July 28, 2005
In the editorial
"Robin Hood and Air America", the WashTimes asks:
Did Al Franken's liberal radio network Air America divert city money for the elderly and inner-city children to itself? That's the question people should be asking this week after the revelation that the New York Department of Investigation is looking into whether hundreds of thousands of dollars were illegally transferred from a Bronx community center to Air America. Only a community paper and a few Internet bloggers seem interested in what could be an egregious case of illegal funneling of tax dollars to a private, partisan organization...
...But why the public till should be tapped to rescue a foundering news outlet was a question no one seemed to consider. Maybe Air America officers thought spending public funds on their network was a truly compelling public interest...
...Most of the mainstream newspapers have ignored this story. We only found out about it through the reporting of Brian Maloney, who pieced a story together on his blog "The Radio Equalizer" which was picked up by syndicated columnist Michelle Malkin. The New York Daily News buried an item at the end of a column of news briefs. There was nothing in the New York Times, which has heaped flattering coverage on the flailing network...
That really chaps my hide. When I first read "a few Internet bloggers", I was expecting at least an honorable mention in CharityGate. Hey, Washington Times! A "few" means at least three, not just the two you mentioned!
Now, back to the Air America scandal. They've released a press release, which one must read with Clintonian attention to
semantic detail:
If the allegations of mismanagement and corruption at Gloria Wise Boys and Girls Club are true, it is absolutely disgraceful...
...the company that the Gloria Wise Boys & Girls Club officials gave money to, Progress Media, has been defunct since May 2004. That company was run at the time by Evan Cohen who has not had any involvement in Air America Radio since May 2004...
The current owners of Air America Radio have no obligation to Progress Media's business activities. We are very disturbed that Air America Radio's good name could be associated with a reduction in services for young people, which is why we agreed months ago to fully compensate the Gloria Wise Boys & Girls Club as a result of this transaction...
Obviously, the "allegations of mismanagement and corruption" are not just at Gloria Wise, but at
AAR itself their now-defunct successor company Progress Media.
And, what exactly does "fully compensate" mean? Did they pay back the money, and, if so, how much did they get originally and how much did they pay back? And, if they did, we need notarized receipts too.
This
blog jogs our memory that over a year ago, we
pointed to
this analysis of the sale of AAR's assets to Piquant, saying,
"He thinks a securities fraud lawsuit might be in AA's future."
That's the last thing we want. First, if AAR is forced off the air, Nanci Pelosi and Barbara Boxer will probably retaliate by reinstating the Fairness Doctrine.
And, perhaps even worse, it will turn Al Franken and Randi Rhodes into martyrs for the cause.
P.S. If you have any tips about this or future AAR scandals, send an email to scandal_tips *at* boreamerica.com.
Posted in Meta
at July 28, 2005 10:04 PM
Comments
>That really chaps my hide. When I first read "a >few Internet bloggers", I was expecting at >least an honorable mention in CharityGate. Hey, >Washington Times! A "few" means at least three, >not just the two you mentioned!
Once again, to the person who is running this blog, it is very simple:
Until you leave a valid e-mail address on this website and disclose some sort of identity, you will not get any MSM recognition.
Posted by: Ira at July 29, 2005 09:31 AM
What about hate mail and spam? How about this web robots trolling the web for valid address to spam. I guess you could try a whois.
Posted by: gregd at July 29, 2005 10:01 AM
Like you, I'e been smacking Air Idiot around since they started, and it is annoying how suddenly something I've been talking about all that time--how screwed up their business "plan" seemed to be, and how dubious the switch to Piquant seemed back in June--and when it cracks open it's picked up by a couple of high traffic "name" bloggers like Malkin and Wizbang and I'm out in the cold.
Posted by: TC@LeatherPenguin at July 29, 2005 10:47 PM
God loves you ... deal ith it!
Posted by: Lawton Smalls at July 30, 2005 06:49 AM
Monitoring Air America Radio [TM] so you don't have to.
