Posted on 08/03/2005 3:12:22 AM PDT by ajolympian2004
Tuesday, August 2
Michelle Malkin and Hugh Hewitt pulling Air Ameriscam threads
Once again doing the job of mainstream media, these two biggies of the blogosphere, Michelle Malkin and Hugh Hewitt, spent a couple of segments earlier this afternoon comparing notes on the Gloria Wise/Air America scandal, which appears to have the liberal radio network getting their startup financing literally out of the hands of a boys and girls club in the Bronx. Here's the interview:
HH: Michelle, welcome back to the Hugh Hewitt show.
MM: Thanks for having me back, Hugh, and thanks for helping force this story into the mainstream.
HH: Well, I'm curious...I think...I told the Radio Equalizer last week, that it takes about a week, in my experience, for a hot story not desired by the mainstream to force its way in. What are the latest developments? What have you discovered in the last couple of days?
MM: Well, I think that the New York Sun has been doing some great work, and David Lombino has been doing some really good investigative reporting, pressing Gloria Wise Boys and Girls Club for information. And of course, getting Al Franken on the record, and answering some of the questions that you posed last week, about what Al Franken knew, and when...
HH: When did he know it.
MM: So that's out of the way. But it's quite interesting, because in defending Air America, Al Franken seems to have again raised more questions than he answered, because according to Lombino, there was an internal probe by Piquant LLC, that was conducted before the City Department of Investigations got involved. And according to one of the officials of the Department of Investigations, Air America and Piquant never bothered to tell anyone at the DOI, or in the city, about their internal probe, and what they found. And I love the fact that there were so many bloggers contributing their own specialized knowledge of what they know about corporation law, and you, having dug up that interesting 990 form from the IRS, because there are so many questions here raised legally, and with regard to corporate law. And also not just what the city probe is looking into, but also raising questions about possible FEC and FCC violations...
HH: Sure.
MM: And you know, this is an onion with many, many layers, and I think...
HH: Michelle, if I had taken $800,000 dollars from a not for profit to start Hughhewitt.com, do you suppose that might have gotten a little more interest from the mainstream media?
MM: You know, perhaps. Perhaps.
HH: I'd be crucified. You'd be crucified. Any right winger would be.
MM: Of course.
HH: We know all about Rush Limbaugh's medications, but we can't seem to get a peep out of the MSM into this, which is...I mean, at least someone should ask Eliot Spitzer, don't you think, what he's doing about this?
MM: Yes. Eliot Spitzer, the meddling state Attorney General, who has been involved in investigations involving payola and corporate fraud, and is nowhere to be found on this. He's running for Governor. He certainly doesn't want to tick off the powers that be in New York City, obviously, here. And there are a number of people that are silent. I have a column coming out tomorrow which I'll give you a little preview on, that talks about another tightlipped leadership, and that is the civil rights leadership. Where is Jesse Jackson? Where is Al Sharpton? This is in their backyard. Gloria Wise has been, and its clients have been victimized here. They're the real victims, not Air America, which is trying to spin itself as the ones who've been aggrieved here. And these black civil rights leaders are nowhere to be found, and, as I reveal in the column, part of the reason why is that they have Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton both very vested, financial and political interests, in Air America's success, because it turns out...
HH: Oh, how interesting. I didn't know that.
MM: Yes.
HH: Oh, very interesting.
MM: Yes, because it turns out Air America and a minority media conglomerate called Inner-City Broadcasting has a very cozy relationship. Air America's headquarters are actually based on Park Avenue, at WLIB, which is owned by Inner-City Broadcasting, and owned...co-founded by a Manhattan media mogul named Percy Sutton. And Percy Sutton happens to be a very close business partner and friend of both Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton. And that is why you will not see boycotts or pickets in front of Air America's headquarters.
HH: Oh, how very, very interesting that is. And where's that going to appear? In the syndicated column tomorrow?
MM: Uh-huh. In the syndicated column, Jewish World Review, Town Hall, New York Post.
HH: Now Michelle, I hope I can keep you for another segment. But I'd like to ask you as well, we have been calling the board of directors this afternoon, Duane has, that we got off of the earlier 2002, 990, which I'm linking up at the Hugh Hewitt site right now, and we've reached at least two of them. Both of them declined, and one of whom said don't worry, the Rubenstein firm is handling all this, a bit PR firm in New York. Who do you think is paying the Rubenstein firm to take calls from a defunct 501c3?
MM: Hmmm. That definitely needs to be looked into, and the New York Times will not be doing the job.
HH: Do you want to guess it's Air America's account?
MM: I would hazard that guess.
HH: I'm going to go look and see during the break if I can find the Rubenstein agency in any story touching on Air America. It will be very intersting to see...
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HH: Michelle, Rubenstein Public Relations is a pretty expensive firm, located at 55 and 5th, downtown Manhattan. In addition, they've got an investor relations division that does Wall Street communications. This is clearly a pricey bit of real estate, a pricey firm. Now, who are you going to guess is paying the bills for Air America interference here?
MM: You know, it is quite interesting that an inner-city, non-profit charity, that almost went belly-up, in part because of this awful financial scheme, can afford such a glitzy PR firm.
HH: Yeah, I'm sure it's not them. This poor fellow that sent us to here, you know, he's older. He's taking care of his wife. I don't want to hassle him. I'm not going to give his name out on the air. But Octavio Cruz, who is their treasurer, wouldn't take our call, wouldn't come on. They've clearly had the socks put in the mouth here. They are put on high-end watch, by some people who may not have their best interests at hear. Do you think they have legal representation?
MM: I should hope so, especially as this City Department of Investigation probe continues. And we are only seeing the tip of the iceburg. Of course, the Department of Investigation is keeping fairly tightlipped about is, as they should. But what they have revealed so far is appalling. And it's amazing to me that more people in the Bronx aren't up in arms about it. But I think people are scared, and as I say, I think a lot of people have a lot of financial vested interest at heart, and they don't want to jeopardize that. So a lot of people who would otherwise be big mouths, are not going to bad mouth their friends about this.
HH: Now Michelle, I don't know where you live. You're not a New Yorker though, right?
MM: No, I'm in the D.C. area.
HH: Right. Now obviously, what's interesting to me is, I am a grant maker. I sit on a board out here in California, Prop. 10 board, that is funded by the cigarette tax, and we give money to not for profits to do good things for children zero to five. It's Rob Reiner's cigarette tax.
MM: Uh-huh.
HH: And all of our grants...they're public money, so they come with a string, so many strings attached. You've got to spend it for exactly what you get it for. We have to audit you. I imagine that there's a set of grants that were made to this group, probably mostly City of New York grants, but maybe some state and some federal money, that have contracts on it. Have you yet seen any mention of where those contracts...of which agencies funded the Gloria Wise center?
MM: Well, we know just from published reports in the New York Daily News, which had not connected the scandal to Air America. I don't know if they just were ignorant about it, or if they were covering it up. But there were a number of city grants. I think they had 19 city contracts worth several millions of dollars. And these grants came from other city agencies like the Department of Aging. This is the one that we mentioned last week, that was for Alzheimer's patients, for daycare for them. And those were cancelled when the probe apparently discovered some wrongdoing there. There were a number of others. There's a use and development grant from the city, but also went to Gloria Wise. And then there are many, many federal grants. I talked to the office of Joseph Crowley last week. He's a local Congressman, and this guy has drummed up hundreds of thousands of dollars from the U.S. Department of Justice, and the Department of Education, the No Child Left Behind Act has earmarked money for Gloria Wise. So, we're talking about a big bucket of money going into this center.
HH: Well, we sure are. And that means the federal grants will be available for FOIA examination, if they're willing to be quick with that. So, that's another area of investigation. So I'm just pointing out, there are lots of threads that could be pulled on this tapestry, but our colleagues are not doing so, if they work in print.
MM: No, and I would hope that the Wall Street Journal would get in on this, because they did some very extensive and in-depth work on Air America's financial troubles last year, when Cohen was forced to resign over separate controversies. We don't know if Air America's current owners knew about what happened then, but as some bloggers have pointed out, Leon H. at Macho Nachos has pointed out, and Stephen Bainbridge pointed out earlier, even previous to this last scandal, that the former people who were involved in Progress Media, which was run by Evan Cohen, many of them were still retained when Piquant LLC was formed. So this whole alibi that Air America has been giving, that this was new ownership, and they had no idea what was happening, it just strains credulity.
HH: Yeah, and in fact, when Bainbridge gets back from down under, where he's sipping wine and leading the life of a corporate law professor, we've got to ask him about this. Because clearly, you cannot shelter...Enron couldn't get out of it by transferring its assets to somebody else. That's just absurd for them to stand behind this, and aren't they rather Enron addicted over at, and Halliburton addicted over at Air America?
MM: Oh, they certainly are. I mean they inhaled that, and it was a real obsession with many of the Air America hosts. And that's why I used the phrase Air Enron in my post this morning.
HH: I like that, too. There are lots of...there's the children's screwsade, there's Air Scamerica, and then yours, Air Enron. And I think you may win that one, Michelle. I think that's easiest for everyone to remember. So what are you working on now? What are you going to do in the next day on this news cycle?
MM: Well, as I mentioned, I've got the story about the civil rights angle, and then I am also going to start filing a lot of these FOIA requests. And there was a lawyer who commented over at Captain's Quarters today, who said that a lot of the financials from Gloria Wise should be available to any mainstream media person who wants it. So, I'm going to start looking into that angle. And I'm very fascinated with this whole arrangement between Inner-City Broadcasting and Air America, because there's a lot of funny business going on there. I think a lot of the shakedowns that Jesse Jackson has been involved in with the past, may fit into this picture now. And I think it's again, that's kind of an angle that no one else wants to touch. So, I'm going with that.
HH: You work on that one. I'll go after the Rubenstein public affairs agency. I want to know who's running interference here.
MM: Sounds great.
HH: Michelle, always a pleasure. When I get back from vacation, I hope you will have broken this wide open. Take care my friend.
End of Interview.
FYI, One factoid that may yet have a bearing on this case..In Manhattan, there is for the first time in years, a highly contested Dem primary for DA...this may well force a big investigation..
the scandal occured in da bronx, which means the commie candidates for da in manhattan get a free ride and besides no nyc beat reporter will touch or has touched this subject
for obvious reasons the local loyal press will give the RATS a free ride on this
Crap..you're right...but AA's offices are in Manhattan..and a little matter of "jurisdiction" has never stopped a publicity seeking DA before..
but in manhattan it will be the kiss of death for whoever prosecutes or pursues this matter
The opponent..Leslie Crocker Snyder..a tough judge..is trying to show that the DA is almost senile..and waaay too old for another term..you never know what can happen in an election year..also, since the club is in the Bx..namy of the Dem mayoral candidates have close ties to, and hands in, the $$$ pie..so Bloomberg may push the investigation.. These kind of things, in NYC..often end up like a snowball going downhill..they get bigger, faster, and go where evere they want to..
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