Posted on 08/02/2005 7:39:31 AM PDT by kristinn
The comedian Al Franken, Air America Radio's most prominent host, 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 Evan Montvel Cohen.
SNIP
Mr. Franken said he has learned details of the story only in the last week. He said Piquant LLC, current owner and operator of the radio network, found a record of the transfers while conducting a "forensic" investigation into the finances of the previous owner, Progress Media, which was run by Mr. Cohen. That internal probe was conducted before the city agency became involved, Mr. Franken said. Efforts by The New York Sun to reach Mr. Cohen for comment in recent days have been unsuccessful.
A Piquant spokesman said yesterday that Gloria Wise would be compensated regardless of the amount of money it transferred. Mr. Franken said he did not know if money from Gloria Wise had been absorbed by the network and used to finance its operations. He said Piquant's payments to Gloria Wise were scheduled to begin this month but were prevented from going through while the city investigation continued.
A spokesman for the Department of Investigation, Keith Schwam, said that if Air America discovered the transfers before the city probe began, "They neglected to tell anyone at DOI or in the city about it."
SNIP
Mr. Franken said he did not know whether his former colleague had the disease, but he recalled that Mr. Cohen, a native of Guam who is 39, referred repeatedly to it.
SNIP
"Brain cancer," Mr. Franken said, "seemed to be his answer to everything." Mr. Franken said he didn't know Mr. Cohen's current whereabouts.
(Excerpt) Read more at nysun.com ...
Oh the irony.
The old comedy duo Al Franken and Tom Davis used to do a routine where the short one (the ugly one with glasses) would wrap a bandage around his head and pretend to be suffering from brain damage.
Knee-slappin' stuff. [/sarcasm]
When pressed about the affair, Mr. Franken replied, "I did not have sexual relations with that goat -- er, wait, I mean, I don't know anything about any money."
Already posted here:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1455229/posts
Great backhoe collection of threads on this, here:
Air America- or "Con" America?
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1455246/posts
We should start callin Franken. "Yes, I'd like to talk about the death of the King in Saudi Arabia, but first, 'Did any of that money end up in your paycheck, Mr Franken?'"
Franken does seem to be an "unaware" type of person.
yup , thanks much , The New York Sun
Leni
Precisely. He is "unaware" in a wide variety of topics.
I kinda hope O'Reilly goes after this one. There's bad blood between him and Franken, so maybe he will.
Al Franken could try to plead ignorance. I don't think he would qualify because ignorance is curable and his condition isn't curable.
I bet Franken starts delaying calls longer so he can bleep out any questions about the scandal.
There's little more irritating than an itdiot who thinks he's smart and Al is one of my poster boys for that!
Nah, O'Reilly's already kicked Stuart Smalley's ass. No profit left in it for him. And O'Reilly won't do anything unless there's profit in it for him.
Can you imagine if, say, the EIB network had taken money from a charity to fund itself? There would be a Rush to lynch those host, thats for sure..
Why is the Sun the only paper covering this?
The comedian Al Franken...
Kinda hard to get past that assertion.
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