"If a small amount of federal funding meant they had to make everything public domain, they'd probably just give up that funding and make some cuts. No one wins there, IMO."

Well, except the public, but they are never a concern in these decisions. Just a cash cow to be milked.

Not just picking on NPR, PBS has exactly the same problem. The folks who want to educate the world want to upload entire legal episodes to youtube, but the business folks in charge of the local stations don't want to go out of business, so...