WASHINGTON, DC – Joe Biden’s Department of Defense spokesperson John Kirby took aim at Fox News host Tucker Carlson today, hinting that the military is seeking to remove his show and possibly Fox News from the Armed Forces Network.
AFN is a satellite television network that provides television services to U.S. forces around the globe.
“Since when does the Pentagon declare war on a domestic news operation?” Carlson said. “It’s like we’re a foreign country.”
“The Pentagon is twice as focused on control our own people than they are about controlling the Taliban,” Carlson said.
The DOD took offense over Carlson’s comments about pushing diversity within the military.
“I’d like to briefly address some recent comments made by the host of a popular cable show about who serves in the military, and what that service means. I want to be very clear right up front that the diversity of our military is one of our greatest strengths,” Kirby said. “I’ve seen it for myself in long months at sea and in the combat waged by our troops in Iraq and Afghanistan. I’ve seen it up on Capitol Hill just this past month, and I see it every day here right at the Pentagon. One of the best decisions I ever made was becoming a Navy spouse myself; married to a terrific young naval officer who gave birth to our first child, and then went right back to work doing civil engineering for an airbase in Jacksonville.”
The DOD issued a press release entitled, “Press Secretary Smites Fox Host That Dissed Diversity in U.S. Military.”
It was essentially a diatribe about how the guy who issues press releases for the military showed up a talk show host.
And they wonder why there’s criticism.
“What we absolutely won’t do is take personnel advice from a talk show host or the Chinese military,” the DOD Said. “Now maybe those folks feel like they have something to prove; that’s on them. We know we’re the greatest military in the world today, and even for all the things we need to improve, we know exactly why that’s so.”
“The secretary certainly shares the revulsion of so many others to what Mr. Carlson said in his opening statement. And, yes, Tucker Carlson’s show, as well as a lot of other programming, airs on Armed Forces Network,” Kirby said. ” As I think you know, by instruction, we are required to broadcast and to make available for men and women and their families overseas the same type of content — news, information, and sports content — that their fellow citizens can get, so his show is aired on AFN.”