June 3, 2004 Letter to Secretary Rumsfeld
PO Box 8208
Alexandria, VA 22306-8208
June 3, 2004
Secretary Rumsfeld
The Pentagon
Washington, DC
Dear Secretary Rumsfeld and Deputy Under Secretary DuBois:
I am writing to urge you to immediately remove Rush Limbaugh’s program from American Forces Radio. This airing of such extreme and hateful partisan content on the American taxpayers dime must stop immediately.
John Kerry, a fellow veteran and serving United States Senator has been consistently belittled on Limbaugh’s program. This is inappropriate content and should not be given the de facto endorsement of the federal government. This de facto endorsement only breeds contempt and hatred for a serving member of the United States Senate and a Vietnam veteran. It is plain wrong and must end now.
Limbaugh’s show, on which he recently compared the torture of Iraqi prisoners to fraternity pranks and called the abuse a “brilliant maneuver,” is the only hour-long partisan political talk show to be broadcast daily to U.S. troops. The fact that these statements are being subsidized in delivery to the troops is a de facto endorsement of the content. Further, it is a slap in the face to those men and women in uniform who do the right thing on a daily basis by abiding by the Geneva Conventions and the Uniform Code of Military Justice.
When asked, the director of American Forces Radio Melvin Russell claims that Limbaugh’s show is broadcast because of its popularity in the United States. However, if that’s the case, why isn’t Howard Stern’s radio show, which has nearly 8 million listeners a week, also included in the line-up? Russell claims that Stern’s show is not appropriate. This type of cherry-picking rationale smacks of censorship, which is expressly prohibited by the network’s charter.
In addition, the Department of Defense’s own broadcasting guidelines state that Armed Forces Radio and Television Service (AFRTS) news policy “shall be guided by the principle of fairness,” “[a]ll AFRTS political programming shall be characterized by its fairness and balance,” and “AFRTS [Broadcasting Center] shall provide a free flow of political programming from U.S. commercial and public networks…especially during presidential election years.” Unless another hour-long show on the other side of the political fence is added to the line-up, the current coverage is lopsided, unfair and inappropriate at best, and an example of censorship at worst.
Please let me know how you intend to proceed on this issue. As a former Marine and veteran of the first Gulf War I am thoroughly disgusted.
Sincerely,
James Landrith