George Soros, Democracy Alliance, Air America Radio, FOX News

A LOSS FOR WORDS

Curious Lack Of Response To Air America Bailout Report





With a rundown of the opposition's response, it's always fun to follow up after one of our investigative reports. Will they fire back, or pretend it doesn't exist, hoping the story goes away?

With one botched exception, the left mostly kept its collective mouth shut this time regarding our piece on the impending George Soros/Democracy Alliance $8 million election year bailout of Air America Radio.

With a well-established track record of corporate silence regarding the investigative series undertaken last year by Michelle Malkin and myself, perhaps leftists have wisely learned to steer clear of playing defense for Air America.


Tracking every word that emerges from FOX News Channel host Bill O'Reilly's mouth, Media Matters never gives up an opportunity to take a shot.

Discussed on the O'Reilly Factor last Wednesday, if our report was in any way inaccurate, one could readily expect to hear about it at David Brock's anti-FOX site.

And yet, nothing.

At the partisan, widely-read DailyKos site, where they also never fail to attack an opponent, same thing: nada.

Among the larger leftist media criticism sites, only the rabidly FOX-hating News Hounds tackled the story, but confused the billionaire Soros-backed Democracy Alliance with the decidedly low-rent, Massachusetts-based Alliance For Democracy. Later issuing a retraction, the site's attempt to accuse O'Reilly of sloppiness clearly backfired.

Repeating an increasingly common leftist tactic, NewsHounds chose personal insults over a well-reasoned response:

During a four minute waste of good airtime O'Reilly, who hates Al Franken with a passion, rehashed a story that has been thrown onto the conservative dung heap by a blogger named Brian Maloney, a Boston O'Reilly wannabe who spends his time trying (unsuccessfully) to bring down Air America Radio in the hopes that someone, anyone will pay attention to him.

Even if the attacks were true, what does it have to do with Soro's political contributions? Either there's information that refutes our reporting, or you have nothing. "Dung heap" does nothing to advance one's argument.


Meanwhile, Tom Blumer at Bizzyblog and Newsbusters expands upon our previous reasoning:

At the very end of this post on January 27, I asked this question about Air America Radio (AAR), which at the time was surviving by the good graces of one rich guy's wallet:

Are Al Franken’s ridiculously outsized earnings (including a LOT of money up-front) from a network that is funded by one guy a “clever” way of circumventing campaign-finance law and underwriting a possible Franken run for the US Senate in Minnesota?

My question only concerned Franken. But now that The Democracy Alliance (no working web site; an April 2005 article about the organization's plans is here), a far-left liberal group that includes billionaire George Soros, Peter "the Progressive" (Insurance) Lewis, and Rob "Meathead" Reiner as prominent members, has, according to Radio Equalizer Brian Maloney, promised to underwrite up to $8 million of Air America Radio's future losses, the scope of the question has expanded, and others are asking it, including Bill O'Reilly at Fox News.

In an interview on O'Reilly's TV show (transcript here), Cleta Mitchell, an attorney who specializes in campaign finance law, called AAR's financial maneuvers "money laundering."

By the way, Meathead's in big trouble, here's the story from the San Francisco Chronicle:

Director Rob Reiner has taken a leave as chairman of a state children's commission amid concerns that it may have improperly spent public funds to promote the universal preschool campaign he is heading.

In a letter to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger Friday, Reiner said he would step down from the First 5 California Children and Families Commission until after the June election on Proposition 82 "to avoid any political distractions."

At issue is $23 million that First 5 spent on television and other ads promoting the value of preschool and parent education between November and January, when the initiative qualified for the ballot. The proposition would tax the state's wealthiest wage earners to provide a free year of preschool to all California 4-year-olds.

Thanks for your continued Radio Equalizer support, via Amazon orders that begin with clicks here, regardless of what you ultimately order! In the spotlight: Robert Ferrigno's exciting new thriller Prayers for the Assassin: A Novel. Read the transcript of Hugh Hewitt's interview with Ferrigno here.

Franken/Soros images: Pete at IHillary for the Radio Equalizer