The NFL donates its game broadcasts to troops deployed in harm’s way but they still won’t get to see them during the shutdown.
Defense One (“Shutdown Means No NFL Games for Deployed Troops“):
The government shutdown means deployed troops and sailors cannot get their sports fix, as the Pentagon reduced the civilian staff of its Armed Forces Network Broadcast Center in Riverside, Calif., which normally transmits nine television channels and seven radio channels via satellite worldwide.
In a notice on its website, the center said most of its channels are off the air, except for news channels. AFN Europe said mandatory staff reductions at the broadcast center will reduce television to one service: AFN News.
[…]
In addition, the Navy said its AFN Direct-to-Sailor service, which beams three TV and radio channels to 225 ships, has been cut back to one TV and one radio news channel during the shutdown, with sports and entertainment channels dark.
The Defense Media Activity, which operates AFN, has 682 civilian employees, according to its 2013 budget.
On its face, this appears to be yet another instance of the Obama administration maximizing the attention-getting pain of the shutdown in a way that will draw the ire of the public. But the fact of the matter is that the Defense Department has, over the last few decades, transferred tens of thousands of jobs that used to be done by uniformed personnel over to civilian government employees and contractors. And, when they can’t go to work, ordinary tasks simply can’t be done.
