Harkin: Grandstanding

Tom Harkin (D, Iowa) is trying to stall the Defense Appropriations Bill with an amendment that would tinker with American Forces' Radio programming.

Under Harkin's amendment, AFR would "balance" its programming by removing Rush Limbaugh and replacing it with more liberal programming - on the putative theory that since the taxpayers are liberals, moderates, libertarians and every other political denomination under the sun, there should be "balance".

Salon hews the party line:

Service men and women around the world who tune in to American Forces Radio may soon be hearing a more balanced mix of political commentary -- and not exclusively the partisan rants [Question: If a conservative said "Hello" in the woods, and no liberal where there to hear him, would he still be ranting? Just curious - Ed.] of Rush Limbaugh

Salon notes that Limbaugh's is the only "long-form" political talk show on AFR.

Seems fair, right?

Hardly.

The Texas A&M "Battalion" shreds Harkin;I add emphasis:

It's not difficult to see where one could get off putting the moniker of "unbalanced" on Rush Limbaugh, but to then pass that branding iron right over individuals such as Diane Rehm and Dan Rather is rather disturbing. It's even more disturbing to see someone accuse the AFR as a whole of being biased.

There is no factuality to attest to this at all. Consulting the weekly master schedule for AFR, available on their Web site, one sees that the notoriously liberal National Public Radio alone occupies ten hours per week, which is five more hours than Rush Limbaugh. Now, throw in other liberal notables like Dave Ross, Diane Rehm, Bill Schneider and Dan Rather and the total grows horribly disproportionate. Even combining the short segments of conservatives like Paul Harvey or Dave Ramsey yields numbers that are immaterial; no matter how the hours are added, the liberals come out ahead.

This whole premise of counting time by ideological lean becomes ridiculous when one considers that AFR has over 1,100 different radio programs. This is why Sen. Harkin is not really serious about making AFR "balanced." If he were, he'd have to identify the political ideology of over 1,100 hosts and commentators! What about Jim Rome? He gets 54 minutes per day; maybe Sen. Harkin should ask him if he is pro-life or pro-choice so he can be added to the appropriate list.

The whole idea behind AFR is to present a representative selection of American radio programming. How could one present American radio without including Limbaugh, who, like him or not, is its' biggest single personality?

Back to the Battalion:

When both the "liberal" and the "conservative" programming are combined, they are only a small fraction of the available programming, which features sports, cooking and car shows in the array. This is because the intention of AFR was never political in nature. It is meant to be a representation of what Americans are listening to - a broad swath of everything. The Rush Limbaugh Show is the most popular of its kind on the radio; for the AFR to have talk radio without it would be like having a sports show without covering the NBA Finals or the Super Bowl.

Honestly, this broad-swath nature of AFR probably explains what NPR and the rest of the liberal gamut are even doing on there in the first place, since the military shows a greater conservative lean collectively than the country as a whole.

I wonder; if you opened AFR to the free market - if, say, servicepeople had to pay for listening - whether there'd be any chance of Air America getting picked up, or Limbaugh being dropped?

One thing is clear: The liberals in the realm of radio feel threatened.

Why? Because people want to hear Rush Limbaugh. He supports the troops. He tells the soldiers overseas what the liberals want hidden in a dusty closet somewhere. Liberals don't do these things, and it's their tactics that put freedom in jeopardy. They say that it is fairness and balance that they really want, but inside they still yearn for a chance to play by the golden rule of the American media.

"He who has the press, gets the freedom".

Posted by Mitch at August 31, 2005 10:32 AM | TrackBack