SwiftVets.com

[davman]

Missing the Perfect Storm
The mainstream media ignores a story tailor-made for them.
by Edward Morrissey
08/03/2005 12:00:00 AM

THE MAINSTREAM MEDIA is often inconsistent in covering stories. They gave us wall-to-wall coverage when George W. Bush's National Guard service came under scrutiny, but suddenly made themselves scarce when over two hundred Vietnam veterans pointed out hole after hole in John Kerry's service narrative. When Rush Limbaugh ran into legal problems surrounding his addiction to painkillers, we heard breathless updates on subpoenas and court orders, but when Eason Jordan revealed his predilection to slandering the U.S. military, again the press pulled a disappearing act.

Michael LeBoeuf once commented that the elements of the perfect fiction would involve religion, royalty, sex, and mystery--and then boiled it down to one sentence: "My God," said the Queen, "I'm pregnant. I wonder who did it?" Is there a grand-unified theory of media interest and if so, what elements need to come together to make the perfect journalistic storm?

We often hear journalists claim that their mission consists of afflicting the comfortable and comforting the afflicted. One crucial element must therefore put powerful people under a spotlight. Some journalists say that they fight for the little guy, the downtrodden, which means that the story must include victims. Still others like investigative work, digging through arcane paperwork and doubletalk to reveal misdeeds that otherwise would never come to light, which means that a crime or at least unethical conduct would help draw interest. And finally, big money always attracts a crowd and helps audiences relate to the disgraceful actions unveiled by the reporter.

Thus, the perfect

journalistic storm would arise when powerful people victimize the poor and downtrodden, breaking laws or at least ethical constructs, by taking money meant for their benefit. That sort of story will get anyone's attention. All it takes is one reporter to tell the story, and the rest of the media will jump all over it. Right?


ACTUALLY, this perfect-storm story is already percolating in the blogosphere, and oddly enough, hardly anyone in the mainstream media is paying attention to it. Brian Maloney at Radio Equalizer noticed a short blurb in the local-only July 26th edition of the New York Daily News reporting that a well-known corporation had taken money from a Bronx non-profit charity--city government grant money earmarked for poor kids and Alzheimer's patients. The corporation's CEO had also served on the board of directors for Gloria Wise Boys and Girls Club and had quarterbacked a "loan" to his struggling company using these earmarked funds. The Daily News also noted that the money added up to almost a half-million dollars, funds that should have provided services to the elderly and the disadvantaged children of the borough.

On July 27, Maloney then contacted other bloggers to publicize this sensational story. The news that a corporation had apparently taken government money intended for poor kids and Alzheimer's patients to fund their operations spread through the blogosphere. Many bloggers featured the story on their sites, some to pass along the alleged malfeasance to their readers, others to defend the corporation--even after the corporation confirmed the essential elements of the story while trying to avoid responsibility by blaming previous ownership.
One would expect that mainstream journalists would want to take advantage of this opportunity to cover this harmonic convergence: A greedy corporation had taken a half-million dollars of city grant money from two certifiably sympathetic and traditional victim groups in order to pay off its already-wealthy employees. Surprisingly, only three mainstream outlets did so: the Washington Times, in an editorial calling attention to the blog reports, a New York Post article doing much the same, and a New York Sun article detailing even more extensive malfeasance on the part of the CEO. After speaking with the president of the charity's executive committee, Jeanette Graves, the Sun's David Lombino discovered that the CEO in question got the loans using rubber-stamp replicas of Ms. Graves's signature on documents never seen by her. A wire transfer of over $400,000 of the charity's funds went to the corporation, also without her knowledge.

In fact, the amount in question now totals $875,000, which the corporation's new ownership discovered on its own but never revealed to authorities. This company has now belatedly agreed to repay the money--but over two years, while the charity remains under funded for its tasks and suffered the loss of other government contracts due to its nonperformance on these earmarked grants. What a story! What a blockbuster!

Yet most of the mainstream media has been oddly silent. Why?


WELL, FOR ONE THING, we have thus far neglected to name the corporation involved. The company that took money from

poor kids and Alzheimer's patients to pay off its high-priced employees is Air America and the CEO was its original founder, Evan Cohen. Air America broadcasts its liberal views on American politics in several cities around the country, attempting to compete with the much more robust conservative talk-radio industry and mostly failing.

The mission of the mainstream media to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable, to tell truth to power, and to hold the reverse Robin Hoods accountable for their malfeasance wouldn't depend on the politics of the criminals.

Would it?


Edward Morrissey is a contributing writer to The Daily Standard and a contributor to the blog Captain's

note: post edited to eliminate blank space/me#1

[GenrXr]

Is the information within this article accurate? If so a very damning indictment of Air America and the Liberal press.
_________________
"An activist is the person who cleans up the water, not the one claiming its dirty."
"All that is necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to stand by and do nothing." Edmund Burke (1729-1797), Founder of Conservative Philosophy

[GM Strong]

It is an accurate story.
_________________
8th Army Korea 68-69

[Leeman]

My My I sure do hope Jeanne Garafalo got her pay check. !!!!!!

[Navy_Navy_Navy]

Is it too early to start the snickering, or should we give it another day or two in the name of good taste?

Nahhhhhh!!!!!!








_________________
~ Echo Juliet ~
Altering course to starboard - On Fire, Keep Clear
Navy woman, Navy wife, Navy mother

[I B Squidly]

See:

http://www.townhall.com/columnists/michellemalkin/mm20050803.shtml


Air America and the race hustlers
Michelle Malkin (archive)


August 3, 2005 | Print | Recommend to a friend


Where are they? Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton are the supermen of the civil rights establishment -- able to leap tall buildings in a single bound to get in front of a picket line. When victim politics calls, the demagogic duo leap into patented action: March. Boycott. Shakedown. Repeat.

But the raging reverends are nowhere to be found as a scandal involving the liberal radio network Air America and a Bronx, N.Y.-based inner city charity for poor children brews. Why the silence?

It's all about the Benjamins, as they say.

First, a summary of the financial fiasco that the liberal media won't touch: The New York City Department of Investigation has been probing allegations that officials of the nonprofit Gloria Wise Boys & Girls Club and one of its affiliates, Pathways for Youth, approved "significant inappropriate transactions and falsified documents that were submitted to various city agencies." The charities receive large portions of their budgets from local, state and federal government grants. At the center of the controversy is Evan Montvel Cohen, the disgraced former chairman of Air America, who was in charge of the liberal radio network at the same time he was serving as Gloria Wise's director of development.

The New York Sun's David Lombino reported this week that Cohen received more than $800,000 in loans for himself and Air America during his tenure, according to Gloria Wise executive committee President Jeannette Graves. Graves alleges that Cohen funneled $613,000 to himself and Air America without her authorization or knowledge. Other loans were approved by the Gloria Wise executive committee when Cohen claimed he needed money to cover medical expenses for himself and his father. As a result of an ongoing investigation, the city canceled its contracts with both Gloria Wise and Pathways in June -- causing a near-shutdown of services to poor minority kids, Alzheimer's patients, and other underprivileged clients until other nonprofit agencies were brought in to take over the old management.

Air America's ever-evolving statements about the controversy have raised more questions than they've answered. After radio industry blogger Brian Maloney (radioequalizer.blogspot.com) called attention to the probe last week, the liberal radio network initially shrugged off corporate responsibility by asserting that its current management, Piquant LLC, "had no involvement whatsoever" with the funds and was "not being investigated." A follow-up statement then revealed that Air America "agreed months ago to fully compensate" Gloria Wise for the loan (despite having "no involvement" with it). Yesterday, Air America host Al Franken acknowledged that Piquant had conducted an internal probe of the matter before the city got involved -- and, according to the city, failed to tell authorities about it.

If a conservative radio network had been entangled in a scam to steal from black children to line the pockets of wealthy white con artists, Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton would already be staging hunger strikes in protest. But both have hefty political and financial stakes in Air America's success -- and the big mouths aren't about to badmouth their friends.

Air America's flagship New York City station is housed on Park Avenue at WLIB-AM, owned by Inner City Broadcasting. The company shunted aside its black-themed talk format at WLIB to accommodate Air America. In return, Air America made room for a few minority radio hosts and also entered into lucrative lease management agreements with Inner City Broadcasting, which owns and operates 17 radio stations in five markets.

The co-founder of Inner City Broadcasting is New York media mogul Percy Sutton, best known as Malcolm X's lawyer and former Manhattan borough council president. Sutton helped bail Sharpton out after Sharpton was ordered to pay former Dutchess County prosecutor Steven Pagones over the Tawana Brawley race hoax. Sutton also raised and donated money for Sharpton's 2004 presidential bid. Sharpton still broadcasts a Sunday radio show on WLIB. Sutton and Jackson are longtime friends and partners. Sutton served as Jackson's 1988 presidential campaign finance chairman. Jackson has lobbied on Sutton's behalf. Sutton sits on Jackson's Citizenship Education Fund. As original investors, Jackson and his wife reportedly hold more than 23,000 shares in Inner City Broadcasting.

Now you know why there will be no boycotts at Air America headquarters over the possible bilking of poor Bronx children. Race hustlers care about only one color: green.


Michelle Malkin is a syndicated columnist and maintains her weblog at michellemalkin.com
_________________
"KILL ALL THE LAWYERS!"

-Wlm Shakespeare

[shawa]

Hmmm. A little creative financing here using tax-payer's dollars?
Is a little visit from the IRS in order???

From Hugh Hewitt:

[Leeman]

ok great these are all good post !!!!!!!!!!!!

I think we are getting closer to a breakout day with the mainstream media. !!!!!

little ole me is sending it out to as many people as I can ?

keep digging fellow posters !!!!! who needs an investigative reporters Like Dan Dan the Flim Flam man !!!!!

we all can get the story out. Even without the rev's protesting. !!!


Leeman

[kman]

Greedy corporation steels money from poor children and Alzheimer's patients, then switches to become a LLC in an Enronesque move--and the MSM ignores it.

Someone please tell me again how it's the REPUBLICANS that are the money grubbers.

Kurt