I have been listening to NPR since I was a sleepy little boy in the back seat of my parents’ car coming home late at night from the North Shore of Oahu — it was Garrison Keillor‘s A Prairie Home Companion and it was coming over the airwaves thanks to Hawaii Public Radio.

I just called 202-885-8850 and pledged $100 to WAMU 88.5 FM in support of National Public Radio in direct response not to the final day of their Fall pledge drive but because I support the decision that NPR made when they fired Juan Williams.

A journalist is supposed to remain neutral at all times, even when being interviewed for his personal opinion.  Juan Williams represented National Public Radio as a news analyst even when he was on Fox News. Journalists have been fired for writing opinions on Twitter, on Facebook, in op-ed pieces, and in chain emails if it could harm the impartial nature of the new organ’s brand integrity.

I mean, this is common and it is essential culling in order to keep the neutrality of news in a time when what people are selling as news (see below) is anything but but, rather, entirely subjective, poorly researched, opinion pieces (see below).

I listened to Mark Levin, Mike Church, and Glenn Beck yesterday while I was driving around Atlanta, GA, in a SiriusXM-enabled truck and the major topic of conversation is that Progressives and Democrats are “the Evil Empire,” to quote Levin, and that they’re the enemies of free speech (priceless), are conspiring to silence opposing voices, and using whatever means necessary to derail the Tea Party movement and to steal the November elections.

While I will ignore all of the obvious déjà vu and the supernova hypocrisy, I will say that I pledge my $100 in solidarity with NPR, with WAMU, WBUR, WNYC, American Public Media, Public Radio International, and all of the NPR affiliates that are getting a lot of harassment today from a Red Tide of people who don’t value the sort of academic, rigorous, cultural, worldly, passionate, creative, innovative, global, neutral, and pro-women, pro-minority, and pro-education programming that National Public Radio and all their affiliates provide to all my friends and me on an hourly, daily, and yearly basis.

Yes, America doesn’t deserve NPR, the way we’ve been behaving lately.  What is the percentage of Americans who believe in Creationism in 2010?  Really, I can see why the Tea Party movement rejects public-financed education and public-funded cultural programing: a political movement of anti-intellectualism doesn’t value it — or deserve — it.

I am sorry, NPR, that I only pledge $100 dollars just now.  I wish it were more, though I am hoping a few of my friends who read this blog, read my Twitter stream, and catch me on Facebook decide to call up their local NPR affiliate and pledge what they can as well.  Maybe, all told, our support with amount to something.

I am a tremendous fan of the NPR radio show Political Junkie. Last week, I befriended Ken Rudin on Facebook and popped him an email telling him how much I love the show and how I listen to Political Junkie on my Nokia N95 8GB every week from my home in Berlin. I got this awesome shout out in the most recent Political Junkie column:

A lovely note from Chris Abraham, who writes from Germany, “I am quite addicted to Political Junkie — I catch it on the podcast as I wander around Berlin. Excellent energy there. Now, the game begins!”

It is no secret that I am a fan of NPR and a double-fan of Fair Game with Faith Salie.  Well, I took the initiative to create a Fair Game with Faith Salie Facebook group. And, if you’re a fan of Faith Salie then you should become Faith Salie’s friend on MySpace (I had never heard of her  before I heard the first show on WAMU in Washington).  Come on and join the unofficial Fair Game with Faith Salie fan club!

Attention to everyone in Berlin, Germany — Americans, Brits, English-speakers, and those who want to learn — National Public Radio has just opened up a 24-hour radio station right here in Berlin, NPR Worldwide Berlin, 104,1 FM!

Probably the only reason I spent 17+ years in Washington is because of WAMU, 88.5 FM, the local NPR radio station. At one point WETA, 90.9, moved from Classical to NPR talk programing, and it was bliss. When I moved to Berlin, Germany, in November, I loaded up every day on NPR and PRI podcasts because I did not want to do without Car Talk, Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me, Studio 360, Speaking of Faith, This American Life, Fair Game with Faith Salie — the lot!

Well, I was farting around with my Nokia n95 8GB cell phone last week, and using the Radio feature, and happened upon 104,1 FM, and there was NPR programming! I thought it was a podcast, which I also listen on this amazing little device, and it wasn’t.

For some reason, the stations I had mapped for Washington opened me up to a station I had had programmed in Washington (Nokia checks the city and then populates all the sations) — WXGG, a Gospel station in Washington! Well, it wasn’t Gospel, it wasn’t German-language, and it wasn’t BBC World Service Berlin.

Well, my heart leapt!

There isn’t a lot of local programming yet but there is a pretty cool feeling of programming going on — there is a little more content focused on the Foreign Service and Diplomatic Corps, which is cool, but all your faves are there: Marketplace, Wait Wait… Don’t Tell Me!, All Things Considered, On the Media, Car Talk, Fresh Air Weekend, Morning Edition, The Diane Rehm Show, Hot Jazz Saturday Night, Speaking of Faith, and — wait for it — A Prairie Home Companion!

Lake Wobegon and Garrison Keillor are the most important here because the entire radio show isn’t available via podcast, only the sweet Report from Lake Wobegon, not the entire radio show.

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