Will YOU let it happen...again?
Posted on 06/17/2004 4:20:00 AM PDT by kattracks
(CNSNews.com) - Liberal groups that want to bounce Rush Limbaugh's radio show off Armed Forces Radio have found a Senate ally.
Sen. Tom Harkins (D-Iowa) announced on Wednesday that he has successfully amended the Fiscal Year 2005 Defense Authorization bill, adding a provision that calls on American Forces Radio and Television Service to provide political balance in its public affairs programming.
Harkin was quoted as saying that American Forces Radio and Television Service is funded by taxpayers of all political persuasions, and therefore it should "make a greater effort to provide balanced representation of political viewpoints on its airwaves to American service members around the world."
Media Matters for America -- a liberal group that monitors conservative media for "misinformation"-- praised Harkin for introducing the amendment -- and the entire Senate for going along with it.
For the past seven weeks, Media Matters for America has been monitoring The Rush Limbaugh Show - transcribing and publishing Limbaugh's "offensive statements" regarding the abuse of Iraqi prisoners.
Media Matters for America has written two letters to Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, asking him to remove Limbaugh's radio show from the taxpayer-funded American Forces radio network.
Among other things, Media Matters for America accuses Limbaugh of undermining the military's command structure and endangering U.S. troops.
According to an online petition on Media Matters' website, "In recent weeks, Rush Limbaugh has: Compared the abuse of Iraqi prisoners by U.S. guards at Abu Ghraib to a fraternity initiation; called the abuse "brilliant" and "effective"; said the guards were just "having a good time" and "blow[ing] some steam off"; likened the abuse to "a Britney Spears or Madonna concert ... [or] the MTV music awards"; compared pictures of the abuse to "good old American pornography"; and said "the reaction to the stupid torture is an example of the feminization of this country."
Media Matters says its online petition has generated more than 25,000 signatures to date.
On his radio program, Limbaugh has made the point that the mistreatment of prisoners at Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison does not meet the definition of torture; that President Bush's critics are overreacting to the prison scandal just to hurt him politically; that the abuse at Abu Ghraib garnered more "mainstream" media coverage than the beheading of an American civilian in Iraq; and that the U.S. is "investigating itself to the point of paralysis," and may "end up with people afraid to pull the trigger."
'Destructive propaganda'
In a press release issued Wednesday, Media Matters essentially accused Limbaugh of brainwashing U.S. troops:
"Not only is it unacceptable that our troops are being conditioned with this destructive propaganda, it is abhorrent that the American taxpayer is now paying for the broadcast of a reckless radio host who called the torture of Iraqi prisoners 'brilliant' and 'effective'," said David Brock, president and CEO of Media Matters for America.
"The Senate action is a step in the right direction to ensure that Limbaugh's messaging can be countered with more credible voices reaching out troops," Brock added.
The Senate amendment passed on Wednesday calls on Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld to develop appropriate methods of oversight to make sure the news service presents balanced political programming. The measure passed in the Senate by unanimous consent, Media Matters said.
The defense authorization bill must be reconciled by a conference committee, and it's unclear if Harkin's amendment will survive that process.
Media Matters isn't the only group gunning for Rush Limbaugh.
Democracy Radio, a group "dedicated to ending the political imbalance that exists on America's radio airwaves," says the Rush Limbaugh Show is the only program of its kind on AFRTS that offers political commentary. Democracy Radio notes that AFRTS is funded by public tax dollars and reaches nearly 1 million U.S. troops every day.
Media Matters for America describes itself as a "progressive research and information center dedicated to comprehensively monitoring, analyzing, and correcting conservative misinformation in the U.S. media."
Both groups are part of a larger liberal agenda to counter the influence of conservative talk radio on the American electorate.
See Earlier Story:
Liberals Want Limbaugh Booted Off Armed Forces Radio (27 May 2004)
This is is just the start of a campaign against talk radio.
This is insane. This is military programing. You can not have anti military propaganda. This will only achieve what the old equal time doctrine did, it will kill ALL politics. What the libs want. Reagan voted out the equal time bs. So much for praising Reagan.
Can the soldiers do something? Are they allowed to write their reps on this issue?
Ahhhh...
just like PBS and NPR.
I see how it works :)
Hey, if Tokyo Rose was still around the Dems would want to hire her. But I guess Franken is a close enough substitute. (end/sarcasm)
You really have to love these guys, absolutely no shame. It's the same argument with NPR and PBS, certainly, if this goes through then we can expect some big changes within those organizations.
Is NPR on military radio?
Even the british military booted the BBC.
And the Tom Joyner Show isn't even mentioned?!?!?
So now the troops are going to have to listen to NPR and Air America? I thought liberals were against torture.
Harkin and his kind's idea of baalnce is five liberals for every conservative on the radio.
This kind of nonsense has been tried before with the fairness doctrine and the end result was local issues and news not getting any coverage due to burdensome regulations.
It's time for Harkin and his kind to accept reality. THEY ARE NOT THE MAJORITY THOUGHT IN AMERICA, WE, CONSERVATIVES AND CHRISTIANS ARE AND ANYBODY THAT SAYS OTHERWISE IS A BALD FACED PATHOLOGICAL LIAR AND HARKIN IS A BALD FACED PATHOLOGICAL LIAR!!!!!!!
Regards.
Dunno the answer to that one but I'd bet they are.
My comment was directed at the fact that gubermint funding of radio is OK as long as it's liberal radio. Once conservative radio appears it has to be banned because it's not "balanced".
What a steamy load from this gasbag Harkin.
I'm sure Rush will speak to it on his show today. Should be interesting.
In all "fairness," Socialist Harkin should also legislate that we give the terrorists the same weapons as the U.S. military. He is another ally of the Clintooooon/Microbright anti-military establishment!
By balance, Tom means truth must be balanced by untruth.
So they want anti-American, anti-military, pro dictatorship, blame America first, pacifist BS crap on Armed Forces Radio. Yeah, that makes sense! < /sarcasm >
They did? Good for them! :-)
Any "balance" provided by the current liberals/left would be the same as the anti-American venom of the former Lord Hah-Hah and Tokyo Rose during WWII and Radio Moscow in later years. For current purposes, to make Harkin and Media Matters happy, they can just pipe Radio Havana into the Armed Forces Network.
No one wants to listen on the radio to the harrangues of the liberal/left in the U.S., so why should they have to in the Armed Forces? The only way the liberals/left can bring about anything like this is through governmental dictate - that is their whole modus operandi, no matter what aspect of life is involved.
The real concern of Harkin and "Media Matters" is the fact that those in the Armed Forces vote overwhelmingly Republican. There assuredly is no love for these men and women from the left.
Does this mean NPR will be force to carry Rush Limbaugh?
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