Romenesko

Boston Globe
Before receiving Joan Kroc's gift in 2003, NPR's foreign reporting was always good, sometimes superb, says Alex Beam. "Local reporting was and is good here. NPR features were generally strong. ...Two hundred twenty-five million dollars later, public radio certainly hasn't gotten worse. But I don't hear that it has gotten any better." NPR's Ken Stern tells Beam the Kroc money "allowed us to invest in what this country needs -- serious, in-depth reporting."