Rush's forced conscripts

American Forces Radio fires a daily barrage of Rush Limbaugh at its million uniformed listeners. So why are liberals kept off the military's airwaves?

By Eric Boehlert

May 26, 2004 | President Bush has condemned the torture of Iraqi prisoners, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld labeled it "un-American" and a recent Gallup poll found 79 percent of Americans "bothered" by the abuses. But Rush Limbaugh was gleeful. For weeks, the conservative talk show host has been dismissing the scandal as a "fraternity prank," mocking Democrats and others for expressing outrage and suggesting the prison humiliation -- which he dubbed "a brilliant maneuver" -- was "no different than what happens at the Skull and Bones initiation" at Yale. He described the images of torture as "pictures of homoeroticism that look like standard good old American pornography" and assured his listeners "there was no horror, there was no terror, there was no death, there was no injuries, nothing."

Limbaugh's increasingly bizarre comments about the military's widening prisoner abuse scandal -- the Pentagon acknowledges it's now investigating the deaths of 33 detainees, nine of whom were apparently beaten to death while in U.S. custody -- have forced a long-simmering question into the open: Why does Limbaugh's program, as the only hour-long, partisan political talk show broadcast daily to U.S. troops, enjoy exclusive access to American Forces Radio -- and American troops in Iraq?

"He says things like, liberals hate Americans, and we're trying to undermine the war on terror," says comedian Al Franken, a host for liberal radio station Air America who has also entertained troops on four USO tours. "It's a bad message for troops to be hearing and is a very skewed picture of what liberals and Democrats stand for. They're broadcasting a very, very partisan guy -- [with] nobody from the other side -- and they're using taxpayer money to do it."

"The government ought to make a greater effort to give a fair and balanced representation of political viewpoints on its airwaves to soldiers, sailors and airmen around the world listening," says Tom Athans, executive director of Democracy Radio, a nonprofit group in Washington that promotes political diversity on the airwaves. "It's important for the U.S. military, when using tax dollars, to not provide just one political perspective without giving consideration to opposing points of view." According to the Department of Defense's own broadcasting guidlines, "All political programming shall be characterized by its fairness and balance," and "equal opportunities" for "balance" are especially important "during presidential election years."

After the Florida recount in 2000, when overseas military ballots were an important element in Bush's narrow victory, the influence of what amounts to propaganda beamed daily to U.S. troops must be considered a domestic political factor of no small consequence. "There's no question when one-side programming like American Forces Network is presented to troops, it's going to impact their voting behavior," says Athans.

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."

Russell says that if Franken, or any other syndicated liberal talk show host, can draw big enough ratings, then American Forces Radio would try to find a spot for that person on the schedule. "I'm hoping, if Air America takes off and someone on that show reaches the same level of audience Rush does, we could look to add them to the service. But there's nobody on the liberal side that compares to his ratings."

Next page: If ratings drive the station's programming choices, why not carry Howard Stern?