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?
***
I looked at another post he made; I think we've got a DU troll here. Get him!
Here's another post he made:
I'm sick of liberals complaining about the civilian deaths in Iraq. I mean, Saddam killed 180,000, and we have only directly killed a little over 10,000 (though admittedly in less time than Saddam had). I also think that the civilians in Iraq might have been more afriad of Saddam than they are the current lawlessness and daily murderous attacks from insurgents. I'm sure they would rather live in the current conditions with rare access to electricity, and 28 hour waits at gas pumps than live under the threat of an evildoer tyrant. I mean, come on, we had a civil war and look how good we are doing 160 years later?? Maybe one day Iraq will be invading us and freeing us from some evildoer liberal, gay-loving, terrorist-patronizing Democrat that is trying to bring our nation down by raising taxes on us God-fearing Chrisitians. Gooood Bliiiis America!
There. I hate sentences that are too wordy.
Cleanup on Aisle 41?
We got him, he's a goner.
I tell you, almost every troll I've run into here is so incredibly stupid. They blow their cover with obvious comments the same day they join.
What hypocrites the leftist media are. No coverage at all on this one. Compare it to the coverage of Rush Limbaugh's pill scandal. In the one case, one person had become addicted to pain killers and it was a big deal. In the other, a group of leftist elites rob from a fund provided for poor people, to support a radio show, but it's no big deal.
Yeah, those trolls are seriously brain dead. They are so caught up in that so-called "freedom of speech thing" that they don't know how to watch what they say when talking to us Republicans that are able to remove their thoughts when we disagree with them. Gosh, they are so silly!
Subtlety is not your strong suit. Preserved for the ages.
This isn't a debate forum, chump. There are other places for that.
Libs are so caught up in their freedom of speech, and so convinced that everyone's trying to take it away, they're paranoid and narcissistic.
NO ONE'S TRYING TO TAKE YOUR STUPID FREEDOM OF SPEECH!!! You're so convinced that they are, but they aren't! Has anyone really lost their freedom of speech in this country? NO? No one has? Good, then GET OVER IT!!!
Are you going to yank comment #49?
What on Earth negative press is she talking about? I haven't seen the MSM spike a story so thoroughly since Sandy Burger accidentally stuffed secret documents into his clothes and then accidentally shredded them when he got home.
Air America has agreed to put the entire $875,000 it received from a Bronx-based Boys & Girls Club into an escrow account while the controversial loan is investigated by the city, the network's bosses announced yesterday.
The owner of the left-leaning radio network had previously agreed to repay the money in installments.
Last month it made the first down payment into an escrow account controlled by the station's lawyer, rather than directly to the Gloria Wise Boys & Girls Club, a nonprofit social-services organization.
The city's Depart of Investigation, which is scrutinizing the bizarre loan, wanted all the money in escrow until it end its probe and authorizes payment.
Yesterday Danny Goldberg, CEO of Air America, announced that the board of directors of the network's owner had accelerated its payment schedule and deposited the full $875,000 into the escrow account.
The city yanked $9.7 million in government contracts from the club earlier this year as it launched an investigation of its finances and whether club officials falsified documents.
State Attorney General Eliot Spitzer is also investigating the Air America-Gloria Wise connection.
The escrow move comes as it was disclosed yesterday that Air America's star, Al Franken, signed an agreement last year to repay the entire loan.
The comedian and liberal commentator said last month he didn't know of the loan until late July, adding Air America's decision to repay it was a "moral obligation."
But it was reported yesterday that Franken and Air America's former chairman, Evan Montvel Cohen, were among the signers of a confidential agreement in November 2004 in which Air America agreed to repay the Gloria Wise loan.
Cohen said no one at the network knew of the money transfers from Gloria Wise when they happened, apparently between October 2003 and March 2004.
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