Russell dismisses the charge that his network leans to the right. "That's not accurate. We carry a number of long-form programs from NPR. If you look at the 1,200 news and information programs we provide weekly, I feel they're fair and balanced." Most of those programs, however, are just a couple of minutes long. None of them approaches the entire hour Limbaugh gets every weekday -- in length or in pure partisanship. (Limbaugh's show in the States runs three hours daily, but to fit in as much programming as possible, American Forces Radio airs just the first hour.)
Limbaugh's actions off the air in the past nine months raise another question -- whether he is fit to be broadcast on American Forces Radio at all. Last fall Limbaugh was forced to quit his job as an ESPN football analyst after he made remarks about how the media, busy rooting for black quarterbacks to succeed in the National Football League, went easy on them in public. "When he surfaces outside his radio program, it doesn't take long for both viewers and news executives to decide his commentary is not acceptable to a mainstream audience," says David Brock, author of "The Republican Noise Machine." "What he said on ESPN was not unlike what he says on his radio show."
What's more, Limbaugh is currently under investigation by the West Palm Beach, Fla., prosecutor for alleged doctor shopping to obtain thousands of prescription painkillers. If he were in the military, Limbaugh would be disciplined, perhaps even court-martialed, for hate speech and illegal drug use. Now he's telling troops that the Abu Ghraib abuses were nothing but "a good time."
Limbaugh made all kinds of outrageous statements this year, even before he began condoning the abuse of Iraqi prisoners. According to the new Media Matters for America Web site, which monitors the right-wing press, between March 15 and April 29 "Limbaugh used the term 'femi-Nazis' eight times; he suggested that women want to be sexually harassed; he repeatedly equated Democrats with terrorists; he twice resurrected long-discredited right-wing claims that Clinton deputy White House counsel Vince Foster was murdered; he repeatedly called Senator John Kerry a 'gigolo'; he called Howard Dean 'a very sick man'; [and] he said Democrats 'hate this country.'" Is it appropriate for a military audience to be repeatedly beamed these messages?
Says Brock, who is president of Media Matters: "American Forces Radio makes choices based on content. The content of Limbaugh's comments has been so inflammatory that this may be an occasion for them to review the choices they've made. Has Limbaugh crossed the line? They'll have to address that."
Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, is upset by the right-wing tilt of American Forces Radio. "Senator Harkin was recently made aware of the situation and he's very concerned about it," says Maureen Knightly, his communications director. "He didn't realize [the station] leans that conservatively. It has raised a red flag. Taxpayers pay for it, and he feels there should be better balance in what's being aired." Harkin serves on the Senate Appropriations subcommittee that oversees Pentagon spending.
Eleven years ago it was Republican members of Congress whose pressure put Limbaugh on American Forces Radio in the first place. In 1993, then Rep. Robert Dornan, R-Calif., along with 69 other Republican House members, sent a letter to President Clinton's first secretary of defense, Les Aspin, demanding that both Limbaugh's radio show and his syndicated television show (on which Limbaugh compared preteen Chelsea Clinton to a dog) be broadcast to the military. "Limbaugh has been called by his liberal critics 'the most dangerous man in America.' It appears the liberal leadership at the Pentagon agrees with that ridiculous assertion," Dornan wrote. "The bottom line is that the troops want Rush Limbaugh, and you should see to it that they at least have that opportunity."
The Pentagon responded by pointing to an internal survey of 50,000 military listeners that found that only 4 percent requested more long-format talk radio. Most respondents overwhelmingly requested continuous music. The Pentagon also said that Limbaugh's daily three-hour radio program would monopolize too much of the network's limited airtime.
Notably, on Nov. 29, 1993, American Forces Radio and Television Services issued this statement: "The Rush Limbaugh Show makes no pretense that his show is balanced. If AFRTS scheduled a program of personal commentary without balancing it with another viewpoint, we would be open to broad criticism that we are supporting a particular point of view."
Yet just three days later, as the controversy was stoked in conservative media and Republicans cried censorship, Aspin called Limbaugh to assure him that the Pentagon would find a way to get his program on the then-named Armed Forces Radio.
"That's the difference between Democrats and Republicans," says Franken, noting that Democrats are much more likely to give in to mau-mauing from the right.
Next page: "Nobody on NPR is doing the type of purely political commentary that Rush Limbaugh is doing"
