Liberal Morons,  Media,  Media Bias,  Morons,  Politics

Air America Radio Scandal: Gloria Wise Receives Their Money BACK

The New York Sun has Air America Wires $825,000 To Club in Bronx.

Air America Radio, the liberal network that in 2003-04 received $875,000 in transfers from the Gloria Wise Boys & Girls Club in the Bronx, announced last night that it had wired $825,000 into an attorney-controlled escrow account for the Bronx nonprofit group. It had previously sent $50,000 to the club.

The transfers to Air America, which a former official of Gloria Wise described as interest-free loans, is part of a probe by the city’s Department of Investigation and the state attorney general, Eliot Spitzer, into what officials termed “inappropriate transactions” by Gloria Wise. In a statement issued yesterday, Air America said the network would release the account to Gloria Wise when the city agency “completes its work and authorizes payment.”

Gloria Wise Boys & Girls Club Beacon 113 of Bronx, New York, kicked off their inaugural Jr. NBA/Jr.WNBA basketball season

The New York Post Online Edition has AIR AMERICA ADJUSTS $TATIC

Air America has agreed to put the entire $875,000 it received from a Bronx-based Boys & Girls Club into an escrow account while the controversial loan is investigated by the city, the network’s bosses announced yesterday.

The owner of the left-leaning radio network had previously agreed to repay the money in installments.

Last month it made the first down payment into an escrow account controlled by the station’s lawyer, rather than directly to the Gloria Wise Boys & Girls Club, a nonprofit social-services organization.

The city’s Depart of Investigation, which is scrutinizing the bizarre loan, wanted all the money in escrow until it end its probe and authorizes payment.

Yesterday Danny Goldberg, CEO of Air America, announced that the board of directors of the network’s owner had accelerated its payment schedule and deposited the full $875,000 into the escrow account.

The city yanked $9.7 million in government contracts from the club earlier this year as it launched an investigation of its finances and whether club officials falsified documents.

State Attorney General Eliot Spitzer is also investigating the Air America-Gloria Wise connection.

The escrow move comes as it was disclosed yesterday that Air America’s star, Al Franken, signed an agreement last year to repay the entire loan.

The comedian and liberal commentator said last month he didn’t know of the loan until late July, adding Air America’s decision to repay it was a “moral obligation.”

But it was reported yesterday that Franken and Air America’s former chairman, Evan Montvel Cohen, were among the signers of a confidential agreement in November 2004 in which Air America agreed to repay the Gloria Wise loan.

Cohen said no one at the network knew of the money transfers from Gloria Wise when they happened, apparently between October 2003 and March 2004.

So. it is revealed that Al Franken has been complicit in this scandal, is a LIAR about his participation and all of a sudden the poor kids in the Bronx get their money back.

WOW! What a coincidence!

Michelle Malkin who has owned this story from the beginning has AIR AMERICA SCRAMBLES.

The New York Times has had no coverage of the liberal financial scandal in their backyard since its botched August 12 article, which misquoted Al Franken and attributed the quote to a city Department of Investigation transcript that the department says does not exist. The New York Daily News has not mentioned the controversy since August 11. Still no WaPo.

The Sun’s Lombino, who continues to make headway in the MSM, includes a quote from Air America’s CEO, Danny Goldberg regarding Al Franken’s signature on the Settlement Agreement featured in our and Lombino’s reports:

Yesterday, Air America’s CEO, Danny Goldberg, defended Mr. Franken. He said Mr. Franken’s role in the agreement “was simply to waive his own claims in order to facilitate the transaction and allow the network to survive under new ownership.”

Mr. Goldberg said the portion of the agreement that listed the Gloria Wise claim of $875,000 did not apply to Mr. Franken, who was not an investor.

“Al Franken does not have and never had any responsibility for this loan,” Mr. Goldberg said in a written statement. “His role at Air America was then and remains today as on-air talent.”

The “just the talent” line doesn’t wash. Franken was and is the public face of Air America, and by November 2004, he was well aware that previous owners Evan Cohen and Rex Sorensen had been involved in financial shenanigans that deserved nothing less than eagle-eyed scrutiny.

In case Franken needs reminding, he was the subject of a June 2004 page 1 Wall Street Journal article detailing the mess–an article that ends with Franken expressing “some gratitude” to Cohen for getting him and the network on the air despite Cohen’s exaggerations.

In case Franken needs reminding, HBO broadcast a full-length documentary on said troubles.

Some Franken defenders say it’s unfair to expect him to have read the November 2004 settlement agreement and paid attention to the copious debts and liabilities racked up under Cohen and Sorensen.

If Franken wants to continue arguing he was a fool who passed the buck to his lawyer, Minnesota Republicans won’t stop him. And neither will we.

Flap wonders if the federal and state authorities will be as forgiving as the New York Times and the MSM on Franken et. al.?

Will indictments be forthcoming for this blatant theft of public monies or will the entire scandal be swept under the rug since Gloria Wise received their money back?

Michelle Malkin suggests additional restitution be paid to Gloria Wise Boys and Girls Club:

Neither Goldberg nor Franken addressed the unsubstantiated insinuations and misstatements Franken made on the air about Evan Cohen and Gloria Wise, which we documented here yesterday.

Several lawyers raise a question about whether the settlement agreement included a direct or indirect obligation to pay back the Gloria Wise loan. This is a focus of the ongoing legal dispute between Multicultural Radio Broadcasting Inc. and Air America. (See here and here.)

As for Franken, since he has expressed a “moral obligation” to do right by Gloria Wise, may we suggest perhaps a donation of some of the proceeds from his next book, The Truth (With Jokes), sure to be a New York Times best-seller, to the inner city charity and its underprivileged clients?

How about it Al?