By early 1994, American Forces Radio had begun airing the first hour of Limbaugh's daily broadcast. Today, he's the sole long-format talker on American Forces Radio.
The current complaint about the rightward tilt of American Forces Radio is not a new one. In 2000, Democrats Abroad, the official party organization for the 6 million or so American citizens who live outside the United States, included in its platform the fact that the network "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."
Ron Schlundt, chairman of Democrats Abroad in Germany, where Limbaugh's talk show airs every weeknight, has complained to American Forces Radio for years. "They tell me, 'You just don't like him because he's conservative.' And I say, 'No, my objection is that he's so partisan and that it's not appropriate on a government radio station to have somebody saying "We Republicans" five hours a week and not have anyone saying "I'm a Democrat" five hours a week.'" Schlundt says American Forces Radio told him that Limbaugh's show is balanced by the many NPR programs that are broadcast by the network.
Indeed, Russell pointed to long-format news and information programs such as "Morning Edition" and "Fresh Air" as evidence that the station offers a true political balance. But critics say comparing Limbaugh's malicious, partisan and error-strewn attacks with the content of NPR, one of the largest and most respected news organizations in the world (the closest U.S. news organization to the BBC), is absurd. "Nobody on NPR is doing the type of purely political commentary that Rush Limbaugh is doing," says Athans. "NPR struggles to be as balanced as it can."
In fact, according to a new study by the liberal watchdog group Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting -- which analyzed the political affiliation of guests appearing last summer on NPR's most popular news shows -- Republicans outnumbered Democrats on NPR by 61 percent to 38 percent.
"Anybody who listened to Rush for one hour and to NPR for one hour would realize they're nothing like each other," says Franken. "Rush's message is that liberals hate America, while NPR is straight-ahead reporting and journalism."
Russell defends the programming of Limbaugh as a sensible middle course. "We get correspondence from both sides on the Rush Limbaugh subject, from 'Take him off' to 'Why don't you air all three hours?'" he says. And as long as Limbaugh remains the only political talk show host on American Forces Radio, Democracy Radio intends "to pressure this as an organization to make sure there's more balance," says Athans.
About the writer
Eric Boehlert is a senior writer at Salon.
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