Posted on 07/30/2005 7:25:10 AM PDT by Valin
Air America: MSM Doesn't Follow The Money July 30, 2005 06:29 AM EST Flap's got a great round-up of links for the beginner to the story, which means all MSM reporters. Wizbang looks at the Drobnys. Macho Nachos talks to lawyers.
Thus far only the New York Dail News has run any news story on the debacle.
We know every twist and turn in Rush Limbaugh's medical history, but no one in MSM has the time to follow the Air America money, even when bloggers have laid out the roadmap?
Has Fox News picked this up?
Don't know. I don't have cable. If you find out please let us know.
Ping
I was just on their website and didn't see anything, but I was just getting the latest on the London bomber situation. You'd think this story would be red meat for them.
Here is a tidbit. Did Soros buy them? Why was Clinton so interested?:
Soros Might Bail Out Air America
Jon E. Dougherty, NewsMax.com
Friday, Aug. 13, 2004
Bush-hater billionaire George Soros says he might bail out the ailing Air America radio network.
The Chicago Tribune quoted Soros as saying he was considering the venture but had yet to make any commitments.
"I am looking at it, but I can't say where we are on it," he said. "People have begged me to buy media, but I have resisted it."
He says he likes the network's programming. And at the urging of former President Bill Clinton, he has been asked to help bail the network out of its financial troubles.
But he said he wouldn't write a check without expecting a measurable return for his money. So far the network has shed stations and personnel, mostly because it has hemorrhaged money and is gaining slight market share ever so slowly.
Clearly the network fits Soros' agenda of defeating President Bush. Its leftist line-up includes Bush-bashing comedians Al Franken and Janeane Garofalo.
Defeating Bush "is the central focus of my life," Soros once told the Washington Post. "America, under Bush, is a danger to the world. And I'm willing to put my money where my mouth is."
The financially troubled syndicated radio network can use his help.
The network launched in four markets March 31: New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Chicago. Founded by Democrat fund-raisers Sheldon and Anita Drobny, who later sold the venture to a group of investors led by former Democratic National Committee executive Mark Walsh, its line-up initially was broadcast from 6 a.m. to 11 p.m. Eastern time.
"Our business plan doesn't require us to get a whole lot of listeners right away. This is one brick at a time. We think our advertisers will be happy with the listeners we attract," Walsh told MediaWeek.com.
Today, the network has grown to 21 stations, is also being aired on XM and Sirius satellite radio channels, and has made inroads into "blue" areas of the map such as Chapel Hill, N.C., and Anchorage, Alaska.
Still, Air America has endured a number of financial problems.
Two months after its launch amidst a deluge of free media coverage via a sympathetic mainstream media, the network ran out of money to pay Franken, its marquee talent.
"We had some bad management," Franken told the New York Times in late May. He chose to provide his services for free, making him "an involuntary investor."
Walsh initially said the fledgling network was flush with cash: $20 million, which was more than enough to keep paying the on-air talent it hired for years to come.
But Walsh said he was "misled" about the amount supposedly raised by investors, telling the Times the network's business practices weren't "transparent."
By then Evan Cohen, David Goodfriend, who served as general counsel and later as acting chief operating officer, and Dave Logan, who served as executive vice president for programming, had all left the network.
The network's programming was dropped from its Los Angeles and Chicago affiliates over non-payment of fees.
Soros' Other Projects
As for Soros, he's been dabbling in other anti-Bush political funding as well. So far, the Hungarian-born investor has sunk $15 million into the effort and become the chief benefactor of two new Democrat groups: American Coming Together and MoveOn.org.
He's even gone so far as to say he would spend all 7 billion of his dollars if he was sure it would lead to Bush's defeat. Maybe he was kidding, but clearly the man is no fan of the president.
Soros represents "the new and surprising face of America politics," writes David Greising of the Tribune. Soros and others like him who have the means have increasingly dedicated huge sums of their fortunes to defeating or helping to re-elect U.S. leaders.
That's ironic, given the Democrat-led passage of sweeping campaign finance "reforms" a few years back. Those changes were supposed to keep the influence of money on politics at bay, but as Greising notes, just the opposite has happened.
Re Fox News and coverage on this criminal activity:
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,164165,00.html
Funding Air America
New York City's Department of Investigations has shut down millions of dollars in city contracts to the Gloria Wise Boys & Girls Club after allegations of corruption. Part of the inquiry involves allegations that the community center's founder invested some city funds in the liberal radio network, Air America (search).
The Bronx News reports that hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars were diverted to Air America's former management company in the form of a loan, which was to be paid back with interest but was not. An Air America spokesman says, "We're committed to paying this money and the terms are being worked out... We are awaiting direction from the investigation into how to proceed."
I'm thinking (IT does happen from time to time...really) that the "Northern Alliance" will be talking about this today.
You can hear them at
http://www.northernallianceradio.com/index.html
(Note: Some of the best Talk Radio you'll hear)
Noon to 3 CDST
I guess Soros did bail them out. Still want to know why Clinton was so interested.
WND Soros funded 'Media Reform' conference
Featured charges U.S. troops targeting journalists in Iraq
Posted: May 23, 2005
1:23 p.m. Eastern
© 2005 WorldNetDaily.com
George Soros
The just-held National Conference for Media Reform in St. Louis – which featured charges that the U.S. military targets journalists in Iraq – was sponsored by a group that received $400,000 from the George Soros-funded Open Society Institute over the last two years.
The organization, the Free Press, is based in Massachusetts and claims to be nonpartisan. But Soros, a convicted insider trader, spent $23 million last year to try to defeat President Bush.
Linda Foley, president of the 35,000-member Newspaper Guild, stirred controversy at the event by alleging, without evidence, that the U.S. military had "targeted" journalists in Iraq and had a "cavalier" approach toward their deaths.
Left-leaning former PBS television host Bill Moyers also spoke to the conference.
A new report by media watchdog Accuracy in Media, or AIM, provides details of Soros' funding and draws attention to how the billionaire's Open Society Institute subsidized a journalist working on a CNN program designed to further his agenda of ending incarceration for dangerous criminals.
AIM says the CNN program, "Reasonable Doubt: Can Crime Labs be Trusted?," which aired several times in January, was written in part by a journalist, Robin Mejia, who had received $45,000 from the Soros-funded OSI. The show was prepared in cooperation with the Center for Investigative Reporting and hosted by Aaron Brown.
The AIM report, written by AIM editor Cliff Kincaid, is available at the group's website.
AIM says the conference represents the latest effort of a "Soros-supported media network" whose political clout was demonstrated just before last year's presidential election when Sinclair Broadcasting was preparing to air "Stolen Honor," a film raising questions about the impact of John Kerry's 1971 anti-war testimony on U.S. POWs being held by the communists.
Kerry had branded U.S. soldiers as war criminals, and POWs interviewed in "Stolen Honor" said this resulted in more torture. The Democratic Party, the Kerry campaign and various groups denounced Sinclair for planning to air the film.
MediaChannel.org, Common Cause, the Alliance for Better Campaigns, Media Access Project, Media for Democracy and the Office of Communication of the United Church of Christ held an anti-Sinclair news conference and denounced the broadcaster for allegedly abusing the public airwaves by planning to air "propaganda."
The anti-Sinclair effort forced the network to abandon any hope of airing the entire film.
The critics called for the Federal Communications Commission to intervene to stop Sinclair. All of these organizations – except for the possible exception of the Office of Communication of the United Church of Christ – are funded by the Soros Open Society Institute. Media Matters, a left-wing media watchdog group that also was pressuring Sinclair, was "developed" with help from the Center for American Progress, funded by Soros.
Two of the speakers at the Media Reform conference were David Brock of Media Matters and Andrew Jay Schwartzman of the Media Access Project. Together with Thomas Athans of Democracy Radio, they are backing a "Renew the Fairness Doctrine" campaign to have the FCC monitor and regulate conservative media sources.
Their website is registered to Nicco Mele, the webmaster for Howard Dean's 2004 campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination.
Mele started the Internet strategy group EchoDitto along with several other former members of the Dean Internet team. It now is a consulting firm with close to 20 full-time employees and a variety of high-profile clients and projects.
Those projects include Air America Radio, Alliance For Security, Barack Obama's U.S. Senate campaign, Campaign For America's Future, Defenders of Wildlife, Democracy For America, Democracy Radio, Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, Miramax Books, NoIraqDraft.com, Service Employees International Union and the U.N. World Food Program.
While the Soros-funded "media reform" movement seeks to stifle or mute conservative voices, evidence has emerged that Soros is underwriting journalists who promote his own point of view on major issues.
Robin Mejia, identified at the end of the CNN "Reasonable Doubt" documentary as a "producer/reporter" and "writer," told AIM she has not concealed the fact that she received $45,000 from the Soros-funded Open Society Institute.
Meijia confirmed that she solicited funds from the Open Society Institute by promising to conduct research into the problems of forensic science and how they lead to wrongful convictions. That was the theme of the CNN show.
"New"? Not even close. Try "crotchety", "wrinkly", "weatherbeaten", "O-L-D"...
"surprising"? How about "horrifying"? "Ghastly"? "Fugly"?
With these substitute adjectives, I guess I would aggree with the above statement...
If I'm not mistaken The Bronx News was where this story first broke.
I know Hugh Hewitt has been all over this.
Can we say blogswarm?
DU must be on suicide watch.
Betcha the NYP is working on one...
Heh heh heh heh heh...
LOL!
Maybe when Rush returns from vacation, he can hammer Err America, the felons who steal from ghetto kids to air their lies.
Soros, CONVICTED of INSIDER TRADING!!! Everytime I type Soros, I will try to include CONVICTED OF INSIDER TRADING!! I had forgotten about this....thanks for the reminder!
Well, in fairness, Limbaugh is newsworthy because he is a major public figure with 20 million listeners.
Air America, on the other hand, is little more than a blip on the nation's media radar screen, with almost no listeners.
So I can see why Limbaugh's problems are more newsworthy than Air America's.
But I take Hewitt's point just the same.
Hey...Where's ELLIOT SPITZER on this criminal activity??? It's happening right under his nose.
This lack of activity from Spitzball was posted on another thread re the criminals at Err America.
NY conservatives should send letters/emails to Spitzball and the Governor and demand an investigation of the lack investigation by Spitzball.
Elliot Spitzer...call your office!
Is there a link to his office e-mail somewhere??
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