Military stores advised to keep TVs off ‘divisive’ news channels

The retailer that serves U.S. Army and Air Force installations recommended in a memo this week that its stores display sports programming on televisions rather than “divisive” news channels, as reported by NPR.

In the memo, the Army and Air Force Exchange Service (AAFES) wrote “News channels should not be shown on common area TVs due to their divisive political nature.”  

AAFES operates more than 3,000 retail locations, including restaurants, convenience stores and apparel stores, and televisions mounted in their common areas have historically often been tuned to CNN or Fox.

{mosads}The memo represents “general guidance” rather than a formal policy change, according to AAFES senior public affairs manager Chris Ward.

“We’ve gotten comments from customers, ‘Why is this TV on Fox?’ ‘Why is this TV on CNN?’ You’re never going to appeal to everyone,” Ward told NPR.

The memo circulated Wednesday was a revision to clarify that it contained only recommendations, according to Task & Purpose. In the memo, the AAFES “recommends sports channels/sports programming on all common area TVs when an Exchange channel is not being shown. This guidance allows flexibility to make adjustments based on the ‘news of the day’ and local needs.”