Latest Scandal Updates: 11 September
Explain This, Mr. Franken!
Editorial Takes Air America Host To Task
As expected, the mainstream media somewhat ignored our "gotcha", where Al Franken was essentially caught lying about his knowledge of Air America's Gloria Wise Boys & Girls Club scandal. That's where $875,000 in taxpayer funds were apparenetly diverted to the liberal radio network's coffers.
Today, a Washington Times editorial takes Franken to task over his recent antics.
Franken claimed on his show he'd only heard about the scandal in early August, but Michelle Malkin and I produced a document which proved he knew about the whole mess at least as far back as November, 2004.
After our revelations, independently echoed in a New York Sun story, Air America management went into defense mode. CEO Danny Goldberg changed the subject, saying the on-air talent lacked reponsibility for the loan itself, but that wasn't the key issue.
Radio trade publications, dependent on advertising from the liberal network, were happy to take the deception at face value.
Today's Washington Times, however, was thankfully paying attention and a hard-hitting editorial is the result. Here is an excerpt:
Al Franken appears to be caught in a fib -- a "lying lie," he might call it -- about Air America's loans-from-children scandal.
A month ago Al Franken claimed ignorance of the transfers. "I didn't know anything about this until late last week," he told Air America listeners on Aug. 8.
The network's brass echoed this: Air America CEO Danny Goldberg told the New York Sun this week that the "on-air talent" has "never had any responsibility for this loan." This seemed plausible at the time, since no one expects the talent to be arranging finances, so in our Aug. 3 editorial on the subject we gave Mr. Franken a pass.
Regrettably, it appears we shouldn't have. In light of documents that surfaced last week, it looks to be the case that as of November 2004, and possibly earlier, Mr. Franken knew the amount of money, the money's origins and the dates the transfers occurred.
This came to light after a settlement agreement between former and current owners of Air America -- a document which details the Gloria Wise transfers -- was leaked to Michelle Malkin and Brian Maloney, who promptly posted the document on their Web sites.
The document shows that Mr. Franken signed off on the settlement, and did so in the presence of a notary public, no less.
Claims that Mr. Franken was unaware of the particulars fly in the face of a clause in the document that states each signatory "has read this Agreement and understands its terms."
Mr. Franken has made a career playing gotcha. The scandal involves the funnelling of tax dollars intended for children to fund a failing partisan radio venture. His prevarications look much like what he criticizes in others.
--- Also today: liberal talk hurting in portions of Michigan, according to the Ann Arbor News.
--- And Denton (TX) Record-Chronicle columnist Lucinda Breeding takes on Janeane Garofalo in a piece published today:
The larger culture does seem to be, on its face, antagonistic to religion in general.
Janeane Garofalo, an anchor on the liberal talk radio syndicate Air America, chose to scream at a religious caller who took her to task for joining mainstream America and labeling Scientologists as freaks, or something like that.
What could have been an opportunity to have a calm, rational discussion about the fact that religion has hurt a lot of people devolved into a bombastic tirade against faith in general.
Garofalo is a smart, capable woman with a bully pulpit and hard left leanings. She could have used the moment to have a real conversation about religion.
All the things she deplores about religion could be part of a discussion. She could have told the truth: that religion has hurt her, and a lot of other people. Instead, name-calling and shrieking prevailed.
--- Lib talker Ed Schultz defends his show's practices in a letter to a West Virginia newspaper.
--- A Free Republic participant reminds us of a previous Al Franken ethics flap, from 2003. The Smoking Gun has the details.
--- A big welcome to Orbusmax (serving Washington state, Oregon, British Columbia and the entire Pacific Northwest region) and Western Standard magazine (serving Alberta, British Columbia and other Canadian) readers!
The latter's Shotgun Blog is a daily must-read, while the magazine provides the truth about Canadian politics, untouched by Ottawa-Liberal-style political correctness.
Your Amazon orders, that begin with clicks here, help to support this site's efforts. Thanks!
Franken scandal graphic by Darleen Click.
Editorial Takes Air America Host To Task
As expected, the mainstream media somewhat ignored our "gotcha", where Al Franken was essentially caught lying about his knowledge of Air America's Gloria Wise Boys & Girls Club scandal. That's where $875,000 in taxpayer funds were apparenetly diverted to the liberal radio network's coffers.
Today, a Washington Times editorial takes Franken to task over his recent antics.Franken claimed on his show he'd only heard about the scandal in early August, but Michelle Malkin and I produced a document which proved he knew about the whole mess at least as far back as November, 2004.
After our revelations, independently echoed in a New York Sun story, Air America management went into defense mode. CEO Danny Goldberg changed the subject, saying the on-air talent lacked reponsibility for the loan itself, but that wasn't the key issue.
Radio trade publications, dependent on advertising from the liberal network, were happy to take the deception at face value.
Today's Washington Times, however, was thankfully paying attention and a hard-hitting editorial is the result. Here is an excerpt:
Al Franken appears to be caught in a fib -- a "lying lie," he might call it -- about Air America's loans-from-children scandal.A month ago Al Franken claimed ignorance of the transfers. "I didn't know anything about this until late last week," he told Air America listeners on Aug. 8.
The network's brass echoed this: Air America CEO Danny Goldberg told the New York Sun this week that the "on-air talent" has "never had any responsibility for this loan." This seemed plausible at the time, since no one expects the talent to be arranging finances, so in our Aug. 3 editorial on the subject we gave Mr. Franken a pass.
Regrettably, it appears we shouldn't have. In light of documents that surfaced last week, it looks to be the case that as of November 2004, and possibly earlier, Mr. Franken knew the amount of money, the money's origins and the dates the transfers occurred.
This came to light after a settlement agreement between former and current owners of Air America -- a document which details the Gloria Wise transfers -- was leaked to Michelle Malkin and Brian Maloney, who promptly posted the document on their Web sites.The document shows that Mr. Franken signed off on the settlement, and did so in the presence of a notary public, no less.
Claims that Mr. Franken was unaware of the particulars fly in the face of a clause in the document that states each signatory "has read this Agreement and understands its terms."
Mr. Franken has made a career playing gotcha. The scandal involves the funnelling of tax dollars intended for children to fund a failing partisan radio venture. His prevarications look much like what he criticizes in others.
--- Also today: liberal talk hurting in portions of Michigan, according to the Ann Arbor News.
--- And Denton (TX) Record-Chronicle columnist Lucinda Breeding takes on Janeane Garofalo in a piece published today:
The larger culture does seem to be, on its face, antagonistic to religion in general.Janeane Garofalo, an anchor on the liberal talk radio syndicate Air America, chose to scream at a religious caller who took her to task for joining mainstream America and labeling Scientologists as freaks, or something like that.
What could have been an opportunity to have a calm, rational discussion about the fact that religion has hurt a lot of people devolved into a bombastic tirade against faith in general.
Garofalo is a smart, capable woman with a bully pulpit and hard left leanings. She could have used the moment to have a real conversation about religion.
All the things she deplores about religion could be part of a discussion. She could have told the truth: that religion has hurt her, and a lot of other people. Instead, name-calling and shrieking prevailed.
--- Lib talker Ed Schultz defends his show's practices in a letter to a West Virginia newspaper.
--- A Free Republic participant reminds us of a previous Al Franken ethics flap, from 2003. The Smoking Gun has the details.
--- A big welcome to Orbusmax (serving Washington state, Oregon, British Columbia and the entire Pacific Northwest region) and Western Standard magazine (serving Alberta, British Columbia and other Canadian) readers!
The latter's Shotgun Blog is a daily must-read, while the magazine provides the truth about Canadian politics, untouched by Ottawa-Liberal-style political correctness.
Your Amazon orders, that begin with clicks here, help to support this site's efforts. Thanks!
Franken scandal graphic by Darleen Click.
published by Brian Maloney at
17:00
4 Comments:
Dick Tuck, I was fully prepared to give you the benefit of the doubt. You are not doing well. The article you link merely shows that AAR wired money from one of its pockets to a different pocket. AAR still controls the money. They gave it to no one but themselves.
Perhaps you did not take the time to read the article, perhaps you have not been keeping up with the fact that this is not news at all, Brian covered it already.
Why are you so emotional about this, Mr. Tuck? You are not behaving rationally here. Slow down, take a deep breath, start reading before you link. I want to believe in you, I really do.
By
al fin, at 11 September, 2005 17:47
"Has everyone here read every word of their mortgage documents (or explicitly reviewed every word with their lawyer) before their lawyer gave the OK to sign them?"
Well, yes - but I freely admit that's what makes us right wing nut jobs exceptional and prosperous and able to send money to Brian!
And in a situation where you HAVE a lawyer to do your reading for you, to not take the time to go over the various previsions borders on a childish lack of attention span.
Which is perhaps a qualifier to be an on air presence at Air Amerika.
By
Peter Porcupine, at 12 September, 2005 11:20
Lucinda Breeding: Janeane Garofalo, an anchor on the liberal talk radio syndicate Air America, chose to scream at a religious caller who took her to task for joining mainstream America and labeling Scientologists as freaks, or something like that.
Or something like that? Real editorializing that.
Washington Times: The scandal involves the funnelling of tax dollars intended for children to fund a failing partisan radio venture. His prevarications look much like what he criticizes in others.
Bunch of whorish offspring of Moonies, that.
By
@whut, at 12 September, 2005 22:39
But you know what I think is really funny?...
How few people are posting comments to Baloney's blog. Baloney got less than 20 comment posts to this latest slimey piece and 7 of them are from me!! Perhaps all the wing-nuts out there are evolving some brains afterall. But that's a wild theory at best.
Not as funny as instructive. An anatomy of a would-be RatherGate trying to keep its head above the water.
The gang here is like a group of backyard picnicker's swatting away mosquitoes, making the ignorant assumption that they will make a dent in the population.
By
@whut, at 12 September, 2005 22:55
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