18 December 2006 @ 6:38PM >> Today’s New York Times contains a lengthy article discussing the financial woes of Air America Radio. The Times, which describes Air America as a “liberal network” created to be “an alternative to right-wing talk radio,” says that the now-bankrupt network “was engulfed in a series of financial crises.”

But the paper—whose famous tag line is “all the news that’s fit to print”—inexplicably fails to mention the most significant of those self-inflicted crises.

In July 2005, word leaked out that the New York City Department of Investigation was looking into Air America Radio for its role in diverting hundreds of thousands of dollars from a Bronx charity. The Attorney General of New York later opened an investigation over allegations that Air America ended up with $875,000 intended for underprivileged kids at the Gloria Wise Boys & Girls Club. The scandal eventually caused the club to shut down after having its charter yanked.

In August 2005, I noted that major establishment news outlets—including the New York Times—were ignoring the Air America scandal.

Here we are, well over a year later, and the Times is still doing everything it can to gloss over that scandal. In an article that measures over 1,600 words—an article whose unifying theme is the financial mess that is Air America—the Times can’t even bring itself to print word one about the fact that the supposed champions of the dispossessed felt no compunction about ripping off inner-city kids so they could keep their million-dollar hosts on the air.

All the news that’s fit to print? Or all the news that fits their ideology?

25 May 2006 @ 6:23PM >> According to this report from the Radio Blogger website, Air America—the left-wing radio network—may be in its death throes. I, for one, do not share in the apparent glee of author Brian Maloney (no relation); as far as I’m concerned, the more exposure undiluted leftism gets, the better it is for the people who oppose it.

22 September 2005 >> The Air America financial scandal claimed its first victim, the Gloria Wise Boys and Girls Club, a Bronx charity from which some $875,000 was apparently pilfered in order to finance the upstart left-wing radio network:

The national board of the Boys & Girls Clubs voted to yank Gloria Wise’s charter, barring them from using the much-heralded organization’s symbols and fund-raising clout because of a breach of ethical standards and failing to file audits.

Evan McElroy, a spokesman for the national organization, said officers at Gloria Wise had ignored repeated requests to file annual financial reports. “We gave them plenty of chances,” he said.

“Our clubs are run according to ethical business practices that were, in the view of our board, breached,” McElroy said of the Gloria Wise club based in Co-op City.

City investigators yanked more than $10 million of public contracts from Gloria Wise in June after revealing a probe of the club’s finances, including the bizarre transfer of nearly $1 million to the left-wing radio station.

Meanwhile, with its supply of financing from inner-city youth cut off, Air America has taken to begging listeners for contributions. Apparently, advertisers aren’t willing to pay much for dismal ratings.

The moral of the story? Liberal radio can’t survive without the money of American taxpayers.

8 September 2005 @ 10:24AM >> Michelle Malkin and Brian Maloney (no relation) are both reporting on newly unearthed documents showing that Al Franken—contrary to his on-air denials—was intimately involved in the financing of Air America Radio, including the “loan” from the Gloria Wise Boys & Girls Club that is now being investigated by New York City and State authorities:

Far from being an innocent party with no knowledge of Air America’s money woes, Franken was a signatory to the agreement. The document, published here for the first time, exposes how Franken misled his listeners and the press about his knowledge of the charity loan.

It is interesting to note that this story is being driven entirely by two bloggers, Malkin and Maloney. The establishment media, which gleefully covered all the details of Rush Limbaugh’s troubles two years ago, is missing the story entirely.

9 August 2005 @ 11:23AM >> Weeks after the financial scam came to light where Air America ended up with nearly $1 million from a primarily government-funded charity for underprivileged kids, the left-wing radio network’s signature host Al Franken finally addressed the issue on his radio show:

Al Franken says 20,000 poor kids and old people weren’t the only victims of an exec who allegedly arranged a Bronx charity’s mega-buck “loan” to Air America.

“About three weeks into the life of Air America, I became an involuntary investor — I stopped being paid,” Franken told listeners yesterday [...]

Screw the kids, Al’s not getting paid!

Thank you, Al, for reminding us who the real victims are here.

Meanwhile, Captain’s Quarters has assembled a convenient scoreboard comparing coverage over the last month of Martha Stewart’s legal-financial woes and those of Air America:

Media Outlet	Air America	Martha Stewart
New York Times	0	16
Washington Post	0	10
Los Angeles Times	0	3
CBS News	0	1
ABC News	0	4
Total:	0	34

Although these numbers were compiled on Sunday, to my knowledge, none of these outlets have covered the case in the last two days.

7 August 2005 @ 12:12PM >> The New York Post is reporting that New York State Attorney General Eliot Spitzer is now investigating why Air America ended up with $875,000 in “loans” from a from a charity for underprivileged youth that was “almost entirely funded by government contracts and grants”:

“We are looking into it in consultation with the city’s Department of Investigation,” Spitzer spokesman Darren Dopp revealed.

The highly unusual loans to the left-wing radio network were made by the Gloria Wise Boys & Girls Club — which was visited by one of Spitzer’s investigators yesterday, officials said.

Until its downfall, Gloria Wise and an associated agency, Pathways for Youth, had grown into one of the largest social-service providers in The Bronx with an annual budget of $10 million.

[...]

All of its city contracts were yanked once the loan to Air America was uncovered.

Gloria Wise is now struggling to stay afloat with a reduced schedule of programs.

4 August 2005 @ 6:45PM >> Over a week ago, I noted that liberal radio network Air America was under investigation. It looks like Air America was on the receiving end of potentially several hundred thousand dollars taken out of a charity for underprivileged children. Just the sort of thing you’d expect, say, The New York Times to cover, right? After all, the Times gave lots of ink—also known as free publicity—to the network when it was in its infancy. The paper even plugged a possible Senate candidacy for former funnyman Al Franken, the flagship host on Air America. Considering that the scandal centers on the Gloria Wise Boys and Girls Club in the Bronx—right in the backyard of Times-land—it seems tailor made for coverage in the nation’s self-proclaimed “newspaper of record.”

But, of course, the establishment media these days is so predictable in how bias shows itself that we all know the Times hasn’t covered the story, and probably won’t unless and until there’s a tidbit of information that casts Air America in a good light.

Michelle Malkin, who has been covering this story extensively, is keeping score in her latest update:

Number of NY Times articles mentioning Air America since March 2004: 59

Number of NY Times articles mentioning the Air Enron scandal: 0

Meanwhile, John Hinderaker of PowerLine takes note of what the Times is covering these days:

In today’s paper, for example, the Times covers a much more boring controversy in which Westchester County’s District Attorney is being pressed to reimburse the county for the expense of after-hours security. The story is a yawner. The DA has a legitimate argument that she needs 24-hour security because of her job; there are no falsified reports or conflicting stories; no one is stealing money from poor children or Alzheimer’s victims; and no one is funding a controversial political and commercial enterprise. Yet the Times finds the story newsworthy, while ignoring Air Enron, which is also taking place in its own back yard. Why? Well, maybe because it’s because the Westchester DA is a Republican, Jeanine Pirro, who is interested in higher office. Or maybe it’s because no hard work—like actually carrying out an investigation—was necessary; all the Times had to do was quote Democratic Party spokesmen.

Or maybe both.

The Times is getting criticized because this is the sort of story that they should be covering, and most certainly would if the hosts on Air America had political views that occupied the other side of the political spectrum.

Investor’s Business Daily argues:

[M]oney intended for poor minority children and Alzheimer’s victims was instead used to make sure the financially tanking and ratings-troubled Air America could keep blathering.

Public funds used to prop up a business! Just the kind of scandal that left-leaning media would die for. Yet for some reason they’re giving this one a pass.

Is it because there are no mean ol’ conservatives to blame?

When [Rush] Limbaugh’s problems with painkillers came to light, the mainstream media could hardly contain themselves. They called him a “pill popper” and hypocrite and cheered for release of his medical records. And when he returned to the air, they couldn’t talk enough about his stay in rehab.

Al Franken, Air America’s featured host, seized the moment and labeled Limbaugh a “drug addict” — after calling him a “Big Fat Idiot” in the title of his book years before.

Nothing wrong, mind you, with reporting on Limbaugh’s woes. Nothing, that is, as long as the media cover flaws of those on the left with equal enthusiasm.

On an increasingly frequent basis, the establishment media unwittingly reveals itself as a champion of a particular ideology, not the dispassionate conveyor of information that they claim to be. At the same time, TV news networks and major newspapers continue to lose audience. Part of that is due to the fact that the Internet has made their distribution channels redundant. Another reason might be that their product has become boring. These days, it is quite easy to predict what stories the Times will report and what spin their coverage will contain. If I can predict what I’ll read in tomorrow’s Times long before the printing presses finish their daily run, why bother paying for the paper?

27 July 2005 @ 4:04PM >> According to this report, the New York City Department of Investigation is looking into the claims that hundreds of thousands of dollars were diverted from a Bronx-based Boys & Girls Club and put into the coffers of the liberal radio network Air America.