Radio Equalizer: Investor & former CEO of Air America Radio leaves AAR Board

[bigtalkradiofan]

http://radioequalizer.blogspot.com/

07 September 2006
Doug Kreeger, Air America, Piquant LLC Board Of Directors
BOARD MEMBER: ADIOS

Kreeger Apparently Frustrated With AAR

*** Exclusive To The Radio Equalizer ***

A key board member of Air America Radio's parent company has suddenly resigned, apparently out of frustration with the network's missteps, the Radio Equalizer has learned exclusively.

"Progressive" activist Doug Kreeger, who has been with the liberal talk radio outfit since its earliest days, exited Piquant LLC's board several days ago, according to an internal source. ...

 

[fred flintstone]

DISMISSED

"The Dismisser" has dismissed Maloney and any topic he mentions on his website.
Therefore, this never happened.
Maloney also says Mike Malloy was fired and some AAR listeners are angry about it.
Since Maloney said it, The Dismisser will declare, this could not have happened either.
If either were to have happened, they would be unimportant.
Anyone who mentions either topic will be dismissed by The Dissmisser as a right-winger with an axe to grind, and a bitter hatred of Air America Radio.
Since Maloney has said nothing about Sheldon Drobny's critical comments about Air America Radio's board and management in the Huffington Post, that topic has not yet been dismissed, but discuss this topic are your own risk. If Maloney does mention it, then the topic - and anyone who posts about it - will also be dismissed by The Dismisser.

PS: Special notice to all RI members who have ever had a talk show. RI will be starting on a new "Failure" board for former talk show hosts. Look for it on the main page of this site.

 

[dampier]

Kreeger Apparently Frustrated With AAR

*** Exclusive To The Radio Equalizer ***

Oh I do love an "exclusive."

Let's take a look at this barn burner, stop the presses story.

Kreeger Apparently Frustrated With AAR

Wow... I'm a little concerned already when he's managed his first weasel word in the headline itself. I see from Fred's reply that he expects criticism of this award winning piece of investigative journalism.

Fred Flintstone Apparently Frustrated With People Critical of Brian Maloney, Sources Say.

A key board member of Air America Radio's parent company has suddenly resigned, apparently out of frustration with the network's missteps, the Radio Equalizer has learned exclusively.

Please. Fred Flintstone has managed to unknowingly trash the Unequalizer's own report because he has said much the same thing himself, sharing the frustration with the "network's missteps." I guess Baloney did not learn this "exclusively."

But, dear readers, let's be on the lookout for evidence in this investigative piece about how "suddenly" is defined and be careful, because Baloney has used "apparently" again in the first sentence of the article.

"Progressive" activist Doug Kreeger, who has been with the liberal talk radio outfit since its earliest days, exited Piquant LLC's board several days ago, according to an internal source.

Hmmm... progressive gets put in quotes. Fun challenge for fellow readers - does Brian also put conservative in quotes in his reports? More importantly, Brian claims to have another internal source at the network. Will he name him or her? Let's find out.

Considered truly committed to the liberal cause

Gee, somehow I doubt we'd be reading a sentence starter like that in an actual news article....

In addition, he has been a major investor in the company and likely still holds at least two million common and preferred units, as well as warrants. In a much smaller quantity, his wife Wendy has also held company shares.

There's another weasel word in there... can you find it?

At this point, however, these units could at best be described as illiquid assets, with little or no realistic cash value.

According to who? Apparently while busy with his "source" at AAR, he could not find someone with financial expertise in the industry to go on the record and explain to us the basis for this remark.

In addition, at key points where Air America saw a particularly urgent need for ready cash, Kreeger was there to help with further investment commitments.

According to who?

Kreeger's ideological compatibility with Air America's leftist slant is certainly made clear in this 2005 opinion piece published by AlterNet.

And this is relevant to the headline of this "exclusive" how?

When a major investor jumps ship in this way, it's a likely sign that the person has given up on the company. With so much invested in Air America Radio, that couldn't have been an easy decision for Doug Kreeger to make.

Jumps ship in what way? Likely=you don't know, it's a guess. And has Baloney learned from his "source" that Kreeger is pulling his money out of Air America? Is he leaving the board because he wants to do something else? His "source" was silent on that.

And that my friends... is the ENTIRE investigative report from Mr. Baloney. Not one shred of evidence (or even anything suggesting evidence) about the "apparent frustration" we were promised in the headline. In fact, there was more room for the Alternet piece the guy wrote a year ago than there was for actual facts in this "article."

Not one quote. Not one named source. Not one sentence you couldn't have read right here in the vast Speculation City that is this forum.

This timely example aptly illustrates the argument I've made in here recently about what is fact and what is sheer speculation. Does Baloney have the right to publish his anti-AAR blog? Sure. Can people quote it in here? Yeah. Can people like myself reply pointing out that those who would use these "pieces" as verifiable fact to back up their arguments are basing them on sheer speculation? Even Don Rumsfeld would chime in with "You bet!"

And as far as who is begging for cash, take a look at the end of the article and enjoy.

 

[dampier]

I decided to have some fun with the pundit clown and reposted most of this on his blog, and to my delight, he responded by not actually addressing any of these points but instead calling me the obsessed one. Yeah, I'm the guy with the anti-AAR blog going on Fox News to bash AAR. I'm the obsessed one. Most amusingly, he outed himself in saying that nobody at AAR will talk to him, so I guess there was no source after all.

Also in the comments section, I also enjoyed his moments of divadom:

If these reports were wrong, the network would say so. They're among the Radio Equalizer's most loyal readers, they never miss a day, and yet they say NOTHING. That's because the reports are true.

And this break from logic:

I report what I obtain from my sources. None of it is gossip, it's always backed by documentation, which can't be published for legal reasons.

Oh man... he's way too easy. It's like shooting fish in a barrel.

 

[FightingIrish]

I decided to have some fun with the pundit clown and reposted most of this on his blog, and to my delight, he responded by not actually addressing any of these points but instead calling me the obsessed one. Yeah, I'm the guy with the anti-AAR blog going on Fox News to bash AAR. I'm the obsessed one. Most amusingly, he outed himself in saying that nobody at AAR will talk to him, so I guess there was no source after all.

Also in the comments section, I also enjoyed his moments of divadom:

If these reports were wrong, the network would say so. They're among the Radio Equalizer's most loyal readers, they never miss a day, and yet they say NOTHING. That's because the reports are true.

And this break from logic:

I report what I obtain from my sources. None of it is gossip, it's always backed by documentation, which can't be published for legal reasons.

Oh man... he's way too easy. It's like shooting fish in a barrel.

HE called YOU obsessed? That's rich!

Baloney does nothing but seeth in his own self-hatred. He's been pissed off at the world since he got fired from his talk gig TWO years ago, and seems to think it's AAR's fault.

Baloney's a moron and a complete loser. Hope that blog pays well.

 

[fred flintstone]

Baloney does nothing but seeth in his own self-hatred. He's been pissed off at the world since he got fired from his talk gig TWO years ago, and seems to think it's AAR's fault.

As I recall, at the time he thought it was Dan Rather's fault.
Dan has since been fired himself (making him - to some - a failed TeleprompTer reader and news hustler).
One would think Maloney take some kind of karmic satisfaction from that.

The question is: Why should Maloney care so much about AAR?
They are not taking anything away from him.
I can't see him going for a gig as a liberal host.
If progressive talk weren't around, most of the current stations would probably be brokered or running some other latchkey format anyway. He's not being deprived of a job opportunity because they are in business.
His fans (if any) wouldn't be caught dead listening to AAR.
He's not important enough for AAR to talk about. Oh wait! Maybe that's it. They all talk about Rush. Franken talks about Maloney's buddy O'Reilly. But they ignore poor Byron.

 

[Radio_Realist]

Hmmm... progressive gets put in quotes. Fun challenge for fellow readers - does Brian also put conservative in quotes in his reports?

That's because "progressive" is an adopted euphemism for "liberal". It's in quotes because the individual in question is not a progressive, he is a liberal. He just likes to refer to himself as a "progressive". If conservatives were to either invent or adopt a euphemism for "conservative", then that euphemism would also be appropriate to put in quotes. You'll not, the word "liberal" is not quotated.

As for the rest of what was reported on that blog, I agree with those who observe that information from blogs is unreliable. Hell, I once found a website that proclaimed that eating your own boogers is good for you. It doesn't much matter what your opinion is, there is a website somewhere that you can link to as "proof" of anything.

And I quotated "proof" for pretty much the same reason that "progressive" gets quotated.

I should probably also quotate "quotated". But since Arlo Guthrie first coined that word over three decades ago, I figure it's OK to use.

 

[evnlee]

I decided to have some fun with the pundit clown and reposted most of this on his blog, and to my delight, he responded by not actually addressing any of these points but instead calling me the obsessed one.

so, not only do you disagree with Baloney, ummm, you actually go to his blog and try to argue your points with him there in the comments section? :

Don't you also have to sign up for a passkey account to 'blog in ' there?

I think you need to change your title from 'dismisser' to 'obsessor'

 

[dampier]

so, not only do you disagree with Baloney, ummm, you actually go to his blog and try to argue your points with him there in the comments section? :

He asks for comments, I gave him some and a handful of questions to answer about his sourcing. His lack of substantive reply seems to now be bringing up similar questions from some of his other readers who are curious why he won't cough up something that can be fact-checked. It took about five minutes of my life.

Don't you also have to sign up for a passkey account to 'blog in ' there?

I think you need to change your title from 'dismisser' to 'obsessor'

If you ever visit any blog hosted by the same company his blog is hosted on, one account registration will permit you to post comments on any blog there. I registered years ago and my registration still worked. You guys work out amongst yourselves what title you want to suggest that I use. Remember, I'm the guy comfortable enough to post under my real name, something you (and others) have always been too frightened to do. So when it comes to standing up for what you write, it's not too hard to see who is serious and who... well, is not.

 

[kaufcom]

so, not only do you disagree with Baloney, ummm, you actually go to his blog and try to argue your points with him there in the comments section? :

Don't you also have to sign up for a passkey account to 'blog in ' there?

I think you need to change your title from 'dismisser' to 'obsessor'

Let me understand. You are criticizing this guy because he posts on comments on someone's blog. You say that makes him obsessor. By this standard you are obsessornator.