An intriguing and somewhat surprising item via Americablog:
Well, that didn’t take long. It took forever for the Pentagon to finally accept having Ed Schultz’s liberal radio show on the Armed Forces Radio as a counter to conservative Rush Limbaugh (and, from what I’ve heard, they still haven’t started airing Schultz). Yet now, as soon as the Armed Forces Radio is finally approaching being fair and balanced, one openly-conservative show to one openly-liberal, they go off and try to sign Sean Hannity’s ABC radio show to un-even the score.
(And let me make clear, by saying it’s one to one, I’m being generous. Armed Forces Radio carries Limbaugh, “Dr.” Laura, and religious right freak James Dobson as well. I didn’t see any obvious lefties on their entire line-up.)
I can’t disclose my source on this. You’re just going to have to trust me.
Now, it’s possible the Armed Forces Radio network – more aptly called the American Forces Network Broadcast Center – is planning to bring Hannity on board and balance his show with a second liberal show, say something from Air America would be nice. But I’ve not heard anything definitive about that. All I know is that it sure looks like the Pentagon, once again, may be trying to propagandize to our troops with a Republican message at the expense of giving them both sides of the story.
But aside from the issue of the number of conservative versus liberal talk shows on Armed Forces Radio you now have a situation (assuming this report is correct) that could become a BIG STORY in coming months:
(1) Schultz (who is undeniably the nation’s top-rated progressive talker) was first told he was going to be on AFRN then yanked at the last minute. Then allowed on. See our post chain below and you can read all the background.
(2) But once his show was told it could be on, it became clear that some were suggesting “well, yeah, he’s given the green light but the local stations will never put him on.” If that is what happens, then you could assume that the green light given to him was a CYA operation: say he can go on but don’t put him on and say it’s due to local station decisions.
(3) So Schultz is NOT ON YET…so now (presumably) they sign Hannity.
(4) Then (supppose) Hannity gets on — but Schultz doesn’t, and the explanation is “well, the local stations don’t want him.”
If THAT happens, then perhaps all American taxpayers who are paying for programming on Armed Forces Radio who believe there should be a diversity of views on AFRN (and that includes Democrats, independents and some independent-thinking Republicans) need to consider this:
If it turns out that in the end there STILL is only one viewpoint (shows that demonize one political party and defend another) then yank them ALL. Taxpayers must DEMAND it and perhaps somewhere there is a lawyer who can even take legal action.
YES: No more Rush. No Sean. No Big Ed. No Dr. Laura. No James Dobson.
American isn’t only Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity. And the people who bravely serve and die in the military aren’t only of one viewpoint. If there is no balance, then ALL political talk shows need to be removed from Armed Forces Radio.