Rules.
Posted on 09/08/2005 10:09:40 PM PDT by John Lenin
***235pm EDT: Updated with just-released statement from NYC Department of Investigations***
Yesterday, in our latest joint investigative piece on Air America and the Gloria Wise Boys and Girls Club loan scandal, Brian Maloney and I reported that "knowledgeable sources tell us the liberal radio network is contemplating how to stem the lingering bad publicity. Anticipating further negative press, the company is apparently poised to 'settle' the matter very soon."
And now...
Nine months after acknowledging the liability in a signed settlement agreement with the network's former owners, Air America Radio wired $825,000 into an escrow account for the Gloria Wise Boys & Girls Club, the New York Sun and New York Post report today.
The escrow account is controlled by Air America's lawyers. Air America says it will release the money in the account to Gloria Wise when the city Deparment of Investigations "completes its work and authorizes payment." Last month, in the wake of negative publicity over the shady deal, Air America deposited $50,000 to the account.
The Sun reports that the loans/transfers were interest-free. (Gloria Wise's money managers know a shrewd investment when they see one, eh?)
The New York Times has had no coverage of the liberal financial scandal in their backyard since its botched August 12 article, which misquoted Al Franken and attributed the quote to a city Department of Investigation transcript that the department says does not exist. The New York Daily News has not mentioned the controversy since August 11. Still no WaPo.
The Sun's Lombino, who continues to make headway in the MSM, includes a quote from Air America's CEO, Danny Goldberg regarding Al Franken's signature on the Settlement Agreement featured in our and Lombino's reports:
Yesterday, Air America's CEO, Danny Goldberg, defended Mr. Franken. He said Mr. Franken's role in the agreement "was simply to waive his own claims in order to facilitate the transaction and allow the network to survive under new ownership."
Mr. Goldberg said the portion of the agreement that listed the Gloria Wise claim of $875,000 did not apply to Mr. Franken, who was not an investor.
"Al Franken does not have and never had any responsibility for this loan," Mr. Goldberg said in a written statement. "His role at Air America was then and remains today as on-air talent."
The "just the talent" line doesn't wash. Franken was and is the public face of Air America, and by November 2004, he was well aware that previous owners Evan Cohen and Rex Sorensen had been involved in financial shenanigans that deserved nothing less than eagle-eyed scrutiny.
In case Franken needs reminding, he was the subject of a June 2004 page 1 Wall Street Journal article detailing the mess--an article that ends with Franken expressing "some gratitude" to Cohen for getting him and the network on the air despite Cohen's exaggerations.
In case Franken needs reminding, HBO broadcast a full-length documentary on said troubles.
Some Franken defenders say it's unfair to expect him to have read the November 2004 settlement agreement and paid attention to the copious debts and liabilities racked up under Cohen and Sorensen.
If Franken wants to continue arguing he was a fool who passed the buck to his lawyer, Minnesota Republicans won't stop him. And neither will we.
***
Neither Goldberg nor Franken addressed the unsubstantiated insinuations and misstatements Franken made on the air about Evan Cohen and Gloria Wise, which we documented here yesterday.
Several lawyers raise a question about whether the settlement agreement included a direct or indirect obligation to pay back the Gloria Wise loan. This is a focus of the ongoing legal dispute between Multicultural Radio Broadcasting Inc. and Air America. (See here and here.)
As for Franken, since he has expressed a "moral obligation" to do right by Gloria Wise, may we suggest perhaps a donation of some of the proceeds from his next book, The Truth (With Jokes), sure to be a New York Times best-seller, to the inner city charity and its underprivileged clients?
***
They wouldn't be by any chance using NBC's David Gregory's wife, Beth Wilkinson of (Latham & Watkins)and former OKC prosecutor, under the Janet Reno & Jamie Gorelick Justice Dept., and top counter-terrorism official in the Justice Department during the Clinton administration, would they?!
If you were to confront some of the Air-America-heads, they probably would say something along the lines of, "These are lies fabricated by the right to destroy us." Of course, they don't even need the right to "destroy" them; they're doing a marvelous job themselves.
Michelle Malkin and Brian Maloney continue their groundbreaking series on the Air America financial scandal, this time taking direct aim at the netlet's number-one asset: Al Franken. It turns out that Franken has lied to his listeners about his ignorance of the heavy debts that Evan Montvel Cohen rang up in an attempt to float Air America and during the asset sale that now appears to have been a fraudulent conveyance. How do we know this? Michelle and Brian have turned up an agreement with Franken's signature -- an agreement that made Franken a key player in the series of transactions that resulted in the fraudulent conveyance:
Along with the network's current management and shell-game-playing owners, Al Franken has gotten a pass, even from some conservative commentators who have claimed that it's unfair to blame the liberal radio network's financial and legal entanglements on its on-air talent.Those claims are wrong.
According to a November 2004 settlement agreement between former Air American head honchos Evan Cohen and Rex Sorensen and Air America's current owners and investors at Piquant LLC, Al Franken was smack dab in the middle of negotiations over the debts owed by the liberal radio network--including the Gloria Wise loan. The agreement was signed to clear the decks in advance of the questionable asset transfer from Air America's old owners, Progress Media and Radio Free America, to Piquant.
Not only have the intrepid blog reporters found these key documents, but they also found a blockbuster witness to the agreement that supports their claims. They found Evan Montvel Cohen.
Brian's half of the story also nails Sheldon Drobny as a lying liar:
[W]e now know $167,000 of the Gloria Wise taxpayer money was transferred to Air America on October 2, 2003. This is revealed in the settlement agreement. The Drobnys turned over the reins in November, 2003, retaking it in 2004 from Evan Cohen and Rex Sorenson.Therefore we can prove, via hard evidence, the transfers began on Sheldon's watch. He didn't tell the truth on C-SPAN, did he?
Smoking guns sure do come in handy.
In this case, smoking guns seem to abound. One wonders why the Exempt Media has still failed to cover this story, especially the New York Times. Now we have a presumed candidate for Senator in 2008 who participated in an arguably fraudulent shell game with Lyndon LaRouche supporters in order to stiff creditors, among them a non-profit whose earmarked grant money went into their pockets. Will anyone here at the Minneapolis Star-Tribune or the Saint Paul Pioneer Press find that interesting enough to publish? Michelle and Brian would love to speak with either or both.
Read it all -- a breathtaking piece of journalism.
Franken doesn't know squat. And never did.
4. joohn xxxxxxx ( name redacted ) September 3rd, 2005 at 3:15 pm
Has air america been droped from AM 730 in Charleston? If so, how can we get it back or how can we find another station ?
There was no explanation of why it is no longer being delivered. The right of free speech means that i should have the right to listen to information that interests me. Please reply.
It was dropped because the ratings didn't follow, like the lefties said they would. Who knows, maybe they can find another idiot who wants to adopt a poor business model, with next to no ratings. They say they're looking. I'm sure they have advertisers lined up for blocks. ( Ha ) It was dropped from a Clear Channel station, meaning a major house cleaning may follow in other AA cities. If that poster is good indicator of their few listeners, I've figured out their problem. They don't even have a casual acquaintance with reality.
We're not laughing at them, we're... I guess we are laughing at them.
Al Franken has long reminded me of the guy who always got his ass kicked after school. You know the guy...he'd run his mouth all the time, get beat up but he'd never learn.
Air America is really the epitome of elitism. Nobody listens to them but they still think they're important.
I know the guy. We all do. And the thing about it was, you really enjoyed beating the crap outta Al...
Al Franken is a big fat lying Liar.. and hes UGLY TOO...
I accidentally caught a couple of hours of "Morning Sedition", yesterday morning. It, apparently, is supposed to be a news/commentary/humor program, and features two male hosts with common first names.
They had the executive director of the ACLU as a guest -- can't recall his name --, but he was bashing The Patriot Act and Judge Roberts. Their biggest fears seemed to be that Roberts' appointment would mean the end of Roe, and that "Gay Rights" would be further diminished.
I wish every voter could have an opportunity to hear how ridiculous these idiots sound, and what their agenda is; the libs would be quashed in the next election.
The three of them sounded as if they had their hands in each other's trousers, and were warming up for the next session of the politbureau; totally sickening, and I never did hear anything I would call "humor" out of any of them.
The station is a disgrace to common decency. I call it hate radio.
Doesn't this mean that the Gloria Wise folks are the only investors in Air America that haven't earned a negative return? Give them some credit. They're smarter than EVERY OTHER investor in this outfit.
And a plug for Bernard Goldberg's book 100 People Who Are Screwing Up America (And Al Franken Is #37). It really is a light and easy read as well as eye-opening in some cases.
The $825,000 is in escrow under the control of the AA lawyers. Boy, we're all relieved about that, eh?
At any time now, once some PC is put together, those funds are seizeable via court order. (If they're really there. ; )
Where did it come from? Why, it could have come from the same wholesome and legitimate fund-raising efforts that comprised the "Bill Clinton Defense Fund" and Hitlery's political fund-raiser in California recently.
For the first time I tried to listen the other day. I couldn't take it. It was Franken, his chick sidekick, and Jonathan Alter, and it was just meaningless banter. I shut it off.
LMAO! LOL!...just delicious...another serving, please. :D
I want to see the escrow agreement.
I think you missed the meaning of "On air talent", I think what they mean is he is "On Air", like you know "On Drugs".
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