Kris Schultz

Here are talking points from the Center for American Progress about the Pentagon's canceling of the Ed Schultz Show (no relation.) If you haven't signed up for their daily talking points, I urge you to do so, as I promise you that you'll learn something new from this - John Podesta's (former Chief of Staff to President Bill Clinton) - think tank every day. For example, today's additional talking points speak of the new bankruptcy law, state-by-state coverage, stories you may have missed, and invites to chats and events with key leaders. But the Center details issue or concern facing Americans, providing helpful talking points for those of us who wish to better articulate our views and concerns to others.

Center for American Progress Talking Points: Shafting Schultz

Yesterday, the Pentagon abruptly canceled the debut of The Ed Schultz Show -- the country's most popular progressive radio talk show -- on Armed Forces Network Radio (AFN), a station broadcast to U.S. troops serving outside the United States. AFN currently features an hour of programming from the right-wing Rush Limbaugh show, but no comparable progressive content. That was supposed to change. But early yesterday morning, the producer of the Ed Schultz show, James Holm, received a call from Pentagon communications aide Allison Barber informing him that the show would not be debuting on AFN. Coincidently, Schultz "spent the end of last week chastising Barber for coaching a group of U.S. soldiers in Iraq before a teleconference with President Bush."

EMAIL CONTRADICTS PENTAGON SPIN: The official line from the Pentagon is that there was "no decision made with respect to expanding the programming.” An email sent to Schultz's syndication company from AFR proves otherwise. Manny Levy, radio division chief at AFN, wrote "AFN Radio has squared away everything on our end to begin carrying the first hour of 'The Ed Schultz Show' each day, beginning Monday, October 17, 2005 at noon PT/3 ET." Levy added, "An awful lot of people in the government had (or tried to have) a hand in program selection process that ended with the decision to add 'The Ed Schultz Show.'"

BARBER STRIKES AGAIN: Last week, Barber was caught on tape coaching U.S. troops about what to say during a televised conversation with President Bush. Barber said, "So if there's a question that the president comes up with that we haven't drilled through today, then I'm expecting the microphone to go right back to you, Captain Kennedy." There is evidence that Barber was familiar with the contents of Schultz's show on Friday, where he replayed Barber's comments. Barber told Holm that she was aware that Schultz announced he would begin broadcasting on AFN during Friday's show. Schultz made his views clear: "The fact is, they don't want dissenting voices or any other kind of speech unless it's going to be promotional for them. Obviously, these people are making sure they're not going to have any opinion other than the Rush Limbaughs of the world." Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said the perception that Schultz's criticism of Barber had anything to do with the decision to cancel his debut was "an unfortunate misperception."

REGULATIONS REQUIRE ARMED FORCES RADIO TO BE BALANCED: Sen. Tom Harkin (D-IA) has worked hard to bring balance to AFN. With his leadership, the Senate passed a resolution "asking, that AFRTS meet its own mandate, as generally articulated in Department of Defense Regulation 5120.20R. That regulation calls for AFRTS political programming that is 'characterized by its fairness and balance,' as well as news programming guided by a 'principle of fairness' that requires reasonable opportunities for the presentation of conflicting views on important controversial public issues.'" At the time, Harkin said he believed "the bias that exists in the social and political commentary portions of this talk radio service is not intentional." Perhaps he was being too generous.

RUSH TRIVIALIZES TORTURE, STAYS ON THE AIR: The Pentagon has retained the services of Rush Limbaugh even after he spent weeks "condoning and trivializing the abuse, torture, rape and possible murder of Iraqi prisoners." For example, on May 6, 2004, Rush Limbaugh said of the abuse at Abu Ghraib prison,"This is no different that what happens at the Skull & Bones initiation. ... I'm talking about people having a good time. These people -- you ever heard of emotional release? You ever heard of needing to blow some steam off?" Two days later, he called torturing prisoners a "brilliant maneuver." A petition signed by nearly 50,000 people demanding Rush be removed from AFN was ignored.

# posted by Kris Schultz : 1:30 PM