The Stepford Soldiers

Some of my commenters have expressed surprise that Rush Limbaugh is broadcast to the troops via Armed Forces Radio Networks. In fact, this has been going on for many years and has been a long running bone of contention in the congress. Here’s an article from Stars and Stripes in 2000:

One plank to the Democrats’ platform addresses programming on Armed Forces Radio Network radio broadcasts. According to the platform, “AFN has broadcast an overwhelming number of ultraconservative radio programs, such as Rush Limbaugh, James Dobson, Paul Harvey and news items with commentary from the extreme right-wing USA Radio Network with no programs supporting the Democratic Party as balance.”

McQueen said his group has complained about the programming but was told by AFN that National Public Radio programs balance the broadcast.

Thomas Fina, executive director of Democrat Abroad in Alexandria, Va., said in a phone interview that this issue won’t be a big issue at the convention and will be overshadowed by other issues.

Jones agreed. “They won’t do anything about it,” he said. “This is a crybaby tactic about Rush Limbaugh’s popularity because [the Democrats] don’t have any commentator as popular as Rush.”

Another good argument for liberal radio, I’d say…

Here’s the daytime protion of the AFRN radio schedule for May 2004:

0550 Marketplace Morning

0605 Dy Joy Browne

0705 Newswheel

0735 Sports Byline

0805 ESPN: The Herd with Colin Cowherd

0905 Rush Limbaugh

1005 Dr Laura

1048 Paul Harvey News & Comment

1105 Jim Rome Show

1205 Mon-Fri Clark Howard

1305 Newswheel

1405 NPR All Things Considered

1505 NPR All Things Considered

1530 Marketplace

1605 Newswheel

1630 Sports Byline

1705 Newswheel

1730 Mon Face The Nation

Tue ABC World News This Week

Wed This Week on ABC

Thu Field & Stream

Fri Travel Radio

1805 Newswheel

1830 Marketplace

Fair and balanced? You bet. Right wing bombthrowers, Rush, Dr. Laura and Paul Harvey in the morning — and left-wing fire breathers, All Things Considered and Marketplace in the afternoon.

Our troops are getting the full complement of political and social views while they are away from home. Isn’t that nice?

So, as we wonder why some of our troops may believe that it is acceptable behavior to act like a bunch of barbarians with no conscience, this is one place we should probably look. Here’s an example of what the troops were hearing from back home one day this month:

LIMBAUGH: All right, so we’re at war with these people. And they’re in a prison where they’re being softened up for interrogation. And we hear that the most humiliating thing you can do is make one Arab male disrobe in front of another. Sounds to me like it’s pretty thoughtful. Sounds to me in the context of war this is pretty good intimidation — and especially if you put a woman in front of them and then spread those pictures around the Arab world. And we’re sitting here, “Oh my God, they’re gonna hate us! Oh no! What are they gonna think of us?” I think maybe the other perspective needs to be at least considered. Maybe they’re gonna think we are serious. Maybe they’re gonna think we mean it this time. Maybe they’re gonna think we’re not gonna kowtow to them. Maybe the people who ordered this are pretty smart. Maybe the people who executed this pulled off a brilliant maneuver. Nobody got hurt. Nobody got physically injured. But boy there was a lot of humiliation of people who are trying to kill us — in ways they hold dear. Sounds pretty effective to me if you look at us in the right context.

Then, of course, you have Hopalong Codpiece telling the whole world just last night:

… terrorists know that Iraq is now the central front in the war on terror. And we must understand that as well.

The return of tyranny to Iraq would be an unprecedented terrorist victory and a cause for killers to rejoice. It would also embolden the terrorists, leading to more bombings, more beheadings and more murders of the innocent around the world.

The rise of a free and self-governing Iraq will deny terrorists a base of operation, discredit their narrow ideology and give momentum to reformers across the region. This will be a decisive blow to terrorism at the heart of its power, and a victory for the security of America and the civilized world.

The troops in Iraq believe they are saving innocent Americans by fighting terrorists in Iraq. The Preznit told them so. It’s hard to tell the terrorists apart from the non-terrorists over there. They don’t talk English or anything. So, to be on the safe side we’d better play plenty rough. If they aren’t terrorists they shouldn’t look and talk like one.

It’s pretty clear that the troops are getting the message from certain of their leaders and popular political pundits that they have permission to kick ass against “the enemy,” the Iraqis. Just the other day, one of our most powerful Republicans said he thinks that prison is too good em:

“Frankly, to save some American troops’ lives or a unit that could be in danger, I think you should get really rough with them,” Lott said. “Some of those people should probably not be in prisons in the first place.”

When asked about the photo showing a prisoner being threatened with a dog, Lott was unmoved. “Nothing wrong with holding a dog up there unless it ate him,” Lott said. “(They just) scared him with the dog.”

Lott was reminded that at least one prisoner had died at the hands of his captors after a beating. “This is not Sunday school,” he said. “This is interrogation. This is rough stuff.”

I wonder when it’s going to occur to people that what President Bush is now saying is that we invaded Iraq to liberate a bunch of terrorists?

(Thanks to Political Animal for the Lott link)

Update: From the great minds think alike files, Salon posted this story tonight on the same subject.

Melvin Russell, director of American Forces Radio and Television Services, insists that Limbaugh’s controversial show is broadcast for only one reason — it gains big ratings in the United States. “We look at the most popular shows broadcast here in the United States and try to mirror that. [Limbaugh] is the No. 1 talk show host in the States; there’s no question about that. Because of that we provide him on our service.”

[…]

And if ratings drive the station’s programming choices, then why not carry Howard Stern, who draws nearly 8 million listeners a week and who in recent months has emerged as President Bush’s most high-profile critic on radio, declaring a “jihad” against the “arrogant bastard” in the White House? Although Stern’s often-bawdy show differs from Limbaugh’s politically, it fits Russell’s criterion of being popular. “Stern today is a mirror reflection of what Americans are listening to,” says Athans. In fact, Stern’s ratings surged this year after he began leveling his broadsides against the Bush administration. “I strategize more about my radio show than Bush does about the war in Iraq,” Stern quipped last month.

“My answer [on Stern],” says Russell, “is we have determined that that show, because of the [sexual] content, was not appropriate for a network that has just one or two stations broadcasting to an audience that ranges from 1-year-olds up to 50-year-olds.”

“Rush Limbaugh is appropriate?” says Franken. “Saying the troops at Abu Ghraib were just blowing off steam — that’s more appropriate than what Howard Stern says? It sounds to me like they’re rationalizing their decision.” Adds Athans: “That sounds like censorship. In one breath, in regard to Limbaugh, they say they don’t censor what the military listens to, and in the next breath they say Howard Stern is not appropriate.”

“We don’t censor, we provide,” answers Russell. “Our troops deserve the same information that’s available to them in the U.S.”

Other critics of the network wonder if it’s proper for the Pentagon to broadcast Limbaugh when he’s calling John Kerry a skirt chaser, labeling female activists Nazis and telling servicemen and -women “what’s good for al-Qaida is good for the Democratic Party in this country today.”

I think that a huge number of those in the military overseas would love to hear Howard Stern. If I were Howard, I’d start an on-air campaign to get included and I’d appeal to his fans in the military here in the states. There are millions.