The flag isn't about who is state sponsored, it's about who is controlled by the state. The Guardian for example is also not a mouthpiece of the state. NPR is certainly at that level.
He's not some super mastermind. NPR allows their journalists pretty free reign. Having petty little point scoring things to be deliberately mean over doesn't convince me. I don't mistake it as actual evidence of anything.
Seemingly no one agreed with your callous narrow interpretation in the recent threads on NPR being labeled as state-affiliated. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35457578