoney.com, voterfactory.com, city-data.com, the Huffington Post’s Fundrace blog, Google, and opensecrets.com. The results are presented here. And they are telling.

I found information about all but seven of the 55 board members (50 directors plus the five “public” members of the NPR board). Of these 48 members, nearly all have demonstrably liberal political sympathies, with heavy support for the Democratic party, pro-abortion-rights groups, and environmental activism in particular.

There’s also the NPR Foundation, which holds a seat on NPR’s Board of Directors. NPR was no more forward with information regarding those on the board of the Foundation. Gee, I wonder why.

In fact, just a few board members have donated to Republicans. And even then, they’re usually bipartisan donors, giving to both sides.

Carol A. Cartwright, a public member of the NPR board, carefully split her donations between Republicans and Democrats in 2004 and 2006. Joseph McNay, who serves on the Foundation board, also donates in a bipartisan manner. Foundation board member Lee Rolfe, though usually politically uninvolved, once donated $1,000 to Friends for Mike McGavick (a Seattle Republican). Henry E. Catto, a Foundation board member, has donated only to John McCain — though he donated to help McCain beat Tea Party insurgent J. D. Hayworth in 2010, not to help him against Obama in 2008. Finally, there’s James R. Hedges IV, a Foundation board member, who has split his sparse political donations evenly between George W. Bush and Democrat Bill Bradley. And there, the list of members with Republican or bi-partisan leanings ends.

In fact, the chairman of the NPR Foundation is also a trustee at the left-wing Brookings Institute in Washington. One public board member was even a donor to Barack Obama back in 2000 — long before he was considered a presidential contender.

Bottom line: The board is overwhelmingly dominated by leftists. It’s no wonder the editorial bent and hiring practices of NPR are both left-wing. It’s a partisan organization pushing a partisan agenda. The public should not be forced to fund this venture.