Air America Radio and the missing $480,000

What happens when the liberals find the tables turned -- they squirm. :-) Blogger Brian Maloney is covering the growing question of what Air America is doing with the $480,000 in taxpayers money that was 'loaned' to it by the director of the New York city Gloria Wise Boys & Girls Club. His articles are long with lots of links for verification so I will be excerpting small bits from them. He starts here: Federal Funds Diverted To Air America

Air America's Dirty Dough
Media Cover-Up, Bronx Community Programs Nearly Shut
What happens when the mainstream media, after years of seething over conservative talk radio's success, discover its alternative got diverted public funds, earmarked instead for inner-city youth and seniors?

The answer, with one key exception: they pretend it didn't happen.

Yes, only because of a New York Daily News tidbit do we know that Bronx-based Gloria Wise Boys and Girls Club nearly shut down major programs recently, because almost $500,000 in governmental grant money was instead diverted to Air America's liberal radio network.

An excerpt from the tidbit:

According to published reports, the allegations involve Charles Rosen, the founder of Gloria Wise who has stepped down as executive director, investing city contract funds in Air America Radio, the liberal talk radio network.

Brian goes on: Air America Funding Issue Heats Up

What's Next?
Holding Air America Accountable For Funding Scandal
Now that Air America's sleazy funding scandal has received more attention, how can we continue to demand full accountability from the firm?

Here's where things stand:

--- Since the company isn't denying it received at least $480,000 in taxpayer funds meant for a Bronx community center, why doesn't it feel the need to repay the money, simply because of a network ownership change?

If any of the money was repaid, why won't they tell us? Some radio talk hosts have begun on-air campaigns to demand it be returned.

--- Why did Air America's response to our reporting leave out so many important details? The deflection of blame was unfortunate enough, worse was the refusal to address so many questions.

What do they have to hide?

--- Did any of Air America's talk show hosts address the controversy on Wednesday or Thursday's shows? If not, then their Bush-bashing credibility is forever shot.

How can they talk about ethics, integrity, or scandal, when the biggest one originated in their offices?

And on: Air America Issues Second Statement In Funds Scandal

Scandal Heats Up
Is Air America Answering Questions, Or Creating More?
So far, in seeking to determine whether Air America benefited from taxpayer money meant for a community youth center, we've accomplished two things: sending the blogosphere into action mode and compelling the company to respond to the developing firestorm.

Early Friday morning, I was made aware of a new, second press statement on the Gloria Wise Boys and Girls Club scandal. A number of emails and blog comments quickly followed, leading me to wonder if there was some kind of organized effort to turn the tables.

Sure enough, at the Daily Kos (king of the liberal blogosphere), there is this new post:

This post is a longish one as Brian does an in-line Fisking and then asks 11 questions. Brian then offers: Liberals Not Happy With Air America Scandal Reporting

Backlash Begins
A "Fake Story", What Took Lefties So Long?
If you've at all followed previous sticky liberal flaps, the routine should by now be clear:

First, it's silence, then quiet consultation, followed by a "collective" response, repeated verbatim across the Internet and mainstream media.

On Air America's taxpayer funding diversion scandal, it was inevitable liberals would snap out of their stunned silence and fight back.

Don't forget, Air America has been the realization of an ages-old lefty dream, to take on Rush Limbaugh and conservative talk radio. They're not going to let $480,000 in taxpayer funds meant for a community center, going instead to the network, get in the way.

The only question was how long it would take.

Answer: about four days. That must have been some pow-wow. How do we spin a way out of this mammoth mess?

When it came to how they would respond, there was never any question: with all of the usual tactics, name calling, trickery and nastiness.

What they're saying this weekend reveals much about the state of "progressive" politics.

Step one is to kill the messenger, that happens to be me this time.

It's a "fake story", Brian Maloney is "sweaty", "baloney", plus all of the usual radical-right labeling highlight (lowlight?) what we've so far seen. I'm noticing the same attack pattern across sites, with cut-and-pasted copy.

Emanating first from the Daily Kos, the nation's largest liberal blog site, it then spreads to smaller sites. I'm accused outright of making up a story:

It's fun to check in with Memeorandum now and then to see what the righties are linking to. Yesterday they were swarming like flies to a carcass to a story that appears to be phony.

Again, these are just excerpts from much larger articles and Brian has links to other sites with documentation so this story is not going away anytime soon.