It is the cause-du-jour of the Blogosphere. Thus I put an entry about Air America's outright theft from such as cripples and hungry children on this fine Blog.
But make no mistake the definitive Blog on the subject would be CaptainQuartersBlog.
Still I will encapsulate and demonstrate just what kind of cheating is going on by Air America, that liberal network launched to promote that ideology which champions the poor and downtrodden.
Okay, so they had to steal a little from the poor and downtrodden to get started. Stealing from the "haves" to help the "have-nots" is an old trick in the liberal playbook.
Okay, so in this case they're stealing from the "have-nots" to give to the "haves." It's a simple variation on the theme you must understand.
Here's the short story.
There is an organization called Gloria Wise Boys & Girls Club board. This organization, which by its very name indicates a positive, helping sort of charity, has as a member of its Board of Director a Mr. Evan Cohen.
This Mr. Cohen is also the founder of Air America.
Again, that liberal bastion of loving ideology broadcasting truth and harmony across our airwaves to challenge the very nasty Rush Limbaugh and his ilk. Al Franken is a coveted broadcaster on Air America.
Now the board of Directors at the Gloria Wise foundation might be lying. Liberals love to lie so it's possible. But they say that this Evan Cohen lied and deceived them. In the end Cohen walked away with almost half a million bucks he "borrowed" from the Gloria Wise charity.
Guess where the money ended up?
Yup. In the coffers of Air America.
The Gloria Wise board of directors claim that Cohen asked for money under various guises, including, I'm not making this up, funds he required for his cancer chemotherapy treatments. Some members of the Wise board say they misunderstood Cohen's requests or the man out and out wrote checks with no one's knowledge using a rubber stamp for proper signature.
These people need a new Treasurer and while they're at it maybe they should fire that entire board of directors and get people with brains. When asked how they could trust this Cohen thief, members of the board say that the man held a wonderful fundraiser for the Gloria Wise foundation and raised lots of money. They were impressed.
Article comments
— go to most recent comments1 - troll
Franken is a professional asshole
Looks like Cohen is a thief and an asshole
The Poster, who bases his thought on the axiom "liberals love to lie", is an idiot and an asshole
Enjoyed the public display of mental masterbation
Get off my bridge
troll
2 - TC@LeatherPenguin
It's amusing as hell that there is an advertisement for that book by Sheldon Drobny, actual founder of Air America, partner of Evan Cohen at Progressive Media, and current big shot at Air America's "new" owners, Piquant LLC, riding at the top of this post.
3 - Nancy
Thieves, idiots, & assholes are unfortunately endemic to both political parties & most charitable organizations with large pots of money floating around.
4 - Ken
Air America Radio is stuck in the ratings cellar
BY BETH GILLIN
Knight Ridder News Service
On March 31, 2004, Air America Radio, promoted as the liberal antidote to conservative-dominated talk radio, was launched with great fanfare.
Since then, it has generated headlines while losing some stations and picking up others. In April, it fired head writer Lizz Winstead, co-creator of Comedy Central's "Daily Show," who is suing for back pay. TV's Jerry Springer, who is mulling a run for governor of Ohio, is now in her slot.
Now that it's possible to compare ratings for this spring to last year's start-up, it's clear the network has yet to climb out of the cellar.
Air America's overall ratings, which rose initially after all the free publicity, faded before the November election and haven't recovered.
Still, it isn't yet time to call the coroner. "Air America is going to take a long time to grow ratings," said Michael Harrison, editor and publisher of the trade publication Talkers magazine. "People unfamiliar with our industry think ratings are like box-office receipts. But they're not. Radio ratings are slow to build.
"The network got an initial bump from the enormous amount of free press it got. There was a curiosity factor. Now, it is settling in."
Air America's programming is carried in part or in whole on 67 stations. Most are in smaller markets, such as Albuquerque, N.M., and Albany, N.Y. (Locally, it airs on KTNF-AM, 950.) The flagship show, hosted by author, former "Saturday Night Live" writer/comic and Minnesota native Al Franken, airs from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. weekdays.
Franken originally named his show "The O'Franken Factor" (now "The Al Franken Show") to tweak his archrival, populist pundit Bill O'Reilly, whose TV show "The O'Reilly Factor" on the Fox News Channel outdraws all other cable talk shows and whose "The Radio Factor" draws more than 3 million listeners nationally.
Measured season-to-season " the most accurate way to assess audience preferences, because listening patterns vary throughout the year " Air America has lost audience in major markets, including New York and Boston, since April, May and June of 2004.
Franken, best-selling author of such anti-conservative tomes as "Rush Limbaugh Is a Big Fat Idiot," chose to go head-to-head with gabber Limbaugh in many markets. This, it turns out, was not such a good idea.
Limbaugh, still the giant among talkers, with 14.75 million listeners on 600 stations, has squashed Franken, whose ratings have dropped 50 percent in Boston since spring 2004; he is down 14 percent in New York.
Ratings for many conservative talk shows have dropped as well, editor Harrison said. "It's what happens after an election."
But while more seasoned hosts shift the focus to other topics while awaiting the next election cycle, critics complain that Franken is still obsessed with bashing President Bush. In contrast to Limbaugh, who mocks his own pomposity, Franken comes across as angry and not funny, critics say.
"Is Al Franken going to be the hottest thing in radio? I don't think so," Harrison said. "But it's too soon to say he's finished. A lot depends on how dedicated he is to the show.
"And I get the feeling he's not dedicated to radio broadcasting. He's dedicated to politics and his own celebrity. I think he'll drop out to run for office."
Or, perhaps, he will stay on the air while running for the U.S. Senate in 2008 from Minnesota. Air America signed Franken to a multiyear contract in November, the network's Jon Sinton said.
Franken has been floating trial balloons about a possible Senate run, and he and his wife have bought a home here. In January, the network will move "The Al Franken Show" from New York to Minnesota, an Air America spokeswoman said last week.
5 - Maurice
It is amusing to me that liberals are working (lying) so hard to compete with conservative talk radio. There is no market for it. Just like there is no market for liberal books. Maybe liberals don't listen to the radio or read...?
6 - billy
its amusing to see these people are in denial about aar's initial success. and it is amusing to see that aar obviously gets under your skin when it calls you out for what you are. all the more reason to continue listening ans supporting them.
aar is doing a great job!
7 - Bill B
It's misleading to compare pre-election numbers with post-election numbers. There was obviously more political interest before and leading up to the 04 election than after.
Numbers matter but be wary of inferences drawn from them. I'd say a good barometer is the number of stations i.e. whether it's growing or not.
As for Cohen, he seemed like a lying slimeball to me in the movie (title escapes me) about the birth of aar, so if the accusations are true, no surprise here. I'm with Nancy's sentiment.
Patfish can't resist snide generalizations about liberals. Certainly doesn't help his/her premise.
8 - billy
"As for Cohen, he seemed like a lying slimeball to me in the movie/"
exactly, hes the crook that almost caused aar to tank in the beginning. so we find out now, hes a crook.
wow, earth shattering. i think ill stop listening to aar now. i think ill claim aar did this and not a crook. that sounds like defamation to me.
9 - ss
I heard Air America blew killed 22 marines in the last two days.
Liberal idiots.
10 - Cerulean
I don't think we need right wingers on this site. I have no idea if this story is true or not because I don't trust them. No one has stolen more from the poor and disadvantaged than our last three republican presidents.
You're all just mad because Air America even exists. Sorry, not buying it. Go be bitter somewhere else.
11 - happy guy
For the reeaaal truth on Franken, visit alanskorski.blogspot.com. This guy seems to monitor Franken's daily rantings and has a book on him due out at the end of October.
12 - Dave Nalle
>>I have no idea if this story is true or not because I don't trust them.<<
And you don't actually care enough to see if the MSM is covering it - which they are: The New York Sun
>>No one has stolen more from the poor and disadvantaged than our last three republican presidents.<<
Yep, just like Bush stole -3% of their income from them, and raised their childcare credit and stole that =$300+ from them as a rebate and reduced unemployment so they could have jobs. All the while encouraging them to do better and advance themselves. Those mean republicans, thinking poor people could succeed and not be slaves of the welfare overlords. So mean, so cruel.
Dave
13 - El Bicho
"Just like there is no market for liberal books."
Maybe Maurice doesn't know what he's talking about since I easily found these best sellers names: Al Franken, Michael Moore, Joe Conason, Barbara Ehrenreich, Molly Ivins, Jane Fonda...
14 - Neal
1. Cohen is no longer at Gloria Wise.
2. Cohen is no longer at Air America
3. Air America was launched March 31, 2004 by Progress Media to who the loans were made. Progress was gone May 24, 2004.
4. "It is unclear whether the funds allegedly obtained from Gloria Wise were ultimately received or spent by Air America." is quoted in the cited article in The New York Sun.
5. "She said that thanks to contracts and funds secured from other entities, it is "business as usual" for all of the organization's social programs ..." from the same article.
6. Cohen is the villain here, not Air America.
7. "... has as a member of its Board of Director a Mr. Evan Cohen." from Patfish article. This is not true.
8. Piquant LLC, Air America's new owners as of May 2004 have agreed to fully compensate Gloria Wise.
9. "And so I provide this synopsis of yet another liberal cheat and thievery going on right under the nose of The Lamestream Media.
Who are oddly silent on the entire matter." See #10.
10. "Some of the allegations about Mr. Cohen and Air America have appeared in published reports in the past several weeks, including articles in the New York Post, the Daily News, and the Washington Times, as well as postings on Michelle Malkin's blog and the Radio Equalizer, but Ms. Graves provided The New York Sun with much more extensive details of the allegations." from The New York Sun article. I would say the New York Post and Daily News are pretty "lamestream" media.
11. Yes if true, Cohen is a thief but to say all this was a nefarious plot by Air America is false. "...cheating is going on by Air America." This statement is completely false.
Patfish should more closely read her own source material in the New York Sun.
15 - Dave Nalle
It does sound like Air America as an entity was only marginally involved in this crime. What should be looked on as suspect is the leftist mentality which led Cohen to think that propaganda was a better use for the money than helping kids. It shows how far astray the left has gone in its priorities.
Dave
16 - El Bicho
Dave,
Your last comment is absolutely ridiculous. It wasn't leftist mentality that caused this incident. It was Cohen's, or do you only pay lip service to personal responsibilty when it's conveinent?
Haven't you heard that "the ideals of the party and the performance of corrupt individuals within it don't always match," or does that only apply to those on the right?
Neal, great rebuttal.
17 - Dave Nalle
Didn't Cohen take the money for Air America not for himself? If that's the case then the crime was not motivated by greed, but by ideology. There are greedy Republicans, but I can't imagine them stealing money to finance a propaganda campaign. That's quintessentially leftist.
Dave
18 - TC@LeatherPenguin
Dear Air Idiot defenders,
I started beating on them at their inception not because of political ideolgy, but because they kicked a station I liked, WLIB, into the gutter, under the guise of a business plan that was retarded from the get-go. For that I was called all sorts of varieties of "scumbag Repug thug" crap. I'm a radio junkie, and their business plan made absolutely no sense. But I kept getting the insults and it slowly turned personal. People were defending these morons as "progressive," even when their very modest growth is entirely because Clear Channel, one of the charter members of the dank, dark VRWC, had completely taken control of the netlets future by putting some of their programming on underperforming stations CC had in their stable. So why you defend them instead of calling them "sellouts" is puzzling, to say the least.
And Neal? That list of yours is the most ridiculous rebuttal defense I've read this week, especially numbers 9 and 10. Are you telling me the Washington Times and the NY Sun are considered "mainstream" media? The Sun is so tiny you can't even buy it outside of Manhattan in NYC, and even in that borough it's not found on every newstand.
Put the bong down, dude.
19 - Jesus was a Liberal
That the red state blogs are all up in arms about Air America supposedly stealing from poor kids completely bewilders me.
When the hell did Republicans start giving a crap about the poor?
20 - TC@LeatherPenguin
Hey, "Jesus," you frickin' dolt: blogs aren't "states," okay? They represent people. Until you maroons get the point that it isn't some concerted, organized machine in the thrall of "the Man," or "Rove," or your eighth grade babysitter that you still got issues with, you will always sound like a clown.
I'm born in the Bronx, DNA Democrat, probably before your dumbass was born. STFU.
21 - billy
LeatherPenguin: you missed this one completely
Breaking SCANDAL!! AAR's janitor just picked a booger and threw it on the sidewalk. Why isnt the AAR under FBI investigation for littering? Why hasnt the "liberal" media reported this?
Look into it. Meanwhile I can listen to AAR to find out why people like you and karl rove are such traitors. have fun, aar is around to stay.
22 - Dave Nalle
>>When the hell did Republicans start giving a crap about the poor?<<
One of the little 'red state' factoids that came out after the last election is that people in the red states donate substantially more to charity than people in the blue states do, and Republicans give much more to charity as a group than Democrats do. So maybe they do give a crap about the poor - they just prefer to do it privately rather than putting a gun to citizens head and picking their pockets to help out the poor.
Dave
23 - billy
"Republicans give much more to charity"
yes, if you consider donating to groups that block access to abortion clinics, "donating to charity"
24 - Dave Nalle
Billy, we have a legal definition of a charity in this nation, and it could equally easily include or exclude both groups that block abortion clinics and groups that find teens places they can get abortions, because the criteria have nothing to do with what they do, but apply to how they raise and spend money.
And in anycase both the pro and anti abortion groups are either political organizations which are non-charities or actually businesses which are also not classed as charities, because they want to avoid the spending restrictions which apply to charities.
Dave
Dave
25 - TC@LeatherPenguin
Thanks, Billy. Your sagacity in Comment 21 reinforces my point. Facts or statements you cannot refute on their merits result in a retort that sound like grade school playground idiocy.
And the Left wonders why the candidates clowns like you--that is, if you're old enough to vote--throw their support behind keep losing elections.