Friday, October 05, 2007

Censored or not?

Now I’m just confused. Several news reports about the Rush Limbaugh phony soldiers controversy stated that that particular Limbaugh program had been broadcast (or rebroadcast) by American Forces Radio and Television Services (AFRTS) with the phony soldiers discussion deleted.

Who was responsible for that: Limbaugh and Clear Channel or AFRTS?

If it was the decision of AFRTS, then it’s safe to assume they knew soldier bashing when they heard it. But this also would have forced them to violate their own mission statement. If you read the FAQ section about the political talk radio programs featured on AFRTS, it states explicitly: “We do not censor programs.”

Well now, only one thing left to do: email AFRTS and ask them. Except that the contact link is currently unavailable, presumably because thousands of people are emailing expressions of their undying support for or undying hatred of Rush Limbaugh.

Has anybody heard or seen an official statement from AFRTS?

UPDATE Here’s part of the transcript from Keith Olbermann’s Countdown show.
OLBERMANN: We might add the armed forces version of the Limbaugh show regarding the phony soldiers had only the edited clip on it, not the original one. They never heard the original one.
Now, who was responsible for the editing? Did Limbaugh/Clear Channel edit that discussion because they were afraid it might offend troops listening over armed forces radio? Or did AFRTS edit that segment, breaking its promise not to censor programs? Either way, somebody somewhere suspected there was a problem with the "phony soldiers" discussion being broadcast to the troops.

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