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Politics : Err America: They Report, They Decide -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Sully- who wrote (291)	8/5/2005 12:09:08 AM
From: Sully-	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1513

Air America: DOI Says Go Ahead And Return The Money By Captain Ed on Radio Captain's Quarters Today's New York Post reports that one of Air America's assertions about their attempts to repay the $875,000 to Gloria Wise Boys & Girls Club is "inaccurate". Piquant Media issued an announcement a few days ago that the AA parent company wanted to start reimbursing the Bronx charity non-profit, but could not do so until instructed by New York City's Department of Investigations, which has an open case on the money transfers between Gloria Wise and Air America. The DOI says, "Who, us?": <<< Air America's foot-dragging on repaying $875,000 borrowed from a beleaguered Boys & Girls Club in The Bronx has nothing to do with a probe of the club's controversial loans, city investigators said yesterday. Officials at the ultra-liberal radio network have repeatedly said Air America intends to repay the money, but claimed they put those plans on hold because of the city probe. "We're waiting for directions from the investigators on how to proceed," Air America spokeswoman Jamie Horn said this week. But the Department of Investigation said there is nothing to prevent the radio network from repaying its debt immediately. "DOI has done nothing and given no instruction preventing payment of money owed to Gloria Wise [Boys & Girls Club]. Any statements to the contrary are inaccurate," said DOI spokesman Keith Schwam. >>> A spokesperson for Gloria Wise says she expects Air America to start its two-year repayment plan next month, and Air America said it might be sooner. Hopefully that will happen at least on schedule. However, with Air America continuing to provide deceptive answers to basic questions, even while promising to repay money taken through at least unethical business practices, it doesn't build confidence in their credibility. My guess is that the DOI will also take note of this slipperiness and factor it into their investigation. Meanwhile, the Exempt Media still has not covered the scandal at all. Hugh Hewitt follows up my column in yesterday's Daily Standard with one of his own on the scandal, "The Air Out There". Hugh has links to the blog coverage and the few print sources reporting the story, and points out the disparity in scrutiny that Air America has received from a scandal-crazed press: <<< [N]othing is so odd as the black-out of the story in the mainstream media. It took about a week from the first television mention of Eason Jordan's Davos speech for that story to break out into the mainstream media. CNN's Inside Politics blog segment covered the Air America story on July 29, so we may be getting close to break-out day. There is every indication--conflicting accounts, big names, big money--that the story has legs. We know a lot about the medications Rush Limbaugh has taken. We know a great deal about Bill O'Reilly's troubles. But thus far we don't know much about how Al Franken got paid the big bucks last year, when all of the mainstream media seemed to be cheering his debut. >>> When will the New York Times, which has written dozens of articles on the creation and operation of the liberal-radio netlet, finally write one on the funding scandal in which it finds itself embroiled? captainsquartersblog.com nypost.com weeklystandard.com weeklystandard.com