I doubt that this is a case of NPR showing "backbone".
More likely, it is a case of NPR backtracking under pressure by Apple, rather than a case of NPR making the change because truth and fairness demand it.
Would NPR bend over backwards to correct flawed reporting that makes a conservative person or company look bad? Somehow I doubt it. Other leftist institutions (the New York Times and the Washington Post come to mind) will do anything but report truthfully about conservatives, and they can not be swayed by appeals to logic, reason, or truthfulness to correct wrong "reporting" (for example, look at the grotesquely biased and untruthful New York Times "reporting" about the Koch brothers and their companies, and the steadfast refusal of the fiends at the NYT to set the record straight).
Would NPR bend over backwards to correct flawed reporting that makes a conservative person or company look bad? Somehow I doubt it. Other leftist institutions (the New York Times and the Washington Post come to mind) will do anything but report truthfully about conservatives, and they can not be swayed by appeals to logic, reason, or truthfulness to correct wrong "reporting" (for example, look at the grotesquely biased and untruthful New York Times "reporting" about the Koch brothers and their companies, and the steadfast refusal of the fiends at the NYT to set the record straight).
You got that right, NPR knows there is little more dangerous than an offended highly profitable, economically powerful lefty corporation.
NPR knows whose boot to lick.