Antidote to Limbaugh Sought on Army Radio

[Khephra]

WASHINGTON -- Lawmakers used to wrangling over troop levels and weapons systems find themselves in a dispute over whether military personnel abroad should be given more of a liberal antidote to conservative commentator Rush Limbaugh.

Liberals are upset that the Pentagon's American Forces Radio and Television Service is airing the first hour of Limbaugh's show, five days a week, on one of the 13 radio channels it offers.

"Liberals, moderates and independents contribute to funding for American Forces Radio through payment of their taxes, just like conservatives do," said Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, who slipped a provision this month into a $447 billion defense bill to counter Limbaugh's presence on the Pentagon's airwaves.

Harkin's sense-of-the Senate resolution asks the secretary of defense to ensure that the former Armed Forces Radio presents in its programing "all sides of important public questions."

more..............

http://www.newsday.com/news/politics/wire/sns-ap-pentagon-radio,0,2212599.story?coll=sns-ap-politics-headlines

[Nlighten1]

1. AAR would make a nice fit...

It will never happen though.

[trogdor]

15. I agree.

They'll probably get somebody like Alan Colmes and call it close enough for government work.

[Ironpost]

2. Tom Harkin , what a class act

[cocoabeach]

5. Tom Harkin will switch alliance if his constisuancy polls told him to

Grew up with him as my Senator and he is a politician first but wait until the Iowegians get tired and his hot air will blow to the right. Remember...this is an election year and he knows how to play it. In '84 he turned to the right so fast he had whiplass.

[Ironpost]

12. Sounds like a freeper to me.

actually, thats what I like in a politician, ability to change ones view. None of us know everything all the time.

[trogdor]

16. The very definition of a centrist.

I can have nice conversations with youse guys, and I can have nice conversations with conservatives, at least the ones who aren't brain-damaged.

[tridim]

3. They'll choose Colmes

Mark my words.

[MattNC]

4. he's better on his radio show

than he is on H&C.

[billbuckhead]

6. I almost said Colmes is better than nothing but then changed my mind

Nothing is worse than commercial American talk radio, even dead air. Now that NPR's mostly conservative anyhow, run by a exCIA guy even, it shouldn't be too hard to convince Republicans to use NPR instead of a drug addict with known poor judgement about racial and cultural issues. If Rush isn't good enough to do commentary on the NFL then he shouldn't be broadcast to our troops, allies and other people whose help we need.

[Born Free]

13. "I almost said Colmes is better than nothing but then changed my mind"

Colmes is the very worst choice, having listened to him for a couple weeks on XM was enough to force me to take XM back and get Sirius. Much like a token black in a an all white movie, Colmes is the typical stereo type liberal that conservatives love to beat up on, totally worthless for any true liberal views. Colmes is loved by conservatives becasue he always loses and seems to find a way to make a fool out of himself and his points of view, but anyone that has listened to Air America, any of the shows on Air America, knows there are far more qualified talk show hosts.

[DemoTex]

7. Drop all politically-skewed commentary on AFR!

What a crock of shit! AFVN was bad enough without the likes of Ru$h. My tour in RVN would have been much worse with someone like him spewing liquid shit.

[Bandit]

17. Exactly ~ Why should there be any Politics on Armed Forces Radio?

Entertain the troops not indoctrinate them. Get all politics off Armed forces radio.

[slackdude]

8. Baba Booey

Give 'em Howard Stern!

[sam sarrha]

9. Why do they even have to listen to ANY politics at all there, it is bad

enough already there with everybody trying to kill you.. then you have to put up with brainwashing

[Senior citizen]

10. If we're "exporting democracy"

it seems to me that "Democracy Now" would be a good fit.


At least I'd love to see the Pentagon explain why they can't air it!

[PROGRESSIVE1]

11. Ed Schultz!

[The Stranger]

14. NPR felt the need to put in quotes the description of Limbaugh's hate

radio show as "right wing." I mourn for NPR and what it once was. How the mighty have fallen.

[Cerridwen]

18. I read the heading and all I

could think was; I really wish it read "Antidote to Limbaugh Sought."

[Danieljay]

19. Give them Randi Rhodes and Ed Shultz! n/t

[americanstranger]

20. TBTM Radio's already there!

On CD, at least...

We've had a number of active military write us and ask permission to put our shows on CD and take them to places like Kuwait and Afghanistan.

And how could we say no? We support the troops! :)

-as

[enki23]

21. i'd argue for just pulling limbaugh off the damned system

otherwise won't the the decidedly conservative military establishment, in practice, just *not play the other guy*?

wouldn't this be a case where it's better to provide a relatively apolitical message (note that i said "relatively")? seriously. limbaugh is an extremist. i don't think a balance is even possible, as there's no leftist program that even comes *close* to "balancing" limbaugh's extremism. and no, not even Air America. not even close.

further, presenting two extremist viewpoints, should that even be possible, only serves to polarize the listening audience anyway. with a group as likely to be biased toward the conservative viewpoint in the first place, i fail to see how adding a "balancing" view will do anything more than provide a foil for them to vent their frustrations at. some will listen, and maybe actually consider what's being said. most won't. and even if a sizable number did, do we really want to be fomenting political tensions between factions within our military?

get limbaugh off the fucking subsidized airwaves. he doesn't belong there. he's an apologist, even a god damned cheerleader for behavior like that exhibited at abu graib. that isn't an exaggeration, it's on the record. no amount of "balance" will make that better.

[CO Liberal]

22. Why Should They Listen to a Drug Addict Anyway???

:shrug:

[DinahMoeHum]

23. How about Al Franken / AAR ?? He's already done some USO

shows out there for our troops.


:kick:

[JayS]

24. Let the troops vote on what they want to hear. n/t

n/t