Once again, it seems as if an official government explanation is at variance with something that came before…this time a letter to the nation’s top progressive talk show host stating that he’d be broadcast on Armed Forces Radio — a gig that was suddenly nixed at the very last minute…coincidentally after he did a Friday segment that had made the military official who called to give him the unexpected news look bad.
At variance: a Pentagon spokesman’s explanation that the deal was never actually sealed versus a letter The Ed Schultz Show got in September, telling them the show would begin to air on Oct. 17th.
And if you read both sides, you have to come to the conclusion: the Schultz version is the one that makes sense (unless, for political reasons, you don’t want it to make sense). The government response is — yet again — a rebuttal debating point (we hate to use the word “spin”) that labors to explain away an earlier stand.
First, here’s the report now on UPI…which means it’ll be eventually picked up by other papers and news outlets:
WASHINGTON, Oct. 17 (UPI) — A talk radio host says his program, slated to debut on a Pentagon radio station Monday, was pulled to punish him for airing audio embarrassing President Bush.
Ed Shultz played an audio tape of Pentagon communications official Allison Barber helping troops in Iraq rehearse for their broadcast video teleconference with the president last week. Barber walked them through questions and their answers and warned them the president might ask questions not from the script.
The incident was widely considered an embarrassment to the White House, which appeared to be coaching soldiers for its own political purposes.
According to People for the American Way, Barber personally called Schultz — regarded as a liberal in the world of talk radio — on Monday to tell him his show would not be airing Oct. 17 after all.
Pure coincidence. Note, too, that it just happened to be done at the last minute…the Monday morning after the Friday incident. AND:
Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman denied any connection between the Barber tape and the decision to cancel Schultz’s radio show. He confirmed the Armed Forces Radio Network is looking to diversify its offerings – it currently carries conservatives Rush Limbaugh and James Dobson’s Focus on the Family — but said no offers have yet been made, including to Schultz.
Indeed, this decision can be postponed for a long time, which would give only one point of view a continued monopoly. Let’s see, who will be the fresh perspective? Dennis Prager…Michael Reagan…Michael Savage…G. Gordon Liddy. Someone among those progressives…
Are Rush fans who clamored so loudly when Armed Forces Radio almost didn’t let him on years ago going to now come to Schultz’s defense to continue to champion the same arguments about free speech and ideas that they used then? Will you win the lottery tomorrow? And:
However, the Fargo, North Dakota radio host received a letter from AFRN confirming the Oct. 17 debut, which was posted on the People for the American Way web site Monday.
The letter was written by Manny Levy, chief of the Radio Division for AFRN. Levy refused to comment to United Press International.
“AFN Radio has squared away everything on our end to begin carrying the first hour of ‘The Ed Schultz Show’ each day, beginning Monday, Oct. 17, 2005,” states the Sept. 29 letter.
Levy added: “An awful lot of people in the government had (or tried to have) a hand in the program selection process that ended with the decision to add ‘The Ed Schultz Show.'”
“I’m afraid the staff member got ahead of the decision,” said Whitman.
And there you have it:
- The Schultz Show got a letter that you can read in full here.
- Schultz ran a segment that embarrassed the White House and Pentagon, the Friday before he was to go on Armed Forces Radio.
- Schultz’s folks got a phone call early Monday morning saying “never mind.”
- A staff member got ahead of a major decision such as this. That’s what happened.
Sound logical? If it sounds cohesive and logical to you, then let me tell you about a nice, furry bunny that’ll hide eggs in your house this Easter.
No, what it sounds like is that someone high up got his/her/its nose seriously out-of-joint due to what Schultz did on the air and figured they didn’t want him on “THEIR” airwaves. But we may never be able to confirm the real reason.
In fact, this site ran a long interview with him that you can READ HERE pegged to the Armed Forces Radio debut, and it was up on this site by 2 a.m. Monday morning, before the show was seemingly nixed. In it, Schultz didn’t mute his views one iota (it’s a must-read if you’ve never listened to him).
There are now moves by Schultz fans and some politicians to demand he be put on Armed Forces Radio.
And, unless you are a staunch Bush supporter, you have to ask yourself: in all of your lifetime has the United States ever seen an administration like this? There is a Crisis-of-the-DAY — let alone the Crisis-of-the-Week.
And these crises seemingly have one common denominator: c-r-e-d-i-b-i-l-i-t-y.
This is yet another. When you read the chronology, whom do YOU believe? Do you think it’s logical that an “overzealous staffer (that’s someone who is apparently related to a fired “disgruntled employee”) would just, carelessly, send out a letter…and it just so happened that Schultz was just, coincidentally, called the Monday after his segment…and just, coincidentally, called by a Pentagon official who just-so-happened to be featured unflatteringly in it.
If you think it is logical, please send us your address and we’ll make sure that nice, furry bunny with the eggs visits you.
UPDATE: The Washington Post’s Howard Kurtz covers the story. Read it all but here the lede with key quote:
Liberal radio talker Ed Schultz was eagerly anticipating his debut yesterday on Armed Forces Radio, which agreed last month to carry his program to nearly a million soldiers around the world.
But at 7 a.m., Schultz’s producer got a call from Allison Barber, the Pentagon’s deputy assistant secretary for internal communications, who said without explanation that the deal was off.
Perhaps, Schultz said in an interview, it was just a coincidence that he spent the end of last week chastising Barber for coaching a group of U.S. soldiers in Iraq before a teleconference with President Bush.
“It kind of floored us,” Schultz said from his studio in North Dakota. “The fact is, they don’t want dissenting voices or any other kind of speech unless it’s going to be promotional for them. Obviously, these people are making sure they’re not going to have any opinion other than the Rush Limbaughs of the world.
SOME OTHERS COMMENTING ON THIS:
Dave Pell
Everything In Between
Radio Ink
Media Citizen
Dan Gillmor
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.