Think Progress, Air America Radio Bankruptcy

SNAKES IN MANHATTAN

Was Think Progress Used By Backstabbing AAR Faction?




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For over a year, your Radio Equalizer has watched so- called "progressives" knife each other in the back in order to enrich themselves. Air America's corporate story is filled with victims of these attacks, with a rising body count just in the past few months. Not once has there been any real evidence of concern for others.

To an extent, however, that's typical of the entertainment business. But Air America's internal antics do stand out as particularly nasty.

By far, the dirtiest ploy to date has been Operation Liberals Tricking Liberals, as it could be called, where a left- leaning blog was used on Wednesday to disseminate "news" that may or may not be true at all.

That's right, you've heard it here first: Air America may or may not declare bankruptcy. It's one option for the cash- starved network, but not the only one. And there's no reason to announce it tomorrow, especially now that the cows are out of the barn.

Oddly enough, all network spokesperson Jamie Horn could do when finally allowed to address the by- then out- of- control story was to infer that conservatives were to blame for it. Did even one person buy that downright silly approach?


From the first moment your Radio Equalizer heard about the report from lefty blog site Think Progress that the network would announce this move on Friday, it just didn't smell right. Three independent sources are really claiming this to be true?

They must know little about Air America: it's not easy to get three people in there to agree on the time of day, much less something of this importance. All of them gave the same details on the network's next move?

After consulting with those in the know and considering all of the facts at hand, your Radio Equalizer has come to this conclusion, which can fairly be called an educated guess: an internal faction that is attempting to gain (or regain) control of the network "leaked" this "news" to a major liberal blog site (knowing it would be taken seriously there) so as to immediately depress Air America's value.

With the liberal radio network now worth mere pennies, this shady group can ride to the rescue, immediately imposing its will on what remains of the operation and locking out potential outside buyers.


The plan would have worked, except for the fact that Air America's "bankruptcy" generated so much attention that creditors and potential advertisers are now very, very spooked. Did it destroy what was left of the business?

While reporting on Air America's troubles over the past year or so, the Radio Equalizer has come to realize that most of the network's outside cheerleaders know little or nothing about the way the firm is really run. That made Think Progress an easy target: they bought it outright, while conservatives assumed that liberals wouldn't lie about Air America declaring bankruptcy.

But we've watched Rob Glaser, George Soros and others swoop in at the last second to save this operation in the past and there's no reason to believe it couldn't happen again.

At the same time, former Clear Channel executive Jon Sinton has felt that he could attract buyers for the network and had been talking to at least two potential parties when this "bankruptcy" story hit the headlines.


And contrary to the "concerns" Al Franken is sharing with the media, we know that he recently signed a contract extension that takes him well into next year with the network.

If he's so worried, then why did he re-sign? Is he also part of this scheme? In the past, he was reluctant to talk about the network's troubles, but this time he's blabbing about not getting paid, to anyone who will listen. That doesn't add up.

We won't try and pretend that conservatives don't also do mean things to each other on occasion, but this is one of the dirtiest schemes your Radio Equalizer has witnessed all year. As it stands, there's a fifty- fifty chance that a liberal blogger has been taken for a ride.

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