Oh give me a break. NPR is a standard mainstream news organization, with a higher journalistic standard than most. They don’t by any means “always always ALWAYS” do anything, except try their best to discover topical news stories and report them fairly. Like other mainstream news organizations, they aim for political neutrality, tend to analyze stories in line with the “consensus”, and shy away from saying anything which deeply challenges the dominant power structure.
You might argue that standards of evidence in science-related journalism are weak across the board, but let’s not pretend that there’s some problem with NPR in particular that wouldn’t equally apply to, e.g., the New York Times, the Associated Press, the BBC, Le Monde, or the Economist.