Bronx News: Liberal reporter broke AAR scandal

[raccoonradio]

In case anyone thought the Vast Right Wing Conspiracy was behind the AAR Scandal:

http://www.gothamgazette.com/community/12/news/1862

"The ace News reporter who broke the Air America scandal said the story has not been driven by ideology but rather by questions of mismanaging public funds for youth programs. He also called on the major news organizations to abandon liberal bias and report on the growing scandal...

"The veteran journalist broke the story about the New York City Department of Investigation’s probe into the Gloria Wise center using good solid reporting. He followed up on anonymous tips from Co-op City residents who were outraged by the allegations of funneling money for the left wing radio station.

"“It’s past time for the New York Times, a newspaper I admire, report on it because it has to with city and state funds involving a liberal radio station and programs for the community,” he said. “I wanted to set the record straight about who broke the story. Even though our papers serve only 40,000 compared to the major media that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t get credit for a story we broke.”

."<P ID="signature">______________
News and views about Boston and New England Radio:

http://www.livejournal.com/community/boston_radio</P>

 

[Scribbler]

Re: Bronx News: Liberal reporter broke Evan Cohen scandal

> In case anyone thought the Vast Right Wing Conspiracy was
> behind the AAR Scandal:

I don't think anybody on this board has called it a "right wing conspiracy," although the right wing has tried to paint the Evan Cohen scandal as if it involved the current owners of Air America or even Al Franken, when it actually involves a Republican operative/con man who almost succeeded in killing off Air America, who has had nothing to do with Air America for the last 15 months, and who Franken has called a "crook."

 

[robbbc]

Re: Bronx News: Liberal reporter broke Evan Cohen scandal

> > In case anyone thought the Vast Right Wing Conspiracy was
> > behind the AAR Scandal:
>
> I don't think anybody on this board has called it a "right
> wing conspiracy," although the right wing has tried to paint
> the Evan Cohen scandal as if it involved the current owners
> of Air America or even Al Franken, when it actually involves
> a Republican operative/con man who almost succeeded in
> killing off Air America, who has had nothing to do with Air
> America for the last 15 months, and who Franken has called a
> "crook."
>
Well let me break the pattern. The constant blather on the Boys and Gils club scandal is a right wing conspiracy. They are sadly misunderstanding that the MSM is uninteretesd in the story because AAR is not very popular or well known outside of far left and right circles (they ought to be happy!). Now the MSM will be providing more free publicity for AAR- no doubt Franken et al should be thanking their stars for it. Since anyone who investigates the story figures out pretty quick AAR is innocent it doesn;t leave much of a stain. Like that CEO of the cigarettte company said- no such thing as bad publicity.

 

[coolidge]

Re: Bronx News: Liberal reporter broke Evan Cohen scandal

> I don't think anybody on this board has called it a "right
> wing conspiracy," although the right wing has tried to paint
> the Evan Cohen scandal as if it involved the current owners
> of Air America

Who? Who has made that argument on this web site other than you and your fellow AARistians ad nauseum as a strawman?

 

[doc9464]

Re: Bronx News: Liberal reporter broke Evan Cohen scandal

> Well let me break the pattern. The constant blather on the
> Boys and Gils club scandal is a right wing conspiracy. They
> are sadly misunderstanding that the MSM is uninteretesd in
> the story because AAR is not very popular or well known
> outside of far left and right circles (they ought to be
> happy!). Now the MSM will be providing more free publicity
> for AAR- no doubt Franken et al should be thanking their
> stars for it. Since anyone who investigates the story
> figures out pretty quick AAR is innocent it doesn;t leave
> much of a stain. Like that CEO of the cigarettte company
> said- no such thing as bad publicity.

I think the main point here is that the liberals here or the independant people who do not have an axe to grind about Air America would never defend any of the current management (Piquant) or the hosts (Franken, Rhodes, et al.) if there was one shred of proof that they were involved. I've said if there had been any proof or if the respective organizations looking into the situation found credible evidence, I would stand up and hope that they get the justice they would deserve. This is NOT happening.

The various resources point to one person, Evan Cohen, and no one else as the catalyst for the alleged loans. Everyone knows that Cohen claimed to have $30 million dollars in financing to tide Air America over until they could grow and turn a profit. He alleged that this was sufficient funding for 2 years. Everyone knows from all the news reports and the AAR documentary, that Evan Cohen had less than $6 million in funding. This obviously was not enough to sustain AAR. The right wing jumped on this as well in 2004, predicting the death of AAR..allegedly proving the theory that "Liberal Radio doesn't work". But thanks to some good things in Portland, San Diego, and other towns, AAR got a new lease on life and CC entered the effort as well to start flipping stations. This process continues and now includes other media organizations.

Now that the Gloria Wise organization is under fire, and Evan Cohen was discovered to have accepted/created/stolen several loans (approximately $875,000)for use for "personal expenses" and for AAR. While the investigation has continued, the right wing immediately jumped to two very clear untrue items:

1) AAR stole money from Gloria Wise. (Truth SO FAR: Evan Cohen was the "crook".)
2) Al Franken/other AAR hosts were involved - (Truth SO FAR: Not one investigation resource has ever insinuated that, much less made the association).


Like with John Kerry, the right wing is "swift boating" AAR. Brian "Unemployed" Baloney/and (just for "Scooby" Wilkins_Micawber), "racist" Michelle Malkin sensed an "opportunity" to conflate AAR with crime. Since many on the right do not appear to do research outside of RW blogs and RW talk show hosts, this belief will flow through the conservatives. No one will ever be able to clear this up even if the investigation goes as I expect that Cohen will answer for his crimes and the Gloria Wise people who allowed this abuse of finances will also have to pay. Even if that happens, the right wing will have succeded in painting AAR as some criminal organization, which WOULD NOT BE TRUE OR DESERVED.
This is the deadly price of the RW Echo Machine...truth is crushed. These same practices are used on so many liberals and of course look at the way Cindy Sheehan is being savaged...yet right wingers continue to say this is OK.

People like raccoonradio post statements from known conservative spin jockeys like Brent Bozell to justify that its the MSM is "covering up". The right wing always blame the media when they don't get the results they want. Liberals feel that the media (rightfully so) is not doing a decent job on anything either...but in the case of AAR, the media is not the issue or the answer to what the RW is screaming. What they ignore is that the media or others get involved when there are facts. Brian Maloney, Michelle Malkin, Rush and others are NOT journalists, they are RW spin specialists. Well Maloney is just unemployed.

Remember one thing, Rob Glaser and other investors in Piquant would not have a need to use Gloria Wise monies since they had the venture capital to help keep AAR afloat. Think about this, why would they need to take $$$ from a Boy's Club...when they have the $$$ themselves? Think about this, why arent the RW looking at Gloria Wise staff and questioning their honesty and credibility?
They are making it sound that AAR people did sometype of fleecing of these people running the Gloria Wise organization. Thats not true.
Don't they think that Gloria Wise shouldn't be in the business of funding venture capital projects? Don't you think a Boy's club should not be loaning money to anyone period? Don't you blame the Gloria Wise staff for doing something wrong? Evan Cohen was on the board of Gloria Wise. Remember that. No current AAR/Piquant person was employed by Gloria Wise. Only Cohen had access to Gloria Wise resources. Don't you think that Gloria Wise staff might be the real problem here? I think these are reasonable questions I hope many will consider.


Here is a hint why the media jumped on the Rush Story..its not because he was a right winger over a liberal...it was because the facts were available like low hanging apples. AAR will get that same coverage if the evidence becomes as clear or as easy to grab, because the media works on "gotcha" journalism. Here are some facts we all know about Rush:

Rush Limbaugh Facts: It was absolutely true when it was discovered that he doctor shopped and was abusing drugs. When discovered he went on the air and told everyone it was true once he realized it was coming out. Because of his strong (now hypocritical) stance on "Drug Addicts should go straight to jail", you are damn right this caught coverage. He didn't refuse help from an organization, the ACLU. Many right wingers don't have the slightest idea that Rush let the ACLU defend his demands about keeping his medical records private.
Roy Black never discussed that he and Rush did NOT refuse the ACLU's efforts despite this being more evidence of clear hypocracy on Rush's part. The media loves those kind of things, so of course they jump on it.

With Karl Rove, its similar, but not quite there. His situation is similar to AAR in that there is an ongoing investigation. However, there have been some clear points of evidence that Rove had not been telling the truth about his involvement. Leaked data continues to flow that the "outing of Plame" was true and not some fabricated story. Over time, the evidence has spread to several WH staff. We don't know if Rove will be indicted, but it looks like he will be involved. That investigation is uncovering real, un-refutable facts. In AAR's case, we only know that Cohen was involved, not the AAR staff..but if facts/data come out or is leaked, the MSM will come out hard on AAR because people went on the record stating clearly that Piquant didn't have any involvement. Piquant would have then been shown to be lying about their involvement....but that proof is not there and investigators have not claimed that such evidence exists. Thats the REAL reason the AAR story is not getting momemtum despite the best efforts from Malkin, Baloney, Hugh Hewitt, etc to muddy this into the scandal they want so badly. The few facts have been distorted, misquoted, or muddied into "Al Franken steals from Kids". Nothing supports that at all. If that comes true, the media will evicerate AAR.

My next point is when the smears occur, the RW echo machine will NOT correct one false word thrown out. When the RW tried to blame Democrats for Mel Martinez's memo during the Terri Sciavo debacle, no one came out and said "We were wrong." People still believe Democrats tried to fake that memo despite Martinez taking responsibility for it. The RW is not interested in accuracy, its interested in sucessful smears.

Finally, I hope AAR (Piquant) and the hosts are cleared (i have no doubt that AAR is fully innocent). If that happens, will the people like PW, raccoonradio, coolidge, Wilkins_Micawber, and all the others who keep pushing this issue admit they were wrong? When you find out you are wrong and that Evan Cohen was the real crook, will you come back and straighten out the BS you spread? I challenge you. I know that I and other AAR supporters will step up and say "We were wrong" if anyone in AAR is implicated and shown to be a part of Cohen's scheme. I have my doubts that those on the right like Baloney and Malkin will do that. They never do. Hewitt, O'Reilly, and others will find someway to sneak off without admitting guilt in smearing AAR.

 

[dampier]

> In case anyone thought the Vast Right Wing Conspiracy was
> behind the AAR Scandal:

The argument here is whether or not current AAR management was dirty dealing for public cash, as is implied by conservative blogs, or is this an Evan Cohen sleazy scandal.

Most actual news reports are making the distinction between Cohen and AAR/Piquant. The right wing blogs are not.

 

[dampier]

Re: Bronx News: Liberal reporter broke Evan Cohen scandal

> Think about this, why arent the RW looking at Gloria Wise staff and
> questioning their honesty and credibility?

This is absolutely key, and is a flashlight into the inner workings of the echo chamber and the distortions. AAR is "guilty" for accepting "stolen money from kids" and that evil Al Franken (and at least one comment on one of the blog networks says a lot - "that's what Jews do - they steal") are all behind it. But not a word is said about the people at the non-profit who are even worse for pillaging funds and sending them out the door in the first place. Not a peep about the city of NY's handling of non-profits, the non-profit agency itself, or those who are ACTUALLY under investigation.

Baloney's blog is ostensibly about radio/TV so he gets a mini-pass on this, but the others sure do not.

> Here is a hint why the media jumped on the Rush Story..its
> not because he was a right winger over a liberal...it was
> because the facts were available like low hanging apples.

Rush made himself big news. In addition to showing up on national talk and sports programs, he has an enormous name recognition. Public figures are juicy targets for the media, especially when they are caught doing what they preach against.

> Finally, I hope AAR (Piquant) and the hosts are cleared (i
> have no doubt that AAR is fully innocent). If that happens,
> will the people like PW, raccoonradio, coolidge,
> Wilkins_Micawber, and all the others who keep pushing this
> issue admit they were wrong? When you find out you are wrong
> and that Evan Cohen was the real crook, will you come back
> and straighten out the BS you spread? I challenge you. I
> know that I and other AAR supporters will step up and say
> "We were wrong" if anyone in AAR is implicated and shown to
> be a part of Cohen's scheme.

By then, PW will be posting Starbuck's receipts from Garofalo claiming she is destroying the environment with styrofoam cups.

I personally am about the FACTS. If there is AAR management in this matter (and the DOI doesn't believe it because they are not investigating anyone in the current management), I'll be hollerin' about it myself. But someone has to be the adult and tell the children to put the innuendo crayons back in the box. Playtime is over.

 

[KingDaevid]

Re: Bronx News: Liberal reporter broke Evan Cohen scandal

> By then, PW will be posting Starbuck's receipts from
> Garofalo claiming she is destroying the environment with
> styrofoam cups.

...haven't you heard? Janeane says they opened a Starbuck's in her bathroom ;-) ...<P ID="signature">______________
King Daevid MacKenzie
WLSU Wisconsin Public Radio, La Crosse
heard weekly on http://whiterosesociety.org
"Kill Ugly Radio." FRANK ZAPPA</P>