Air America--financial scam....again

[fintstone]

Air America and the race hustlers
Michelle Malkin

August 3, 2005

Where are they? Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton are the supermen of the civil rights establishment -- able to leap tall buildings in a single bound to get in front of a picket line. When victim politics calls, the demagogic duo leap into patented action: March. Boycott. Shakedown. Repeat.

But the raging reverends are nowhere to be found as a scandal involving the liberal radio network Air America and a Bronx, N.Y.-based inner city charity for poor children brews. Why the silence?

It's all about the Benjamins, as they say.

First, a summary of the financial fiasco that the liberal media won't touch: The New York City Department of Investigation has been probing allegations that officials of the nonprofit Gloria Wise Boys & Girls Club and one of its affiliates, Pathways for Youth, approved "significant inappropriate transactions and falsified documents that were submitted to various city agencies." The charities receive large portions of their budgets from local, state and federal government grants. At the center of the controversy is Evan Montvel Cohen, the disgraced former chairman of Air America, who was in charge of the liberal radio network at the same time he was serving as Gloria Wise's director of development.

[HardDrive]

How is a financial scandal at some nonprofit no one has ever heard of news worthy?

A plane crashed and burned yesterday, and every single passenger walked off alive.

THATS NEWS.

14 Marines lost their lives today, just days after 6 marines from the same unit were killed.

THAT NEWS.

People scamming the NYC city government?

NOT NEWS.

[nostatic]

wow...quite a stretch. Air America is indicted (now) for something a former chairman alledgedly did while he was there.

One word for you: Enron

Another word: Worldcom

If you're going to talk scandal, let's get to something serious. Oh, and here's the other (ie not hard right) side of the story:

http://www.airamericaradio.com/press/gloriawise

If the allegations of mismanagement and corruption at Gloria Wise Boys and Girls Club are true, it is absolutely disgraceful.

As reported in the Wall Street Journal and the HBO Documentary, Left of the Dial‚ the company that the Gloria Wise Boys & Girls Club officials gave money to, Progress Media, has been defunct since May 2004. That company was run at the time by Evan Cohen who has not had any involvement in Air America Radio since May 2004.

The current owners of Air America Radio have no obligation to Progress Media‚s business activities. We are very disturbed that Air America Radio's good name could be associated with a reduction in services for young people, which is why we agreed months ago to fully compensate the Gloria Wise Boys & Girls Club as a result of this transaction.

We at Air America Radio strongly believe in the mission of Boys and Girls Clubs to provide a safe and nurturing place for young people to learn and grow. As a result, we recently allowed the same club, Gloria Wise Boys & Girls Club, to use our name in a fundraising effort for a summer camp for children in their community.

The funding for Camp Air America was raised and collected entirely by the Gloria Wise Boys & Girls Club, and Air America promoted the camp on air and urged support for it. A link on our web site sent those interested in contributing to the camp to the Gloria Wise web site. Regrettably, the camp did not survive the closure of the Gloria Wise organization. We have offered any individuals who contributed to the camp as a result of Air America's promotion the option of a refund paid for by Air America Radio and the Club offered the alternative option of having their donation redirected to Kip's Bay Boys and Girls Club.

[fintstone]

Originally posted by nostatic
wow...quite a stretch. Air America is indicted (now) for something a former chairman alledgedly did while he was there.

One word for you: Enron

Another word: Worldcom

If you're going to talk scandal, let's get to something serious. Oh, and here's the other (ie not hard right) side of the story:

http://www.airamericaradio.com/press/gloriawise

......

Enron and Worldcom were not political entities like Air America.....and their side of the story that you posted is apparently much like most of what they have done since their inception...lies and evasion.

Oh..and you have got to love "Camp Air America" Sounds like a liberal version of Hitler Youth to me.


Wednesday, Aug. 3, 2005 11:26 a.m. EDT
Air America Keeps Poor Kids Waiting

After promising to pay back a nearly $1 million "loan" it obtained from a South Bronx community group that services poor children, the liberal radio network Air America now says the organization will have to wait for its money.

"We are waiting for direction from investigators on how to proceed," an Air America official told the New York Post on Wednesday - referring to a New York City Department on Investigations probe into "inappropriate transcations" by the group in question, the Gloria Wise Boys and Girls Club.


The news didn't sit well with Gloria Wise spokeswoman Matta Rose, who complained to the paper: "Air America reached a legal agreement to have the [Gloria Wise] loan repaid in full."

The trouble started last year when former Gloria Wise development director Evan Cohen allegedly persuaded club officials to make the suspect $875,000 loan.

Cohen, it turns out, also helped found Air America - but left the network a month after its start amidst a wave of funding problems.

After first denying any responsibility, the new owners of Air America promised the refund on Friday, in a statement still posted to the network's Web site:

"We are very disturbed that Air America Radio's good name could be associated with a reduction in services for young people, which is why we agreed months ago to fully compensate the Gloria Wise Boys & Girls Club as a result of this transaction."

Top Air America talker Al Franken hasn't had much to say on the air about the Gloria Wise "loan" - but he went out of his way to trash Cohen in an interview Tuesday in the New York Sun.

Franken recalled that when Air America was launched in March 2004, Cohen told the staff they had enough funding to survive for three years without making a profit.

"It turned out to be three weeks," Franken lamented. "We were all shocked."

Franken said Cohen often cited health problems to explain why funds had dried up, recalling that when studio equipment wasn't working, Cohen would say, "You know, I have brain cancer."

"Brain cancer seemed to be his answer to everything." Franken complained.

Attempts by the Post and Sun to reach Cohen have been unsuccessful.

In its Friday statement, Air America said that because Gloria Wise is now under investigation, it was severing all ties to another Gloria Wise project, Camp Air America.

"We have offered any individuals who contributed to the camp as a result of Air America's promotion the option of a refund paid for by Air America Radio and the Club offered the alternative option of having their donation redirected to Kip's Bay Boys and Girls Club," the statement said, claiming that both Camp Air America and Gloria Wise had been closed.

But five days later, the Gloria Wise Web site is still up and running - and still touting Camp Air America while soliciting contributions in the name of the network.

Air America listeners are invited to sponsor an array of activities by offering donations of $35 to $750. The larger donation is supposed to pay for "a life changing week" at Camp Air America for two children from the same family.

[widebody911]

Originally posted by fintstone
Enron and Worldcom were not political entities like Air America.....

Nothing political at all about the $1.5M Ken Lay laid @ GWB's feet, or the ~$4M from Worldcom. Nope, nothing political at all.

[fintstone]

Originally posted by widebody911
Nothing political at all about the $1.5M Ken Lay laid @ GWB's feet, or the ~$4M from Worldcom. Nope, nothing political at all.

Good try, but everyone knows that Enron and Worldcom contributed heavily to both parties

You won't see Air America contributing to conservatives....then again, they are so broke they are raiding the piggy banks of poor kids.

I guess that is what happens when you have a politically motivated radio station that only spews propaganda....No one listens...and no one buys advertising.