Tom Harkin: “I yield myself a couple of minutes because I want to save some time. A little history is in order here. In 1993…”

“I yield myself a couple of minutes because I want to save some time. A little history is in order here. In 1993, then-Representative Robert Dornan of California, along with 69 other Republican House Members, sent a letter to Secretary of Defense Les Aspin demanding that Limbaugh's radio show and his television show be broadcast to the military. The Pentagon at that time pointed to an internal survey they had done of 50,000 military listeners. They found that only 4 percent requested more talk shows. The overwhelming number of respondents requested continuous music, as you might expect from our people in uniform. However, the issue kept getting pressed. On November 29, 1993, the American Armed Forces Radio issued this statement. This is their statement. The Rush Limbaugh show makes no pretense that his show is balanced. If AFRTS scheduled a program of personal commentary without balancing it with another viewpoint, we would be open to broad criticism that we are supporting a particular point of view. They went ahead and put Rush Limbaugh on the air. But the point is, that is all right, but they have done nothing to balance it in the intervening time. There is an amendment that I believe is going to be offered by Senator Inhofe--at least he was talking about it earlier. We will talk about more later if, indeed, he does offer it.…”