The Radio Equalizer: Brian Maloney

05 August 2005

Air America Employee Comes Forward

Air America's 'Deep Throat'

Plus, Bill Press Has Major Conflict Of Interest


Has a partial repayment now been made by Air America?

That's what the New York Sun is reporting, via an anonymous inside source, so it can't be confirmed.

While Air America has a deal with Bronx-based Gloria Wise Boys and Girls Club to repay the money, over two years in interest-free installments, a letter from the New York Department of Investigation appears to demand it immediately place $875,000 in an attorney-overseen escrow account.

According to a DOI source who spoke to the Sun, the department did not want Air America to wait until the investigation was completed to repay the money, nor to send it directly to Gloria Wise.

Clearly, the DOI doesn't buy the liberal hogwash circulating around the Internet by Air America supporters and Bill Press on FOXNews, that Air America's newer owner has no connection to the old one, Progress Media, that it's all about Evan Cohen, the invisible bad man.

Then why does the DOI believe Air America's current owners owe the money? Why is Air America repaying it?

Is it because, other than Cohen, it's primarily the same people who continued on with the company after the sale?

This, via Michelle Malkin today:

BILL PRESS: Look, the reason--there's no connection to--this is a stretch even for Fox, and surely for Jim Pinkerton. There's no connection. Al Franken is not out there popping buckets of oxycontin. Al Franken is not doctor shopping. Al Franken didn't go to rehab.

Evan Cohen, who bilked the boys and girls club out of this money, also bilked Air America out of money. He is the guy, he's the con man we ought to be going after. And by the way, what the hell--


Michelle and others picked apart Press's sleazy statements very thoroughly today, but I didn't see anybody make this point: he has a dog in this race!

Remember, Press has launched a so-far floundering syndicated liberal talk show of his own and needs Air America to survive.

No AAR (perhaps resulting in an abandoned liberal talk format), no stations for the Press show. It's very simple, his career is on the line.

I previously covered Press's troubles here and here (get a good laugh out of the second one, it was covered in a radio trade publication).

So far, the launch of his national show has been a disorganized mess, to the point where he was scolded in public by a major station owner (who used the Radio Equalizer to communicate his message).

Even now, Press lists just three tiny (so small, you need a microscope to find them) affiliates, in addition to SIRIUS.

Why didn't Cavuto ask Press about his blatant conflict of interest? And why doesn't he interview those of us who kicked off this firestorm and have been covering it morning, noon and night, ever since?

MSNBC knows how to find the Radio Equalizer, after all (as did CNN last week). The Political Teen has the video clip here.

Press owes Cavuto and his viewers an apology, for failing to mention his clear self-interest, in protecting Air America. If he won't, he should be held accountable for one of the sleaziest interviews in recent cable news history.

Cavuto ought to do a follow-up on the story, with the points here and in Michelle's piece.

Meanwhile, we shouldn't let Press get away with this on-air behavior.

Novak storming off the set might be more entertaining, but Bill's Save Air America crusade is of greater significance, if it misleads the public.

Note: There is a new story here

Franken graphic by
Darleen Click, City Kid$ by George Adair, Bill Press photo from WorldNetDaily.

Your Amazon orders that begin with clicks here, help to defray my upcoming site upgrade costs. Thanks for your help!


17 Comments:

  • Funny, the NY Sun article you link to doesn't use the word immediately. Not only is that word not used it most certainly is not emphasized. The stroy says the letter from the DOI requests that the entire ammount be placed in escrow. It says nothing about a time frame.

    It's just impossible for you to avoid embellishing the facts isn't it?

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 05 August, 2005 23:27  

  • Attacking Bill Press?

    Would that constitute attacking the messenger?

    Some might consider that a wee bit hypocritical in light of your sob fest pity poor little me persecuted Brian Maloney piece from earlier.

    Pathetic.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 05 August, 2005 23:32  

  • Considering Press's biggest market is with WARF, he's lucky to get any ratings at all.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 06 August, 2005 00:01  

  • Bill Press would defend Air America regardless of whether he had a radio show, so I don't see what the point of that line of attack is.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 06 August, 2005 05:23  

  • Well, Malkin has just confirmed it. Via the New York Post. $50k! Into an account controlled by AAR's *lawyer* (!)... tactics predicted in an earlier thread... and the DOI is NOT happy about it!

    And Eliot Spitzer has launched an investigation. !!

    Wow, events supersede themselves. What happened to "September"? A sign Rose is getting more support than she ever dreamed of. Way to go, Detective Maloney! :)

    By Blogger RD, at 06 August, 2005 06:55  

  • Bill Press' new morning radio show is in competition with Air America. How is it a conflict of interest for him to speak in defense of a company that's competing with him?

    By Blogger Rogers Cadenhead, at 06 August, 2005 08:30  

  • [me] A sign Rose is getting more support than she ever dreamed of.

    The flipside to this coin is, she'd better hope the club has nothing to hide. I hope for her sake that double-talk (examined in the prev. post) is just her "speaking style"... Eliot Spitzer's listening now.

    By Blogger RD, at 06 August, 2005 08:54  

  • Don't let up one ounce, Mr. Maloney. These people are criminals in the worst sense and must be exposed and prosecuted.
    I commented earlier,
    "The theft occurred at the board level with all eyes on the crime and there will be other crimes exposed as well during the investigation. The restructure and sale was a conspiracy to cover up these crimes and keep the funds. All an elaborate shell game poorly conceived and executed by "the best minds in the world"!...Mark my words this is only the tip of the iceberg.
    Mr. Press's self involvement is stupid on many levels but his connection to the money in the round about way of " He profits personally from AAR" is no different than commentator Armstrong Williams $241,000 to help promote President Bush's No Child Left Behind law on the air. We all know how that happened to him by the now silent Exempt Media. It also illuminates a bigger problem the left has with resposibility and why the voters don't trust them.

    By Blogger Beto_Ochoa, at 06 August, 2005 09:32  

  • You GO, guy, you have definitely earned some major investigative stars for your pursuit of this story.

    And keep posting the liberal's complaints here - they just sound tinnier and sillier every day.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 06 August, 2005 09:55  

  • Press made some pretty "knowledgeable" comments on that show. First that the new owners have no relation to the old, and second most glaring that Cohen stole the borrowed money from AirBag America.

    Someone needs to ask Bill how he knows the money "borrowed" from Gloria Wise never reached AirBags accounts nor that it was used, in whole or in part, to pay expenses including the salaries of Franken and Garafalo.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 06 August, 2005 11:34  

  • Brian,

    I sent you an email

    ---FYI

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 06 August, 2005 11:50  

  • Somneone needs to ask Lien Baloney why he never did what a real journalist would do, and write hit pieces without contacting the principles on the issue.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 06 August, 2005 11:52  

  • "Anonymous said...
    Brian,

    I sent you an email"


    I got your email as well. Be assured I have no problem with the size of my genitals or my boobs.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 06 August, 2005 11:53  

  • "Somneone needs to ask Lien Baloney why he never did what a real journalist would do, and write hit pieces without contacting the principles on the issue."

    Face it, he's right: These days, that's what a "real journalist" would do.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 06 August, 2005 15:17  

  • Amen, Ace Bob J & all.

    As to Bill Press: He was doing badly enough in the FOX interview as it was (a.k.a. "though we haven't investigated, there's no connection" ;) until he really tipped his hand: [Cohen] is the guy, he's the con man we ought to be going after.

    Ahhh...so don't even look into X? Because we ought to be looking into Y? Normative statements, even embedded ones, always give you away. Oops.

    By Blogger RD, at 06 August, 2005 15:47  

  • The restructure stinks of fraudulent conveyance. And the lefties who blamed it all on the previous prez are going to be running for the hills when Spitzer indicts the current ownership (which was also the previous ownership).

    Also funny how they get more upset with someone pointing out the problem then with pilfering tax dollars from charities itself.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 06 August, 2005 16:06  

  • How can anyone take anything Bill Press says seriously. He's unbelievably liberal and fabricates most of what he writes and/or says. How he achieved any level of prominance baffles me. I certainly don't understand why Fox included him on the Error America scandal discussion.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 07 August, 2005 20:29  

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