Inside Air America Investigation: Sheldon Drobny
INSIDE AIR AMERICA
The Sheldon Drobny Files
By MICHELLE MALKIN AND BRIAN MALONEY
(This is part two, see Michelle's site for part one)
What's behind Sheldon Drobny's August 21st book-plugging C-SPAN appearance for a volume published nearly a year ago?
And will the interview prove to be one of his biggest regrets?
Since post-release media tours usually last just a few weeks, what made Road to Air America: Breaking the Right Wing Stranglehold on Our Nation's Airwaves, published in October 2004, noteworthy now?
If Drobny talked his way onto the show, it would be fitting: he's no stranger to convincing people to do what he wants.
He's long known that money talks, between raising capital for start-up companies, to making sizable campaign contributions. It's led to boardroom appointments and increasingly-open partisan doors.
While verification is hard to come by, Drobny says he's a former IRS agent and CPA. He's been a boardmember of several technology companies as well.
Politically, he flew under the radar for many years, surfacing in Democrat Party circles just recently with major contributions to the Edwards For President campaign ($2000, half from wife Anita) and the Responsibility Opportunity Community Political Action Committee ($5000), which gave money to Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev) and a number of 2004 Democrat candidates.
Fringe Sympathies
It would seem money well spent for an activist previously associated with fringe Democrat Lyndon Larouche, an extremist with a cult-like following. It was National Review's Byron York who first uncovered the connection in 2003.
At Make Them Accountable, Drobny wrote this in February 2003:
There is already too great a history of Jewish bloodshed caused by mistaken, shortsighted alliances. The Zionist pact with Hitler's Germany in 1933 is one example.
Most people are unaware of as unlikely an alliance as that between Hitler and the Zionists. My father taught me about this, among many other events that have been redacted from history books.
In 1985, Edwin Black wrote a detailed account of the pact in his book, The Transfer Agreement. Black reports a shocking account of shortsighted treachery by the Zionist movement to emigrate Jews from Germany to Palestine. The authors of the pact included David Ben Gurion, Golda Meir, and Chaim Weitzman.
The book never had an audience, and was quickly and surreptitiously taken off the shelves. What Black's book painstakingly proves is that in 1933, while the rest of world Jewry was organizing an economic boycott of the new Nazi regime in Germany, the Zionists based in Jerusalem decided to make Germany Palestine's chief trading partner.
The Nazis and the Zionists had one very important thing in common. Both wanted the Jews out of Germany.
To accommodate such a transfer of Jews, an agreement was arranged whereby each Jew wishing to leave Germany for Palestine would be forced to use his capital to purchase German goods. Thus, while World Jewry was busy fighting Nazi Germany economically, those Zionists were saving Germany from financial ruin.
The Zionists were also instrumental in canceling the economic boycott of Germany in 1933, with the understanding that all 500,000 German Jews would be allowed to immigrate to Palestine.
That 2003 article was recently amended to indicate Drobny's Air America leadership role.
Meanwhile, Drobny continued to push Larouche's conspiracy theories. Highest priority is convincing Americans of his "evidence" connecting the Bush family to the Nazi Party:
Nazi Germany's military industrial complex allowed it to rearm and start a second world war. Much of the support for Germany's rearmament came from American and international businesses, a scandal that has never been completely made public.
Very few Americans know that Prescott Bush, our president's grandfather, supplied Nazi Germany with such assistance. He did not stop until President Roosevelt, in 1942, froze some of his assets under the Trading With The Enemies Act.
The information is documented, but is not known by most Americans because, as in any successful fascist regime, the press is prevented from publishing it.
The news media are controlled by the same corporations that participate in the great partnership between government and business.
Should it not worthy of note in a presidential campaign that the wealth and power of one of the candidates was built in part by treacherous acts of one of the family's founders? Knowing it might have made some people who intended to vote for George W. Bush reluctant to do so.
War benefits the armaments and oil industries. The corporate masters and their current spokesman, George W. Bush, promote a dangerous policy of pre-emptive warfare. They use exactly the same excuses Hitler used to sell to the public his maniacal desire to conquer Europe. The real power for Hitler came from his corporate backers, who willingly supplied him the tools to execute his plan, their reward being profit.
Here he pushes a bizarre World War II theory that dropping atomic bombs on Japan was intended only to scare the Soviets, not win the war itself, making it a shameful episode in American history.
His essay isn't backed by a single factual reference.
In a June piece, he backs up Senator Durbin's now infamous remarks. Next, he defends the idea that Kerry really won Ohio in 2004.
One day he plays to the far left, the next to the extreme fringe.
After York's 2003 revelations about Drobny's ties to extremist groups, little more was said about it, other than an occasional blog entry questioning his connections.
Is it a coincidence that shortly after York appeared on FOX News with Brit Hume to expose the ties, Sheldon and Anita Drobny temporarily shifted to Air America's background, only to resurface months later?
Sheldon Drobny did contest York's reporting, but in mild terms. Instead of distancing himself from Larouche and the Bush-Nazi conspiracy theory, he tried to make the case that others were also touting them.
Reinventing Sheldon
His mainstreaming effort seems to have paid off: he somehow managed to secure a speaking slot at February's National Intelligence Conference and Exposition, joining former Senator Slade Gorton (R-WA) and others from both parties.
How did he slip through the cracks without a background check? It's hard to believe the conference intended to include a Larouche supporter. How was York's investigative work so quickly forgotten?
It's not as though he's abandoned his extremist ideas, instead he has two political faces: as a "progressive" activist in public and outer-fringe beliefs in more obscure settings.
In fact, this appears to be conscious effort. From his weak defense of York's research:
The theme of the article was to give the reader a prospective of what "fascism" or "corporatism" mean in the context of modern nonracial economic and political terms. It was written in January of this year on a web site that surely has little influence on political discourse in this country.
In other words, he sure doesn't want national attention drawn to his "hobby".
He also wrote something that might interest investigators looking into Air America's finances. It came from his piece outlining how Kerry "won" in Ohio:
As a former C.P.A and auditor, I have used statistical sampling throughout my career with great confidence. With electronic record keeping, it's easy to create a program to falsify the books. But there are ways to uncover that. Auditors have developed statistical ways to cut right through corruption in companies. You don't even need a paper trail. These statistical approaches can be used with almost 100% accuracy to uncover fraud.
If Drobny knows so much about how auditors operate, does he know how to beat them?
Fumbling An Easy Interview
That brings us to Drobny's unfortunate C-SPAN interview.
While the callers seemed heavily stacked in his favor, Drobny looks visibly shaken by one from Dallas.
He asked Drobny basic questions about the Gloria Wise Boys and Girls Club scandal, where $875,000 in taxpayer funds intended for the community nonprofit seemed to find their way to the network's coffers.
Drobny looked shocked, as though he didn't expect critical, questioning callers during the interview. Was there an understanding they'd be kept off the show?
Or has Drobny failed to recognize the amount of publicity the scandal has now generated?
Whatever the reason, he appeared flustered, his eyes shifted around and he looked very uncomfortable, in stark contrast to his relaxed demeanor just moments earlier.
This is a portion of the written transcript (thanks to Siobhan for help here):
Dallas caller: Yes, I was wondering, you talk about the road to Air America, I've been reading in the New York Sun and articles by Michele Malkin that $875K approximately was acquired in a loan from a children's center and an Alzheimer's center in NY.
And you just mentioned you had funding and introductions from VP Gore and former president Clinton and I was wondering are you proud of the fact that you've obtained money from a partially federally funded children's center in New York and that you are now in default on that loan?
What is your explanation on that because I think that is pretty troubling.
Drobny: Well, ah, if you go to the website www.airamericaradio.com they have a very, very appropriate response. Ah, I would love to be able to answer the question and you would love my answer but the, ah, that particular transaction occurred from the previous ownership and, ah, I cannot legally talk about it although I'd love to. But that was not our loan. That was a loan to the previous owner.
Host: For those who are not familiar with the issue, can you explain?
Drobny: (cough) Well, because we had difficulty funding the project, our firm was willing to allocate up to 10 million to an all liberal radio network and, ah, we were not able to raise any more than that and we needed about 30 to 40 million dollars.
So about, ah, about August or September of 2003, and we had already hired, or got Al Franken to commit, we had our executive team and whatever, we didn't have enough money to fund the thing to the process of. We were introduced to the former owner who acquired our network at the time and, ah, supposedly had the funding to take it forward and to get it on the air.
They got it on the air but unfortunately they ran into financial difficulty and I suppose one of those difficulties was this Boys Club situation. And, ah, then they defaulted when we sold the station or network, they defaulted on our loan.
So they also defaulted on our credit. So what happened was we had to reacquire, we reacquired the, ah, the network through a different company.
Host: But as you've been reading, Michelle Malkin and others have been quick to point to it as one of the problems in the financial structure of Air America.
Drobny: That was the former ownership. We are very solid right now. And I can tell you if you just read the Air America statement it will tell you that (unclear...)
Was it really a different company? In a technical sense, perhaps, but that seems pretty generous, given what we now know about Air America.
Is it really possible the loans occurred during a time when the Drobnys had no Air America connection?
Take these statements, from Multicultural Broadcasting's legal complaint against the network:
Page 8
"In November 2003, the Drobnys and AnShell Media conveyed all of the assets concerning the proposed liberal radio network to Progress Media, a holding company for Cohen and Sorensen..."
Page 9
"Notwithstanding its narrow mission, and limited resources, between October 3, 2003 and March 15, 2004, the Boys and Girls Club loaned Radio Free America and Progress Media a total of $875,000."
The dates do seem to at least partly overlap.
Clinton-Gore Role?
Sheldon has also recently been talking about the Clinton-Gore role in Air America Radio's founding. Newsmax also noticed it and filed this report.
Back to the transcript:
When asked where former president Bill Clinton and former VP Al Gore helped to direct him for funding for Air America:
Host: Who did they bring to the table?
Drobny: Well, uh, they didn't bring any major funding to the table.
Host: You write in the book they helped you.
Drobny: They helped us, yes. They tried to get funding for us but they weren't successful. I mean we really had to work hard to make believers of even liberals and rich liberals didn't even believe there was a liberal radio audience.
How they helped us was made introductions to a lot of good people, and especially Al Gore who introduced me to Al Franken who I had to convince along with our COO that he could transition from stand-up comedy and publishing into talk radio. He was my dream franchise player when we first conceived of the idea...
What I find hard to fathom is this: if the Clintons and Gores really wanted to fund Air America, it's amazing to think they couldn't line up millions from the first five liberals on speed dial.
Drobny laments their lack of real assistance in this essay.
Another Interview Blunder
Things get really comical when Drobny can't name his network's African-American hosts. There are two, one was recently demoted to make way from Jerry Springer's so-far floundering radio show.
Host: An email from Geraldo Mathis: Are there any African-American hosts on Air America?
Drobny: Yes. Um, I believe his name, I can't remember his name (chuckle). The morning show has Marc Maron and um, I can't remember the co-host but he is an African-American. Ah, and we have one other, ah, um, the name escapes me. It's on the website.
If his passion is really about Air America's "progressive" programming, wouldn't he be able to recite its program schedule at the drop of a hat?
It appears that he may not have even met them, particularly the black hosts.
Is that because, to the Drobnys, Air America Radio really has some other purpose?
Join Michelle Malkin as my guest on the Rusty Humphries Show, 9pm EDT tonight, on Talk Radio Network affiliates nationwide.
AAR Scandal Graphic by Darleen Click. Transcript by Siobhan.
Your Amazon orders support these efforts, thanks!
The Sheldon Drobny Files
By MICHELLE MALKIN AND BRIAN MALONEY
(This is part two, see Michelle's site for part one)
What's behind Sheldon Drobny's August 21st book-plugging C-SPAN appearance for a volume published nearly a year ago?And will the interview prove to be one of his biggest regrets?
Since post-release media tours usually last just a few weeks, what made Road to Air America: Breaking the Right Wing Stranglehold on Our Nation's Airwaves, published in October 2004, noteworthy now?
If Drobny talked his way onto the show, it would be fitting: he's no stranger to convincing people to do what he wants.
He's long known that money talks, between raising capital for start-up companies, to making sizable campaign contributions. It's led to boardroom appointments and increasingly-open partisan doors.
While verification is hard to come by, Drobny says he's a former IRS agent and CPA. He's been a boardmember of several technology companies as well.
Politically, he flew under the radar for many years, surfacing in Democrat Party circles just recently with major contributions to the Edwards For President campaign ($2000, half from wife Anita) and the Responsibility Opportunity Community Political Action Committee ($5000), which gave money to Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev) and a number of 2004 Democrat candidates.
Fringe Sympathies
It would seem money well spent for an activist previously associated with fringe Democrat Lyndon Larouche, an extremist with a cult-like following. It was National Review's Byron York who first uncovered the connection in 2003.
At Make Them Accountable, Drobny wrote this in February 2003:
There is already too great a history of Jewish bloodshed caused by mistaken, shortsighted alliances. The Zionist pact with Hitler's Germany in 1933 is one example.
Most people are unaware of as unlikely an alliance as that between Hitler and the Zionists. My father taught me about this, among many other events that have been redacted from history books.
In 1985, Edwin Black wrote a detailed account of the pact in his book, The Transfer Agreement. Black reports a shocking account of shortsighted treachery by the Zionist movement to emigrate Jews from Germany to Palestine. The authors of the pact included David Ben Gurion, Golda Meir, and Chaim Weitzman.
The book never had an audience, and was quickly and surreptitiously taken off the shelves. What Black's book painstakingly proves is that in 1933, while the rest of world Jewry was organizing an economic boycott of the new Nazi regime in Germany, the Zionists based in Jerusalem decided to make Germany Palestine's chief trading partner.
The Nazis and the Zionists had one very important thing in common. Both wanted the Jews out of Germany.
To accommodate such a transfer of Jews, an agreement was arranged whereby each Jew wishing to leave Germany for Palestine would be forced to use his capital to purchase German goods. Thus, while World Jewry was busy fighting Nazi Germany economically, those Zionists were saving Germany from financial ruin.
The Zionists were also instrumental in canceling the economic boycott of Germany in 1933, with the understanding that all 500,000 German Jews would be allowed to immigrate to Palestine.
That 2003 article was recently amended to indicate Drobny's Air America leadership role.
Meanwhile, Drobny continued to push Larouche's conspiracy theories. Highest priority is convincing Americans of his "evidence" connecting the Bush family to the Nazi Party:
Nazi Germany's military industrial complex allowed it to rearm and start a second world war. Much of the support for Germany's rearmament came from American and international businesses, a scandal that has never been completely made public.
Very few Americans know that Prescott Bush, our president's grandfather, supplied Nazi Germany with such assistance. He did not stop until President Roosevelt, in 1942, froze some of his assets under the Trading With The Enemies Act.
The information is documented, but is not known by most Americans because, as in any successful fascist regime, the press is prevented from publishing it.
The news media are controlled by the same corporations that participate in the great partnership between government and business.
Should it not worthy of note in a presidential campaign that the wealth and power of one of the candidates was built in part by treacherous acts of one of the family's founders? Knowing it might have made some people who intended to vote for George W. Bush reluctant to do so.
War benefits the armaments and oil industries. The corporate masters and their current spokesman, George W. Bush, promote a dangerous policy of pre-emptive warfare. They use exactly the same excuses Hitler used to sell to the public his maniacal desire to conquer Europe. The real power for Hitler came from his corporate backers, who willingly supplied him the tools to execute his plan, their reward being profit.
Here he pushes a bizarre World War II theory that dropping atomic bombs on Japan was intended only to scare the Soviets, not win the war itself, making it a shameful episode in American history.His essay isn't backed by a single factual reference.
In a June piece, he backs up Senator Durbin's now infamous remarks. Next, he defends the idea that Kerry really won Ohio in 2004.
One day he plays to the far left, the next to the extreme fringe.
After York's 2003 revelations about Drobny's ties to extremist groups, little more was said about it, other than an occasional blog entry questioning his connections.
Is it a coincidence that shortly after York appeared on FOX News with Brit Hume to expose the ties, Sheldon and Anita Drobny temporarily shifted to Air America's background, only to resurface months later?
Sheldon Drobny did contest York's reporting, but in mild terms. Instead of distancing himself from Larouche and the Bush-Nazi conspiracy theory, he tried to make the case that others were also touting them.
Reinventing Sheldon
His mainstreaming effort seems to have paid off: he somehow managed to secure a speaking slot at February's National Intelligence Conference and Exposition, joining former Senator Slade Gorton (R-WA) and others from both parties.
How did he slip through the cracks without a background check? It's hard to believe the conference intended to include a Larouche supporter. How was York's investigative work so quickly forgotten?
It's not as though he's abandoned his extremist ideas, instead he has two political faces: as a "progressive" activist in public and outer-fringe beliefs in more obscure settings.
In fact, this appears to be conscious effort. From his weak defense of York's research:
The theme of the article was to give the reader a prospective of what "fascism" or "corporatism" mean in the context of modern nonracial economic and political terms. It was written in January of this year on a web site that surely has little influence on political discourse in this country.
In other words, he sure doesn't want national attention drawn to his "hobby".
He also wrote something that might interest investigators looking into Air America's finances. It came from his piece outlining how Kerry "won" in Ohio:
As a former C.P.A and auditor, I have used statistical sampling throughout my career with great confidence. With electronic record keeping, it's easy to create a program to falsify the books. But there are ways to uncover that. Auditors have developed statistical ways to cut right through corruption in companies. You don't even need a paper trail. These statistical approaches can be used with almost 100% accuracy to uncover fraud.
If Drobny knows so much about how auditors operate, does he know how to beat them?
Fumbling An Easy Interview
That brings us to Drobny's unfortunate C-SPAN interview.
While the callers seemed heavily stacked in his favor, Drobny looks visibly shaken by one from Dallas.
He asked Drobny basic questions about the Gloria Wise Boys and Girls Club scandal, where $875,000 in taxpayer funds intended for the community nonprofit seemed to find their way to the network's coffers.
Drobny looked shocked, as though he didn't expect critical, questioning callers during the interview. Was there an understanding they'd be kept off the show?
Or has Drobny failed to recognize the amount of publicity the scandal has now generated?
Whatever the reason, he appeared flustered, his eyes shifted around and he looked very uncomfortable, in stark contrast to his relaxed demeanor just moments earlier.
This is a portion of the written transcript (thanks to Siobhan for help here):
Dallas caller: Yes, I was wondering, you talk about the road to Air America, I've been reading in the New York Sun and articles by Michele Malkin that $875K approximately was acquired in a loan from a children's center and an Alzheimer's center in NY.
And you just mentioned you had funding and introductions from VP Gore and former president Clinton and I was wondering are you proud of the fact that you've obtained money from a partially federally funded children's center in New York and that you are now in default on that loan?
What is your explanation on that because I think that is pretty troubling.
Drobny: Well, ah, if you go to the website www.airamericaradio.com they have a very, very appropriate response. Ah, I would love to be able to answer the question and you would love my answer but the, ah, that particular transaction occurred from the previous ownership and, ah, I cannot legally talk about it although I'd love to. But that was not our loan. That was a loan to the previous owner.
Host: For those who are not familiar with the issue, can you explain?
Drobny: (cough) Well, because we had difficulty funding the project, our firm was willing to allocate up to 10 million to an all liberal radio network and, ah, we were not able to raise any more than that and we needed about 30 to 40 million dollars.
So about, ah, about August or September of 2003, and we had already hired, or got Al Franken to commit, we had our executive team and whatever, we didn't have enough money to fund the thing to the process of. We were introduced to the former owner who acquired our network at the time and, ah, supposedly had the funding to take it forward and to get it on the air.
They got it on the air but unfortunately they ran into financial difficulty and I suppose one of those difficulties was this Boys Club situation. And, ah, then they defaulted when we sold the station or network, they defaulted on our loan.
So they also defaulted on our credit. So what happened was we had to reacquire, we reacquired the, ah, the network through a different company.
Host: But as you've been reading, Michelle Malkin and others have been quick to point to it as one of the problems in the financial structure of Air America.
Drobny: That was the former ownership. We are very solid right now. And I can tell you if you just read the Air America statement it will tell you that (unclear...)
Was it really a different company? In a technical sense, perhaps, but that seems pretty generous, given what we now know about Air America.
Is it really possible the loans occurred during a time when the Drobnys had no Air America connection?
Take these statements, from Multicultural Broadcasting's legal complaint against the network:
Page 8
"In November 2003, the Drobnys and AnShell Media conveyed all of the assets concerning the proposed liberal radio network to Progress Media, a holding company for Cohen and Sorensen..."
Page 9
"Notwithstanding its narrow mission, and limited resources, between October 3, 2003 and March 15, 2004, the Boys and Girls Club loaned Radio Free America and Progress Media a total of $875,000."
The dates do seem to at least partly overlap.
Clinton-Gore Role?
Sheldon has also recently been talking about the Clinton-Gore role in Air America Radio's founding. Newsmax also noticed it and filed this report.
Back to the transcript:
When asked where former president Bill Clinton and former VP Al Gore helped to direct him for funding for Air America:
Host: Who did they bring to the table?
Drobny: Well, uh, they didn't bring any major funding to the table.
Host: You write in the book they helped you.
Drobny: They helped us, yes. They tried to get funding for us but they weren't successful. I mean we really had to work hard to make believers of even liberals and rich liberals didn't even believe there was a liberal radio audience.
How they helped us was made introductions to a lot of good people, and especially Al Gore who introduced me to Al Franken who I had to convince along with our COO that he could transition from stand-up comedy and publishing into talk radio. He was my dream franchise player when we first conceived of the idea...
What I find hard to fathom is this: if the Clintons and Gores really wanted to fund Air America, it's amazing to think they couldn't line up millions from the first five liberals on speed dial.
Drobny laments their lack of real assistance in this essay.
Another Interview Blunder
Things get really comical when Drobny can't name his network's African-American hosts. There are two, one was recently demoted to make way from Jerry Springer's so-far floundering radio show.
Host: An email from Geraldo Mathis: Are there any African-American hosts on Air America?
Drobny: Yes. Um, I believe his name, I can't remember his name (chuckle). The morning show has Marc Maron and um, I can't remember the co-host but he is an African-American. Ah, and we have one other, ah, um, the name escapes me. It's on the website.
If his passion is really about Air America's "progressive" programming, wouldn't he be able to recite its program schedule at the drop of a hat?
It appears that he may not have even met them, particularly the black hosts.
Is that because, to the Drobnys, Air America Radio really has some other purpose?
Join Michelle Malkin as my guest on the Rusty Humphries Show, 9pm EDT tonight, on Talk Radio Network affiliates nationwide.
AAR Scandal Graphic by Darleen Click. Transcript by Siobhan.
Your Amazon orders support these efforts, thanks!
published by Brian Maloney at
16:20
10 Comments:
Brian (or anybody),
Can you post the time in the C-Span clip when a caller tripped up Sheldon? There is 44:31 worth of tape here. I'd like to see his face when that call came in.
Thanks in advance.
By
Mike, at 25 August, 2005 16:58
AAR has a bunch of african-americans on air.
Mark Riley
Wayne Gillman
Bill Crowley
Kyle Jason
Chuck D
By
@whut, at 25 August, 2005 22:01
Actually we're "beating" up on Cohen and the Drobny's to get to the bottom of this financial dishonesty and mess. Al Franken does a fine job beating up himself with the way ratings are concerned.
By
Mike, at 26 August, 2005 00:57
Suppose the blind lemmings are actually of Franken's who says "Nothing is going on here...nothing to see....move along..move along..."
With $875,000 still not repaid after more than a year when AAR got caught with their hands in the cookie jars for inner city kids. If AAR is on "solid" ground in terms of financing, well, then get the whole $875,000 paid off in one fell swoop and lessen the damage already done.
How simple is that for AAR to do that?
Of course, unless they're lying about being "very solid" in terms of, I suppose that was Drobny was referring to, AAR current finances.
Pay it up. Simple as that.
By
Mike, at 26 August, 2005 09:39
All the poor hungry kids and disabled old folks, thanks to Al Franken.
How long before the starving children start to camp out on the sidewalk outside Franken's penthouse apartment, demanding a meeting with the rich unfunny sod?
Imagine a lefty talk show host willing to steal from hungry kids to support his luxurious lifestyle? Meet with the kids, Al!
By
al fin, at 26 August, 2005 09:57
More AA ratings:
Up slightly in Cinci and Denver. Down slightly in Minneapolis and stable in Dallas.
By
Justin, at 26 August, 2005 11:27
Yes indeedy Al Fin - how long before the Cindy Sheehan campaign is cloned by "GW's kids" :-) and promoted just as actively and unskeptically by the press?
Since Cindy Sheehan didn't exactly organize or promote herself ;-), and since - according to commenters like Mitchell and PhilM - the MSM double standard doesn't exist, then certainly a powerful coalition of right-wing interest groups can support these poor kids without generating anything but the most lavish, glowing, fawning press coverage. Right?
After all, as Maureen Dowd would say, these victims' "moral authority" to pick a symbolic target to blame (in this case, Al Franken) with no burden of proof and yet have it deemed credible by default is "absolute". (At least as "absolute" as Cindy Sheehan's...)
By
RD, at 26 August, 2005 12:06
[me] Since Cindy Sheehan didn't exactly organize or promote herself ;-), and since - according to commenters like Mitchell ... - the MSM double standard doesn't exist, then ...
[Mitchell] Perhaps you could indicate where I said anything about a media double standard or a lack thereof. I know you want to believe that I did but that does not make it so. I understand though. You've shown yourself to have trouble with accurately attributing words to the appropriate persons.
Mitchell: The meaning of "according to commenters like ..." is that of typecasting, not direct attribution; and I said, "commenters", NOT "comments". From a previous discussion I typecast you as someone unconvinced, even dismissive, of Goldberg's opinion that there's a "double standard" in the media. If I've typecast you unfairly, then just say so.
While we're on the subject however: *do* you see the kind of double standard in the media that Brian and other posters insist there is? (FWIW I do.)
Their claim is that the mainstream media typically requires a higher standard of proof before a target like Air America is deemed "newsworthy" (i.e., the case against AAR has to be more "cut and dry" as you've put it) than a target like Karl Rove or Tom Delay (which are aggressively pursued by the MSM even when the matter is nowhere near "cut and dry".)
That's the rap anyhow, and it suggests even less faith in the NYT's judgment than you've suggested previously. So unless your thinking has evolved on this issue, I'll assume you - like me - are "standing pat".
By
RD, at 27 August, 2005 12:09
Brian, thanks so much for the info on Drobny. I figured that Air Shamerica could have some bigots in its employ, and Drobny's deeds certainly prove it. That's one more reason why this sham radio station should be avoided, and rating results certainly reflect that.
By
Avi Green, at 27 August, 2005 14:53
The Transfer Agreement is indeed a painful matter for knowledgeable Jews and Zionists.
From what I know about the Transfer Agreement, the purpose on the Zionist side was to enable Jews fleeing Nazi Germany to get some of their property out. Otherwise they would have lost what resources they had because even at that early stage the Nazis were blocking Jews leaving Germany from taking any major sums with them, etc.
The agreement was that the Germans would ship goods to the British-controlled Land of Israel [Palestine mandate, juridically constituted as the Jewish National HOme by the League of Nations] and that when the goods were sold, Jews who had gone there from Germany could be compensated with the sale money. Thus Germany was not letting money out but only goods which had to be sold in the Palestine mandate. Quite possibly, the Germans got a discount. Most likely the German govt paid for the goods at the wholesale price and may have been credited at the retail price against the value of abandoned Jewish property, according to the agreement.
Many people believe that the agreement was a mistake, but on the other hand, it is not certain that the Jewish boycott of Nazi German goods --sponsored, as I recall, by the American Jewish Congress-- could have brought down Hitler and the Nazi regime. Drobny makes this claim but it is obviously very iffy. It's the kind of thing that we can't know since it wasn't done. Which does not mean that the Agreement was the right move.
Next, someone made a good point in reminding us that Ben Gurion, Golda Meir, etc., were socialists. If it was a mistake, it was a mistake of leftists, of socialists. Further, the Communist Soviet Union was buying from Nazi Germany. In the 1920s, Soviet Russia helped Germany evade the provisions of the Treaty of Versailles which restricted German military training and production. Was the German-Soviet accord called the Rapallo Pact? As to Nazi Germany's foreign trade, which country was not buying from Nazi Germany? So whether the boycott could have succeeded is quite iffy. Drobny wants to see the Agreement very narrowlly, ignoring aspects that might not fit his own prejudices.
An interesting sidelight on this period is that Hayim Arlozoroff, one of Ben Gurion's associates in the Zionist leadership of that time, a fellow socialist and the man sent to negotiate the agreement with the Germans, was shot to death by Communists in Tel Aviv [according to Israeli historian Shmuel Dothan], not especially on account of the Transfer Agreement. Now, there is a certain Stalinist scent about Drobny. So he should be confronted with the question about the Arlozoroff assassination and socialist identity of those who actually made the accord on the Zionist side. Hitler by the way was anti-Zionist and declared himself in favor of "Arab liberation" [when he met Haj Amin el-Husseini, the chief Arab Nazi collaborator. Husseini told the Bosnian Muslim SS division in a speech that there was much in common between Nazism and Islam; see Joseph Schechtman, The Mufti and the Fuehrer].
By
Eliyahu m'Tsiyon, at 27 August, 2005 16:35
Post a Comment
<< Home