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More bad news for Air America ("Air Al-Jazeera" Continues Long, Slow Slide Into Fiscal Disaster)
The American Thinker ^ | 5/14/04 | Staff

Posted on 05/14/2004 9:21:40 AM PDT by KentTrappedInLiberalSeattle

Air America, the tottering monument to liberal hubris in the talk radio industry, may be about to change hands again, according to the Chicago Tribune. Its internal state of chaos is so great that employees, who had the cost of health insurance coverage deducted from their paychecks, were apparently never enrolled in a health insurance plan.

This must certainly be an oversight, rather than fraud. The devotion of liberals to health care coverage for all is so well-known that it is inconceivable that this could be deliberate. Incompetence, not criminality, must be at work.

Major hat-tip to Michael Nadler, who points out that while intent is critical to asessing criminality in a case like Air America's failure to pay for health insurance, if Air America also neglected to pay the I.R.S. the withholding taxes it deducted from employees' paychecks, as they did with health insurance, they would be "toast."

Having lost its two most important affiliate stations, bounced paychecks, laid off staff, closed advertising sales offices, and fired its two top officers, not to mention putting out an embarrassingly tedious and sophomoric programming product, the company may now return to the hands of its two original founders, Democrat donors Sheldon and Anita Drobny.

As a privately-held company, the public may never learn the details of the ownership odyssey which saw at least two changes in majority control after the Drobnys unloaded their controlling block of shares. According to the Tribune’s source, the Drobnys have an outside investor’s money to work with in their negotiations to re-assume control.

Strangely enough, the left-leaning press outlets like the New York Times, which devoted enormous attention to Air America when it was a pending venture, are curiously uninterested in the troubles being experienced in the actual operation of the business. Usually, liberal journalists take delight in business scandals. Imagine the headlines if an Enron or Halliburton pocketed employees’ health insurance deductions without actually covering them with health insurance!


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Miscellaneous; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: airaljazeera; airamerica; alfranken; doasisaynotasido; liberalmediabias; liberaltalkradio; lyingliars
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1 posted on 05/14/2004 9:21:43 AM PDT by KentTrappedInLiberalSeattle
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To: KentTrappedInLiberalSeattle
Schadenfreude Bump!
2 posted on 05/14/2004 9:26:07 AM PDT by CatoRenasci (Ceterum Censeo Arabiam Esse Delendam -- Forsan et haec olim meminisse iuvabit)
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To: KentTrappedInLiberalSeattle
Did they make payroll today?

The continual stream of not just bad news, but horrific news about AA is a true pleasure to watch and read.

"Air America will be the most spectacular failure in radio history." --Unnamed radio industry person I spoke with on Monday.

3 posted on 05/14/2004 9:27:54 AM PDT by Phantom Lord (Distributor of Pain, Your Loss Becomes My Gain)
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To: KentTrappedInLiberalSeattle
Liberals dream of a world in which everyone has health insurance coverage, and no one has to pay for it. This was their attempt at making the dream come true.

As usual for the Left, this attempt did not succeed -- but the plan is still a good plan, it just has to be implemented correctly!

4 posted on 05/14/2004 9:30:04 AM PDT by ClearCase_guy (You can see it coming like a train on a track.)
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To: KentTrappedInLiberalSeattle

The employees should be grateful that by taking their money out for the health care they at least had good intentions as a liberal should.


5 posted on 05/14/2004 9:30:44 AM PDT by Semper Paratus
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Comment #6 Removed by Moderator

To: Phantom Lord
"Did they make payroll today?"

On another thread to day a FReeper asked: "Air America has Fans?"

Reply: "Yes, apparently there was not enough money in the budget for Air Conditioning."

rim shot...

7 posted on 05/14/2004 9:33:28 AM PDT by Mad Dawgg (French: old Europe word meaning surrender)
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To: ClearCase_guy
Remember the initial reports that they had $30 million in the bank to start this thing?..well, that was obviously false..this was a shoestring operation from the onset. No one was willing to commit serious money. They just hoped to keep it running through the election..another venue to attack Bush and the GOP..

Next to go..Gore's network..

8 posted on 05/14/2004 9:33:35 AM PDT by ken5050 (Ann Coulter needs to have children ASAP to propagate her genes.....any volunteers?)
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To: KentTrappedInLiberalSeattle
...not to mention putting out an embarrassingly tedious and sophomoric programming product,...

This statement is an insult to sophomores everywhere.

9 posted on 05/14/2004 9:34:18 AM PDT by jalisco555 ("The right to bear weapons is the right to be free" - A. E. Van Vogt)
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To: CatoRenasci

"if Air America also neglected to pay the I.R.S. the withholding taxes it deducted from employees' paychecks, as they did with health insurance, they would be "toast."

Well, here's a "TOASTY" bump to Err America!


10 posted on 05/14/2004 9:35:01 AM PDT by spoiler2
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To: KentTrappedInLiberalSeattle

Frankly I'm surprised and amazed that this operation could have possibly been run so badly.

There are plenty of successful left-wing businessmen out there. And they must have known that the operation would bleed money for at least a year, even if it were successful.

This makes the proprietors of Salon.com look like geniuses.


11 posted on 05/14/2004 9:36:17 AM PDT by Cicero (Marcus Tullius)
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To: KentTrappedInLiberalSeattle

I'm still at a loss why they think a liberal radio network will succeed; the competition they face from the nightly news and print media would tear them to pieces. Why bother to tune into a radio station that merely parots what Peter Jennings said last night?

I just wish they were wasting more money funding this thing than apparently they are. A horrible shame.


12 posted on 05/14/2004 9:37:53 AM PDT by kingu (Which would you bet on? Iraq and Afghanistan? Or Haiti and Kosovo?)
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To: KentTrappedInLiberalSeattle

It's astounding that their radio show isn't working out. I would have thought that there's a huge market. Who doesn't like listening to obnoxious liars spew out kooky accusations? Beats me.


13 posted on 05/14/2004 9:37:53 AM PDT by Jaysun (If a person says that he enjoys the opera, that person is a liar.)
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To: KentTrappedInLiberalSeattle

"The devotion of liberals to health care coverage for all is so well-known that it is inconceivable that this could be deliberate. Incompetence, not criminality, must be at work. "

Strange jab by the author. Is he not for health care?


14 posted on 05/14/2004 9:39:34 AM PDT by ellh0w
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To: Cicero

Frankly I'm surprised and amazed that this operation could have possibly been run so badly. = Frankenly


15 posted on 05/14/2004 9:40:23 AM PDT by showme_the_Glory (No more rhyming, and I mean it! ..Anybody got a peanut.....)
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To: KentTrappedInLiberalSeattle

Sounds like how a bunch of commies/progressives would run a business.


16 posted on 05/14/2004 9:41:07 AM PDT by Brett66
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To: CatoRenasci
Schadenfreude

Really! I once had a super socialist, Democrat friend who ran a pre-school and she did not pay the IRS the payroll taxes due on her employees. The Feds nailed her, she then hit me up for a loan to cover her past due taxes. I asked her "Where do you think tax money comes from?" She replied: "The government and the rich". She was no dumb kid, either. She was over 40 and had a BS degree.

17 posted on 05/14/2004 9:41:14 AM PDT by elbucko
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To: Phantom Lord
"Air America will be the most spectacular failure in radio history." --Unnamed radio industry person I spoke with on Monday

The only time "spectacular and "Air America" will be used in the same sentence.

18 posted on 05/14/2004 9:43:53 AM PDT by Taipei Personality (Criminal intent is a matter of will, not weapons.)
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To: KentTrappedInLiberalSeattle

"I'll take 'Failed Radio Networks' for 200, Alex."

19 posted on 05/14/2004 9:44:33 AM PDT by socal_parrot
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To: KentTrappedInLiberalSeattle

Musta thought they were working for the government.


20 posted on 05/14/2004 9:47:22 AM PDT by UnbelievingScumOnTheOtherSide (Give Them Liberty Or Give Them Death! - Islam Delenda Est! - Rumble thee forth...)
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