Quote of the Day...
...in other words, he just gave a promotion to the guy who was in charge of our nine trillion dollar debt. You know what? I really think if you walked into a cabinet meeting and started hurling your feces at the wall, Bush would name a state after you.
Jon Stewart Rocks.
Jon Stewart Rocks.
posted by Chad at 8:02 AM
7 Comments:
None.
John,
Franken has appeared on TDS twice, once before the scandal involving Evan Cohen first broke (on March 25, 2004, about a week before the network even launched) and again on October 25, 2005. The funds which "Air America bilked from a Brooklyn Boys and Girls Club" had been voluntarily placed in escrow (to be released to the Boys and Girls Club after the city of New York completes it's investigation of the officials at Gloria Wise) on September 7, 2005 - 5 weeks before Frankens second appearence on TDS. In both of his appearances the issue had either a) not come to light yet or b) been resolved and Mr. Franken exhonerated. The article from the NYT and the statement from Air America's CEO below might explain why Stewart didn't grill him about it.
It should be noted that Franken is "On Air Talent"; he is not an investor, he is not a board member and he makes no financial or managerial decisions.
If, however, Stewart were to have Danny Goldberg as a guest and didn't ask any tough questions, then accusations of soft-pedaling would be warrented. This is not to say that there haven't been cases where I thought Stewart DID go easy on guests - I can't think of any specific cases besides John Kerry at this moment - but it has happened with guests on from both sides of the aisle.
It should also be noted that most of the accusations of wrong-doing that were pointed at Franken came primarily from three sources: Michelle Malkin (right-wing blogger and Fox News contributor),
1)
Bronx Boys Club's Finances Investigated
By ALAN FEUER (NYT) 843 words
Published: August 12, 2005
CORRECTION APPENDED
The state attorney general's office and the city's Department of Investigation are looking into whether a boys and girls club serving poor children and ailing elderly people in the Bronx had improper financial dealings, including loans to the Air America radio network, state and city officials said yesterday.
The separate investigations are trying to determine whether the Gloria Wise Boys and Girls Club, run from an office in Co-op City in the Bronx, made improper loans of up to $875,000 to the radio network, known for its liberal programming and hosts like the comedian Al Franken, the officials said.
Investigators from the charities bureau of the attorney general's office, which oversees about 60,000 nonprofit agencies in the state, requested documents from the club last week but have yet to receive them, state officials said. Historically, the charities bureau has required nonprofit agencies caught up in financial improprieties to make compensation for any misspent money and to institute tighter fiscal controls.
The allegations of financial mismanagement at Gloria Wise came to light in June, when the Department of Investigation announced in a letter to the club that all city agencies were canceling their contracts with Gloria Wise and an affiliate, the Pathways for Youth Boys and Girls Club, because officials at the clubs had ''approved significant inappropriate transactions and falsified documents that were submitted to various city agencies.''
Emily Gest, a spokeswoman for the department, said that Gloria Wise and Pathways had 19 city contracts and one city grant -- some with the Department of Youth and Community Development, the Department of Education, the Department for the Aging and the Housing Authority -- worth a total of $9.7 million.
Jim Grossman, a spokesman for Gloria Wise, said the club had given Air America about $875,000, though he added that he did not know exactly how, or in what form, it had been given. He also said the club and the network had reached an agreement under which the money had been placed in escrow and would eventually be repaid to the club.
According to a statement posted last month on the network's Web site, the current owners of Air America, Piquant LLC, criticized ''the allegations of mismanagement and corruption'' at Gloria Wise as ''disgraceful,'' but said Piquant was not responsible for the loans because they had been given to the radio network under the leadership of its previous owner, Progress Media.
''The current owners of Air America Radio have no obligation to Progress Media's business activities,'' the statement read. ''We are very disturbed that Air America Radio's good name could be associated with a reduction in services for young people, which is why we agreed months ago to fully compensate the Gloria Wise Boys and Girls Club as a result of this transaction.''
Jaime Horn, a spokeswoman for Air America, said the loans had come to the network through its former chairman, Evan M. Cohen, a venture capitalist, who resigned from Air America in May 2004 under pressure from other company investors. Ms. Horn added that investigators recently told the network that Mr. Cohen had served simultaneously as the development director for Gloria Wise, although the network was not aware of that at the time.
Mr. Franken took up the issue on the air on Monday afternoon, telling his listeners that Mr. Cohen was ''a crook'' who had borrowed money from Gloria Wise.
''I don't know why he did it,'' Mr. Franken said, according to a transcript of the broadcast made by the Department of Investigation. ''I don't know where the money went. I don't know if it was used for operations. I think he was borrowing from Peter to pay Paul.''
Mr. Franken also said that the network's new owners ''don't legally have to pay it back'' -- referring to the loans -- ''because we're a different company or something.''
''But morally we do,'' he said.
Nonetheless, word of the investigations ignited a firestorm of criticism on the Internet, especially among conservative-leaning blogs that have essentially accused the network of robbing from the poor to pay its bills.
Meanwhile, three top officials at Gloria Wise have either quit or announced their resignations in the last few weeks. The first was Charles Rosen, the club's longtime executive director. Jeff Aulenbach, a deputy executive director, also quit the club, Mr. Grossman said, and another deputy executive director, Lorraine Corva, has announced that she will be leaving at the end of the month. The resignations were first reported in The New York Post.
Today, the Kips Bay Boys and Girls Club is expected to announce that it will officially assume responsibility for running the Pathways program, which serves more than 2,500 children and the elderly. According to a statement released by Kips Bay yesterday in advance of the announcement, it had taken control of the Pathways program at the request of the city Housing Authority and members of the community.
Correction: August 13, 2005, Saturday An article yesterday about state and city investigations of a loan made by a Bronx social service agency to the liberal radio network Air America quoted incorrectly from comments made on the air by Al Franken, the host of an Air America program. Referring to Evan M. Cohen, a former official of the network whom Mr. Franken accused of having engineered the loan, from the Gloria Wise Boys and Girls Club, Mr. Franken said: ''I don't know why they did it, and I don't know where the money went. I don't know if it was used for operations, which I imagine it was. I think he was robbing Peter to pay Paul.'' (He did not say: ''I don't know why he did it. I don't know where the money went. I don't know if it was used for operations. I think he was borrowing from Peter to pay Paul.'')
2)
STATEMENT by Danny Goldberg, CEO Air America Radio
Statement:
Sept 7, 2005 - Danny Goldberg, CEO of Air America Radio, announced today that the Board of Directors of Piquant, LLC, owner of Air America Radio, has accelerated its payment schedule and has deposited into an escrow account the full payment of $875,000 they had pledged to give the Gloria Wise Boys and Girls Club to compensate the Club for money it loaned to Evan Cohen and Progress Media, the previous owners of the Network. The funds will remain in escrow until the New York Department of Investigation , which is currently reviewing the Club's finances, completes its work and authorizes payment.
Goldberg also issued the following statement:
An article that appeared on September 7 th in the New York Sun suggested that Al Franken , host of “The Al Franken Show” on Air America Radio, is somehow involved with the loan from the Gloria Wise Club.
Al Franken does not have and never had any responsibility for this loan. His role at Air America was then and remains today as on-air talent.
Air America is cooperating fully with that Department of Investigation's inquiry into the financial affairs of the Gloria Wise Boys and Girls Club. Air America itself is not under investigation. And none of this has anything to do with Al Franken .
Franken did everything that he could to help save Air America in the Network' s difficult early days including waiving claims against the original corporation and its executives that started Air America making it possible for Piquant, LLC, the new company that acquired Air America, to function.
The loan from the Gloria Wise Boys and Girls Club to Air America was arranged by Evan Cohen who briefly ran Air America while simultaneously serving on the Board of the Club.
As has been widely publicized, a group of investors, including RealNetworks CEO Rob Glaser, created a new company, Piquant, LLC, which took control of the Network and by November 2004, had settled all claims between themselves and Cohen and Sorenson and their companies Progress Media and Radio Free America. Neither Cohen nor Sorenson has had any involvement with Air America since that time.
The Sun piece refers to a “document” that Franken signed. Conservative columnist Michelle Malkin, wrote in her blog on Sept 7 th that “Franken's signature is on the settlement agreement in which Piquant LLC agreed to repay the loan.” This is not true.
The document is clearly a “SETTLEMENT AGREEMENT.” It was created for investors, executives and some talent, including Franken, to waive their claims against Cohen and Sorenson, in return for which Cohen and Sorenson waived any claims against Piquant, or its investors or employees.
This was not an agreement to which the Boys and Girls Club was a party. Settlement letters between Piquant and the Gloria Wise Boys and Girls Club were exchanged several months later in March 2005. Franken was not involved with any of these discussions or decisions.
In the November agreement, some potential Air America liabilities were listed in an appendix. This appendix was created as part of the mutual waiver of claims between the Piquant investors and Cohen and Sorenson and did not apply to Franken, who was not an investor. Franken's role in the agreement was simply to waive his own claims in order to facilitate the transaction and allow the Network to survive under new ownership.
On March 28 th , 2005 Jeanette Graves, President of the Board of the Gloria Wise Boys and Girls Club, wrote to Glaser concluding the negotiations with the Club, as follows: “The Club accepts the offer you described. I want you to know that on behalf of the children and families we serve, the Club and its directors are very appreciative of Air America 's willingness to commit to a repayment schedule.”
On August 5 th , 2005 at the request of the New York City Department of Investigation, Air America made the first scheduled payment into an escrow account rather than directly to Gloria Wise.
On Sept 7 th , 2005 the Board of Piquant accelerated the payment schedule and wired the balance of the money so that the full $875,000 is now in that escrow account.
ignore the previous comment.
this is the complete post.
John,
Franken has appeared on TDS twice, once before the scandal involving Evan Cohen first broke (on March 25, 2004, about a week before the network even launched) and again on October 25, 2005. The funds which "Air America bilked from a Brooklyn Boys and Girls Club" had been voluntarily placed in escrow (to be released to the Boys and Girls Club after the city of New York completes it's investigation of the officials at Gloria Wise) on September 7, 2005 - 5 weeks before Frankens second appearence on TDS. In both of his appearances the issue had either a) not come to light yet or b) been resolved and Mr. Franken exhonerated. The article from the NYT and the statement from Air America's CEO below might explain why Stewart didn't grill him about it.
It should be noted that Franken is "On Air Talent"; he is not an investor, he is not a board member and he makes no financial or managerial decisions.
If, however, Stewart were to have Danny Goldberg as a guest and didn't ask any tough questions, then accusations of soft-pedaling would be warrented. This is not to say that there haven't been cases where I thought Stewart DID go easy on guests - I can't think of any specific cases besides John Kerry at this moment - but it has happened with guests on from both sides of the aisle.
It should also be noted that most of the accusations of wrong-doing that were pointed at Franken came primarily from three sources: Michelle Malkin (right-wing blogger and Fox News contributor), John Mainelli of the New York Post (which is owned by NewsCorp, along with Fox News Channel) and Brian Maloney (a right-wing blogger whose sole purpose in life appears to be bringing down Air America). Could it be that at least two of these people might have an impetus to at least TRY to discredit the man who routinely, factually debunks their employers biggest on-air personalities (O'Reilly)?
One could make that assumption, but that could be construed as guilt by association.
Oh. Wait... Isn't that what Malkin, Mainelli and Maloney attempted to do to Franken???
Anyway, here are the article and statement I mentioned earlier. Read them at your own risk, but be warned you may have a couple preconceptions challenged in doing so.
c.
1)
Bronx Boys Club's Finances Investigated
By ALAN FEUER (NYT) 843 words
Published: August 12, 2005
CORRECTION APPENDED
The state attorney general's office and the city's Department of Investigation are looking into whether a boys and girls club serving poor children and ailing elderly people in the Bronx had improper financial dealings, including loans to the Air America radio network, state and city officials said yesterday.
The separate investigations are trying to determine whether the Gloria Wise Boys and Girls Club, run from an office in Co-op City in the Bronx, made improper loans of up to $875,000 to the radio network, known for its liberal programming and hosts like the comedian Al Franken, the officials said.
Investigators from the charities bureau of the attorney general's office, which oversees about 60,000 nonprofit agencies in the state, requested documents from the club last week but have yet to receive them, state officials said. Historically, the charities bureau has required nonprofit agencies caught up in financial improprieties to make compensation for any misspent money and to institute tighter fiscal controls.
The allegations of financial mismanagement at Gloria Wise came to light in June, when the Department of Investigation announced in a letter to the club that all city agencies were canceling their contracts with Gloria Wise and an affiliate, the Pathways for Youth Boys and Girls Club, because officials at the clubs had ''approved significant inappropriate transactions and falsified documents that were submitted to various city agencies.''
Emily Gest, a spokeswoman for the department, said that Gloria Wise and Pathways had 19 city contracts and one city grant -- some with the Department of Youth and Community Development, the Department of Education, the Department for the Aging and the Housing Authority -- worth a total of $9.7 million.
Jim Grossman, a spokesman for Gloria Wise, said the club had given Air America about $875,000, though he added that he did not know exactly how, or in what form, it had been given. He also said the club and the network had reached an agreement under which the money had been placed in escrow and would eventually be repaid to the club.
According to a statement posted last month on the network's Web site, the current owners of Air America, Piquant LLC, criticized ''the allegations of mismanagement and corruption'' at Gloria Wise as ''disgraceful,'' but said Piquant was not responsible for the loans because they had been given to the radio network under the leadership of its previous owner, Progress Media.
''The current owners of Air America Radio have no obligation to Progress Media's business activities,'' the statement read. ''We are very disturbed that Air America Radio's good name could be associated with a reduction in services for young people, which is why we agreed months ago to fully compensate the Gloria Wise Boys and Girls Club as a result of this transaction.''
Jaime Horn, a spokeswoman for Air America, said the loans had come to the network through its former chairman, Evan M. Cohen, a venture capitalist, who resigned from Air America in May 2004 under pressure from other company investors. Ms. Horn added that investigators recently told the network that Mr. Cohen had served simultaneously as the development director for Gloria Wise, although the network was not aware of that at the time.
Mr. Franken took up the issue on the air on Monday afternoon, telling his listeners that Mr. Cohen was ''a crook'' who had borrowed money from Gloria Wise.
''I don't know why he did it,'' Mr. Franken said, according to a transcript of the broadcast made by the Department of Investigation. ''I don't know where the money went. I don't know if it was used for operations. I think he was borrowing from Peter to pay Paul.''
Mr. Franken also said that the network's new owners ''don't legally have to pay it back'' -- referring to the loans -- ''because we're a different company or something.''
''But morally we do,'' he said.
Nonetheless, word of the investigations ignited a firestorm of criticism on the Internet, especially among conservative-leaning blogs that have essentially accused the network of robbing from the poor to pay its bills.
Meanwhile, three top officials at Gloria Wise have either quit or announced their resignations in the last few weeks. The first was Charles Rosen, the club's longtime executive director. Jeff Aulenbach, a deputy executive director, also quit the club, Mr. Grossman said, and another deputy executive director, Lorraine Corva, has announced that she will be leaving at the end of the month. The resignations were first reported in The New York Post.
Today, the Kips Bay Boys and Girls Club is expected to announce that it will officially assume responsibility for running the Pathways program, which serves more than 2,500 children and the elderly. According to a statement released by Kips Bay yesterday in advance of the announcement, it had taken control of the Pathways program at the request of the city Housing Authority and members of the community.
Correction: August 13, 2005, Saturday An article yesterday about state and city investigations of a loan made by a Bronx social service agency to the liberal radio network Air America quoted incorrectly from comments made on the air by Al Franken, the host of an Air America program. Referring to Evan M. Cohen, a former official of the network whom Mr. Franken accused of having engineered the loan, from the Gloria Wise Boys and Girls Club, Mr. Franken said: ''I don't know why they did it, and I don't know where the money went. I don't know if it was used for operations, which I imagine it was. I think he was robbing Peter to pay Paul.'' (He did not say: ''I don't know why he did it. I don't know where the money went. I don't know if it was used for operations. I think he was borrowing from Peter to pay Paul.'')
2)
STATEMENT by Danny Goldberg, CEO Air America Radio
Statement:
Sept 7, 2005 - Danny Goldberg, CEO of Air America Radio, announced today that the Board of Directors of Piquant, LLC, owner of Air America Radio, has accelerated its payment schedule and has deposited into an escrow account the full payment of $875,000 they had pledged to give the Gloria Wise Boys and Girls Club to compensate the Club for money it loaned to Evan Cohen and Progress Media, the previous owners of the Network. The funds will remain in escrow until the New York Department of Investigation , which is currently reviewing the Club's finances, completes its work and authorizes payment.
Goldberg also issued the following statement:
An article that appeared on September 7 th in the New York Sun suggested that Al Franken , host of “The Al Franken Show” on Air America Radio, is somehow involved with the loan from the Gloria Wise Club.
Al Franken does not have and never had any responsibility for this loan. His role at Air America was then and remains today as on-air talent.
Air America is cooperating fully with that Department of Investigation's inquiry into the financial affairs of the Gloria Wise Boys and Girls Club. Air America itself is not under investigation. And none of this has anything to do with Al Franken .
Franken did everything that he could to help save Air America in the Network' s difficult early days including waiving claims against the original corporation and its executives that started Air America making it possible for Piquant, LLC, the new company that acquired Air America, to function.
The loan from the Gloria Wise Boys and Girls Club to Air America was arranged by Evan Cohen who briefly ran Air America while simultaneously serving on the Board of the Club.
As has been widely publicized, a group of investors, including RealNetworks CEO Rob Glaser, created a new company, Piquant, LLC, which took control of the Network and by November 2004, had settled all claims between themselves and Cohen and Sorenson and their companies Progress Media and Radio Free America. Neither Cohen nor Sorenson has had any involvement with Air America since that time.
The Sun piece refers to a “document” that Franken signed. Conservative columnist Michelle Malkin, wrote in her blog on Sept 7 th that “Franken's signature is on the settlement agreement in which Piquant LLC agreed to repay the loan.” This is not true.
The document is clearly a “SETTLEMENT AGREEMENT.” It was created for investors, executives and some talent, including Franken, to waive their claims against Cohen and Sorenson, in return for which Cohen and Sorenson waived any claims against Piquant, or its investors or employees.
This was not an agreement to which the Boys and Girls Club was a party. Settlement letters between Piquant and the Gloria Wise Boys and Girls Club were exchanged several months later in March 2005. Franken was not involved with any of these discussions or decisions.
In the November agreement, some potential Air America liabilities were listed in an appendix. This appendix was created as part of the mutual waiver of claims between the Piquant investors and Cohen and Sorenson and did not apply to Franken, who was not an investor. Franken's role in the agreement was simply to waive his own claims in order to facilitate the transaction and allow the Network to survive under new ownership.
On March 28 th , 2005 Jeanette Graves, President of the Board of the Gloria Wise Boys and Girls Club, wrote to Glaser concluding the negotiations with the Club, as follows: “The Club accepts the offer you described. I want you to know that on behalf of the children and families we serve, the Club and its directors are very appreciative of Air America 's willingness to commit to a repayment schedule.”
On August 5 th , 2005 at the request of the New York City Department of Investigation, Air America made the first scheduled payment into an escrow account rather than directly to Gloria Wise.
On Sept 7 th , 2005 the Board of Piquant accelerated the payment schedule and wired the balance of the money so that the full $875,000 is now in that escrow account.
John,
I watched the Interview With Georges Sada (link) (the Iraqi General you referenced) again on Comedy Central's website. If you watch the countdown timer at the bottom you will notice that Stewart spends at least 1/3 of the interview speaking specifically of his WMD accounts and how and where they were moved. Maybe he should have dedicated the entire interview to grilling him about exactly where the are? Idunno.
As far as the number of articles about Limbaugh's addictions and alleged crimes vs. articles about the Air America/Boy and Girls Club debacle, the difference is easily discernable if you read the article that I pasted: Limbaugh was directly involved in his drug scandal while Franken is an on-air personality on a Network where someone in the corporate offices was implicated in wrong-doing. Your question, again, seems like another attempt at establishing guilt by association.
c.
"Kitty Kelly got two straight days on the Today Show or Good Morning America talking about her book on George Bush and his coke habit."
Yeah, and the Swift Boat Liars got 2 weeks on MSNBC, CNN and FOX and not one interviewer seriously challenged one of their spurious claims. So what's your point?
Wayne,
In your eyes any one to the left of Adolf is a flaming lib.
Typical. Conservative. Intellectual. Dishonesty. Can you please explain how "The truth is Stewart probably does lean to the left." translates to "stewart is still a flaming lib and you agree"? That's quite the leap, even for a motard such as yourself...
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