Photo by Dan Fletcher/TDN

NPR Correspondent Anne Garrels speaking at Monday's Crain Lecture at Northwestern University.

National Public Radio foreign correspondent Anne Garrels allowed for a moment of levity during her Monday lecture on covering the war in Iraq, telling the audience of about 60 at the McCormick Tribune Center the story of the "most unlikely of partnerships" between NPR and FOX News.

Garrels, who spoke as part of the Crain Lecture Series, said NPR had been struggling with power; they received electricity from Baghdad's grid for only two hours a day.

Someone from FOX News offered to share the station's generator with NPR, which Garrels said it initially rejected.

"My boss said, 'Not on your Nelly,' " Garrels said. "But no FOX, no power and eventually saner minds prevailed. People do help each other out in Baghdad a lot."