“Make life as difficult for people as we can…”
The Major League Baseball playoffs are underway, as well as the professional and college football seasons, which recently kicked off. But America’s troops serving overseas won’t be viewing any of it due to the Obama-ordered furloughing of “non-essential” personnel, and as we now discover a new twist, “not deemed critical” broadcasts have also been scratched, as reported by the military news service Stars and Stripes on Oct. 4, 2013.
The only American television available for troops from Afghanistan to Okinawa to Honduras as well as to all the ships at sea is in the form of the government-ran Armed Forces Radio and Television Service (AFRTS), which broadcasts fan favorites such as “Pentagon News” and “All Things Considered” via the also government-run left-leaning National Public Radio (NPR).
According to AFRTS spokesman Navy Senior Chief Petty Officer John Harrington, the broadcaster’s lawyers have determined there is “no sound policy or legal basis to air sports.”
Furthermore, the legal opinion sent to the military network further advised that televised sporting events are “not deemed critical to accomplish essential aspects of the DMA (Defense Media Activity) mission in direct support of excepted military operations and activities.”
In Other Words, Poorly Acted Videos on Operational Security ond the Proper Disposal of Human Waste in the Field…
The Senior Chief went on to state that AFRTS is ensuring “not to provide programs beyond news and information which can be clearly tied to direct support of force protection, situational awareness and readiness.”
There was a glimmer of hope for our troops when AFRTS broadcast a handful of episodes of ESPN’s “SportsCenter” on their news channel — but that was torpedoed when the word came down that AFRTS was ordered not to televise “any actual sports events” during the so-called “government shutdown.”
Not only are viewing the baseball playoffs and all pro and collegiate football games shot down in flames, all troops deployed outside of the United States from wide-eyed 17-year-old Privates to salty Sergeants Majors won’t be viewing basketball, golf and even professional rodeo and bull-riding.
As quoted by TownHall.com on Oct. 4, 2013, a rather frustrated (and anonymous) Park Ranger who was ordered to close parking lots at the home of George Washington in Mount Vernon, Va. may have summed up the feelings of many who have been ordered to carry out the directives from the higher-ups in DC:
We’ve been told to make life as difficult for people as we can. It’s disgusting.
