Moonage Political Webdream

Although Instapundit has been all over this issue, they have deferred to Austin Bay due to lack of public interest.  Austin Bay in turn defers to Michelle Maulkin.  What none of the above are doing is citing "real" media.  You know, the people in suits on tv.  Now, follow this first:

Franken also said yesterday that "he did not know whether the hundreds of thousands of dollars apparently lent to the radio network by a Bronx social-service organization had indeed been relayed to Air America" by Cohen, who asserted that he needed money to treat a brain tumor. A Piquant spokesman said that Gloria Wise will "be compensated regardless of the amount of money it transferred."

So: by Franken’s own admission, Air America’s current owners have known for months that their network received a large cash infusion from Gloria Wise Boys & Girls Club, a non-profit organization funded primarily by government grants. Presumably, they also knew that Gloria Wise’s director of development at the time the money was transferred was also Air America’s chairman at the time–a glaring conflict of interest. According to Franken, the owners still don’t know whether that cash was ultimately placed in Air America’s coffers or diverted somewhere else. (Franken seems to be hinting that the money was embezzled by Cohen.)

Michelle then defers back to Austin Bay, as does Instapundit, to make the perfect observation of:

If Air America were a conservative radio network its corrupt funding trail and cynical abuse of a poverty program would be front page news at the NY Times and full-time mega-scandal at CNN.

Where’s the beef?

Well, there’s quite a bit actually.  Rush Limbaugh has been persecuted relentlessly for a personal problem he had.  I mean, even Wikipedia documents his tribulations.  If you search CNN.com for "Rush Limbaugh drugs", you get 29 articles.  CNN even did a feature article titled "The year celebrities went bad".  It features a summary:

The #3 Bad Boy of 2003, according to CNN, was none other than Rush Limbaugh for having an addiction to pain killers.

Al Franken and company steal from kids and this is what CNN has to say:

Well, dang, I can’t even find an article after March  2005 ( as of this post ).  It’s not news to them.  What you will get in that list are articles titled:

Tonight’s Best TV

"Why Winning may be O’Reilly’s costliest option"

"Guns, Gays, and the GOP"

You’ll find Air America in those articles.  What you won’t find is one peep putting Air America in the same light as Rush.

That’s the beef. And it stinks.

Now, in deference to always trying to be "fair and balanced", here’s Air America’s official statement:

If the allegations of mismanagement and corruption at Gloria Wise Boys and Girls Club are true, it is absolutely disgraceful.

As reported in the Wall Street Journal and the HBO Documentary, Left of the Dial€š 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.

We at Air America Radio strongly believe in the mission of Boys and Girls Clubs to provide a safe and nurturing place for young people to learn and grow. As a result, we recently allowed the same club, Gloria Wise Boys & Girls Club, to use our name in a fundraising effort for a summer camp for children in their community.

The funding for Camp Air America was raised and collected entirely by the Gloria Wise Boys & Girls Club, and Air America promoted the camp on air and urged support for it. A link on our web site sent those interested in contributing to the camp to the Gloria Wise web site. Regrettably, the camp did not survive the closure of the Gloria Wise organization. We have offered any individuals who contributed to the camp as a result of Air America’s promotion the option of a refund paid for by Air America Radio and the Club offered the alternative option of having their donation redirected to Kip’s Bay Boys and Girls Club.

I’m not going to judge Air America on the merits of what I’ve seen.  However, being as CNN jumped all over Rush AFTER he sought rehab, Air America’s good intentions AFTER the fact don’t abjudicate them from facing the same scrutiny Rush received.

Whatsayou CNN? ( I’m not holding my breath, again. )

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