Strelnieks

I am an American living in Germany and often listen to AFN, the radio station of the US armed services. I don't know if the US TV shows they import or produce themselves are most neutral, but their radio program is grotesquely conservative and somewhat religious:

* The evening radio program is: Focus on the Family followed by Rush Limbeau followed by Dr. Laura! Sunday morning radio features "Rock of Ages"- contemporary Chrsitian music and some preachy talks and interviews.

* There are occasional ads from the military chaplaincy to "make time for God" or "talk to your pastor".

* There is nothing overtly liberal or critical. There is no grovelling for G.W. Bush and the news coverage seems fair and balanced, but none of the commentators or people giving advice do so without spooks and conservatism. I seriously doubt they show, for example, "Politically Correct" on AFN TV.

Strel

Toto

Do you ever listen to "Le Show" with Harry Shearer? I believe it is or was on Armed Forces Radio. It is satire from a leftist perspective. I'll post a link later.

ohwilleke

If I had to guess I'd say that the officers are given a fairly free hand in selecting programing and that this reflects the bias of the officer corp. The U.S. military's officer corp has 9 Republicans for every Democrat and a conservative attitude to match. (The Enlisted ranks are less lopsidedly conservative, but still conservative leaning).

Still, pretty distrubing. Do you know who controls and operates AFR?

Megatron

The <a href="http://www.afrts.osd.mil/" target="_blank">Armed Forces Radio and Television Service (AFRTS)</a> administrates both AFN (Television) and AFR (Radio).

Excerpts from their FAQ (Propaganda alert!):

So, basically, programs are selected by popularity, which means football, sitcoms, and etc.

However, on another part of the page there is the ever-present "and special interests of the military" clause, which generally means conservatively biased programming to suit the conservatively biased majority of the military.

In other words, mostly syndicated stuff... which still isn't all that bad.

As for who's in charge: Well, as with all military sites, it's lacking a listing of who's in charge... obviously for security.

However, I can hazard a guess that the operation is in fact run by an officer (probably a high-ranking army one at that), approved by another officer, and the forms are signed by yet another officer.

Most of the workers, since it is a DoD function and not native to any particular branch of the armed forces, are likely to be civilian contractors and general service (GS) employees.

[ February 14, 2002: Message edited by: Archangel ]</p>

hezekiah jones

If I had to endure that primetime lineup, I'd probably be screaming "Jesus Christ!" too.

Dark Jedi

&lt;inside Joke&gt;
So tell me, are you going to go completely postal if you hear "And that is YOUR military heritage" one more time? &lt;/inside joke&gt;

A few of us here are likely to get it.

AFN TV does not have commercials. Instead of putting shows back together to cover the gaps, they show military history propaganda of appropriate length, 99% of which end with that statement.... AIIIIIGH!
I watched a LOT of Japanese TV because of that. Bonus, I became a regular addict of DragonBall Z. Tuesday, 19:00, Channel 7. Never missed an episoce in over a year in 1990-91. Years before mainstream America picked it up and translated it. A buddy used to do a running translation of relevent parts, and either he was far more creative than the original writers, or the American translation has been dumbed down.
I suspect scenario #2...

fromtheright

It really is humorous to hear you atheists, who so love to tout how pro-democracy you all are, whine and complain when the market sometimes favors conservative programming. You're upset when a majority of the programming is decided by what a majority would like to view and hear?

Rich Brown

Strelnieks:

I am an American living in Germany as well. I too have to endure the daily onslaught of programs such as "A Touch of Grace" every morning on my drive to work, etc.

fromtheright: you said:

I think you miss the point. This is not the "market" favoring a particular programming format. This is the U.S. Govenrment producing and broadcasting religious programming for a very captive audience under the guise of its chaplaincy. A case in point is the "Touch of Grace" program, which airs at 06:17 AM. This program is wholly financed, produced, and aired using military facilities and military personnel in Frankfurt Germany. The "sermon" I read on the air by a U.S. Army Captain (Chaplain), and is decidedly Christain in nature.

If this is not the federal government's endorsement of a particular religious view, then I don't know what is. A better solution would be to let these churches compete for themselves without the government paying for and promoting their viewpoint. Let them set up churches (off-base) in Germany, buy air time, and compete in the open market.

The argument that the chaplaincy exist mainly to provide servicemembers with something (i.e. religious services) they could not otherwise obtain due to the nature of overseas service is pure hogwash. I can open my base paper or the Stars and Stripes everyday and find at least 30 ads for churches off-base that are english-speaking and not funded by the military. This is not simply the case here in Europe, but in the other places I have been (Japan, Korea, Honduras, Panama and many others), with the obvious exception of Saudi Arabia.

Rich

Dark Jedi

Just a hint: The majority has NOTHING to do with deciding the probramming on AFRTS. A few old men with shiny collars decide what will and will not be in the lineup. The majority bitch and whine incessantly about the crap they are presented with, but have no recourse.
Ant that is another piece of YOUR military heritage....

fromtheright

Dark Jedi,
You apparently then didn't catch the point earlier made that the programming is largely decided based on ratings. And if the final decision is by "A few old men with shiny collars", guess what, that's military life, as is bitching and whining about crap with no recourse. Most of the complaining I've heard about AFRTS is the boring PSA's with no humorous commercials.