Michael Barone is a senior writer for U.S.News & World Report and principal coauthor of The Almanac of American Politics. He has written for many publications — including the Economist and the New York Times.
No interest in the Air America scandal?
Hugh Hewitt has a good piece on the mainstream media's apparent lack of interest in the Air America scandal. It appears that Air America, the liberal talk radio network, received in its startup period a six-figure loan from the Gloria Wise Boys and Girls Club in the Bronx. This is an organization that receives most of its funds from government agencies and is supposed to provide services to children and Alzheimer's patients. It is apparently stone broke right now, and Air America says that it will pay the money back–but not when.
Hugh is quite correct in noting that if a community service organization had funneled money to a conservative talk radio operation, the New York Times would have been all over the story and New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer, who has oversight responsibility for nonprofits, would be threatening lawsuits and churning out press releases. But so far the Times is silent (maybe everyone is out in the Hamptons, and who wants to cover the tacky Bronx?) and Spitzer is motionless. All of which brings to mind the perhaps apocryphal remark of the late Congressman Jimmy Burke, a Massachusetts Democrat. Speaking with contempt of a young idealistic liberal colleague, Burke is supposed to have said, "That guy is so dumb he thinks this place is on the level."
Posted at 4:00 PM EST by Michael Barone