Now here is a story to warm the heart. Air America was launched after the last election to present a liberal counter to conservative voices in the media. It prominently features professional Bush hater Al Franken. But who has been paying the salary of Franken and others? Unfortunate boys and girls, it turns out. From the Arizona Republic:
In early 2004, the directors of the nascent Air America network were scouring the nation for potential contributors to its start-up. One of the network's directors, Evan Montvel Cohen, appears to have partially solved the problem by arranging loans from the Gloria Wise Boys & Girls Club that eventually totaled at least $480,000, and possibly more. According to reports, Cohen was in an advantageous position to secure the loans: In addition to directing Air America, Cohen also served as development director of the Gloria Wise club.
It gets better.
Cohen also secured loans to himself. All told, he borrowed more than $800,000, according to club officials. In this case, "borrow" seems to be a loose term. The club's president says Cohen made at least one of the Air America loans - $213,000 - without her approval.
For the Boys & Girls Club, meanwhile, the results have been disastrous. The New York Department of Investigation announced in June that city grants and contracts to Gloria Wise - about $10 million worth - were to be suspended because its officials had approved "significant inappropriate transactions and falsified documents that were submitted to various city agencies." . . .
You don't have to be a Columbia School of Journalism grad to sense that this developing story might have legs. A private media start-up with huge political pretensions and meager financial underpinnings uses taxpayer dollars from a Boys & Girls Club to help pay the salaries of high-profile hosts like comedian Al Franken. As a result of these dubious loans and other self-dealing, the Gloria Wise club will be sending no more poor kids from the Bronx to summer camp. It will be providing a lot fewer services, if any, to the Alzheimer's patients it helped.
The main stream media is so far ignoring the story. It probably can't continue to ignore it for long. Tip of the hat to Real Clear Politics.
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