Support the troops--with propaganda!

Broadcaster: Pentagon Pulled Plug on Show

AP- Dave Kolpack - FARGO, N.D.


Radio talk show host Ed Schultz says the Pentagon reneged after telling him his show would be aired for troops around the world. A Pentagon spokesman says no decision has been made.

Schultz said he had an agreement with the American Forces Radio and Television Service network to air his show starting this week. He hosts a nationally syndicated show from Fargo that supporters have billed as a liberal alternative to Rush Limbaugh.

Schultz said his producer got a call from Allison Barber, a deputy assistant secretary for defense, on Monday morning saying the show was "off for now," and she was not sure it would be rescheduled. It's censorship, that's what it is," Schultz said.

Schultz said he was critical of Barber on his show last week, when he said she had coached a group of U.S. soldiers in Iraq on what to say before a teleconference with President Bush. Pentagon officials denied that, saying Barber was only preparing the soldiers for an interview with the president. "I find it more than interesting that Allison Barber, who I gave a pretty strong critique to on Thursday and Friday, makes the call to pull the show," Schultz said.

Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said, "It's apparent to me that at least one staff member got ahead of where the decision process was, and that's unfortunate." It would be "an unfortunate misinterpretation" to link any decision on whether to distribute Schultz's show to his criticism of Barber or other Bush administration officials, Whitman said.

A group of Democratic senators sent a letter to Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld on Wednesday, asking for a "definitive timeline" for correcting what it said is a lack of political balance in talk radio programming on the American Forces network. The Ed Schultz Show would have been "a first, partial step toward achieving balance in political programming on AFN Radio. Even that first step has been abruptly canceled," the letter said.