HuffPo's Drobny, Daily News Update, Air America In Phoenix?

STUCK ON SHELDON

Milking The HuffPo, Plus: No Good Daily News


(Updated with breaking Mike Webb news)


Beyond plugging his books, pitching the latest liberal radio venture or yet again revisiting Air America's early days, is there any point to Sheldon Drobny's participation at the Huffington Post?

Again underscoring Arianna's obvious low contribution standards for her leftist website, his columns read like an endless tape loop of grating sounds that might be played during wartime prisoner torture sessions.

Drobny, Air America Radio co-founder and Lyndon LaRouche sympathizer, uses the space to lambaste "elitist" progressives who refuse to fund the liberal radio network, or "invest" in his plan to purchase rural stations to run Air America's programming, through Nova M LLC.

In his latest piece, Sheldon reveals he's got another book on the way:

My first book, Road To Air America, was published in November, 2004 and sold approximately 4000 copies. It was not exactly a best seller, but I thought it was a pretty good start for me. I never got any meaningful publicity nor did I seriously seek it. I wrote the book for my wife Anita and me.

My next book, Defying The Distortion, is coming out this April or May. In it, I expand upon the ways to break up the mainstream media’s obedience to the rich and powerful. And one of the methods that I do not endorse is just to complain about them.

A HuffPo comment poster quickly added this response:

Did you start Air America for the altruistic ideal of expanding the political discourse in America, or to tap into charities that fund childrens and retirees community service programs?

http://michellemalkin.com/archives/003384.htm

http://wizbangblog.com/archives/006624.php

http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=45730

You recently wrote your listeners for donations:
http://www.captainsquartersblog.com/mt/archives/cat_radio.php

Are you now priming the pump seeking donations here at HuffPo, or just thumping your book seeking greater sales?

And yet you are attacking the credibility of news anchors like Russert alleging they have been "bought" by corporate America?

Glad Huffington hasn't forgotten the LaRouchian Wing of the Democrat Party.



So much for hoping David Hinckley at the New York Daily News would mention Air America's sleazy Gloria Wise scandal in his year-end coverage. In part two, this time listing radio's five worst developments of 2005, the liberal radio network's antics are still left out.

Amazingly, Don Imus' fancy new talk studio is an outrage, but $875,000 in taxpayer funds earmarked for a community center and diverted to Franken & Co., counts for nothing. That the Gloria Wise Boys & Girls Club has now shut its doors apparently adds little to its importance.

One item, however, is interesting enough to mention here:

2. The "Tsunami Song"

When rival WWPR (105.1 FM, Power-105) brought in Star for its morning show, WQHT (97.1 FM, Hot-97) looked for edgy morning content to counter him.

The "Tsunami Song," a misguided parody that mocked victims of the Southeast Asian disaster, got attention. But amazingly enough, not all attention is good - because while in the end listeners didn't really care and stayed with the station anyhow, the firestorm of outrage cost parent Emmis several million dollars in advertising. Emmis did care about that.

Will Air America soon lose its Phoenix affiliate? For months, that's been rumored, but a spokesman for station KXXT-AM denied it would soon be changing formats, in response to a Radio Equalizer email.

After a recent ownership change, there has been speculation that AAR would be dropped, some of it apparently coming from hosts at rival talk stations such as KFYI-AM. Could this happen after the new year?

We'll be watching closely.


FLASH: Mike Webb, the KIRO/Seattle liberal talker recently arrested on insurance fraud charges, has been fired from the station. Webb posted a note on his website about the termination. Scheduled to return from time off last night, listeners were surprised to instead find a guest host in his place.

Webb is the host who last year called for President Bush's "execution" on "war crimes charges".

BlatherWatch and Orbusmax are already on the story.

More later as this story further develops.

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Franken graphic: Marchand Chronicles