Bad Penny Turns Up Again

Al Franken has finally managed to worm his way onto the American Forces Network schedule. The AFN promotion ad says, "To provide a balance of popular political viewpoints, American Forces Network has added three of the most popular partisan political talk shows to its inventory of programs available to AFN affiliates." Three of the most popular partisan political talk shows? Since when is Al Franken's show popular? According to the ratings, the only people who listen to his drek are the dead people across the country who vote Democrat. The other two shows are Ed Schultz and Sean Hannity. They already carry Rush. I was working at AFRTS in Los Angeles when the decision was being made on whether to carry Rush. Although it is a military organization, the core of the AFRTS hierarchy is made up of liberal civilians. You've never seen so much soul searching, breast beating and hair pulling as went on over that decision. But Franken and Schultz are in for a surprise. Now that they have weaseled their way onto the schedule, they're going to have to WORK to stay there. Their anti-Bush, anti-war, anti-American, anti-everything bloviating is not going to fly with a military audience and AFRTS is not going to pay for shows nobody wants to hear. The decision to carry their programs was purely political after an intense lobbying campaign by liberals. The decision to pull them off the air will come after a blizzard of audience complaints that a military network would carry such anti-American programming.