Larry - thanks for this good complete post on the topic...
I guess I don't begrudge NPR its $200,000,000 gift, kinda like 'em for reasons identical with yours... but the post brings up, again, a lot of resistance I have against non-profit agencies receiving tax write-offs while claiming they make "no profit" (e.g. many museums run retail bookstores, Sierra Club has a lucrative mail-order catalogue business, most non-profits pay zero State Sales Taxes etc.). I see their abuse of the tax-exemption as being virtually identical with off-shore corporate and private financial dealings... all of which activity enormously INCREASES the tax burden for average Joe and Joline...
Also, nobody should think (if they do) that all NPR stations are alike, because they are definitely not. The difference between what Tulsa NPR is able to broadcast and what Joplin can come up with on NPR is like night and day. Tulsa has almost whole days of nothing but political/cultural news and info... Joplin gets a couple of hours in the morning, and then a whole day of usually fairly bizarre "Classical" music other than noon and dinner time news.
So, that $200 million is gonna go primarily to the national office of NPR, it is unlikely to accomplish much of anything in regional terms. I would be extremely surprised if NPR did anything noticeable at all as a result of the gift.
What is most likely is for them to deposit the gift and use the interest as an endowment for the national office (to be spent on advertising, more fund-raising and maybe some office furniture or "better" technology). Reducing the tariff for (and thus making more affordable) major news/dialogue programs paid by small local stations is what they SHOULD do, but I seriously doubt that will happen to any degree noticeable.
Apart from how NPR tends to think institutionally PC, they DO often carry interviews with conservatives (such as William Kristol and many many others) on important issues. O'Reilly's battle with them was not surprising, he has made himself a huge target of invective by sometimes being so good and generous with it himself... the man is genetically combative. NPR also performs the extremely important role of giving the "Left" a place to discuss their sexual preferences and income redistribution schemes anytime they please... better that than to have them sitting down arm-in-arm blocking traffic on the Golden Gate Bridge again! The network often has scientific programs that simply cannot be found in ANY other electronic public media outside of the Web.
So, this is a small part of "what" I think on the topic... nice post Larry.
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