Personally, we blame Rove
Frankengate? The Washington Times reports that $480,000 intended for the (Bronx) Gloria Wise Boys and Girls Club may have been 'borrowed' by Al Franken's cash-strapped Air America.
Air America responded swiftly, issuing a statement to the effect that, while they had promoted the now-defunct Wise group, any wrongdoing lay solely from within the Wise organization.
However, Eric Cohen, the Air America CEO who resigned under fire, also served on Gloria Wise's board, casting doubt on these assurances of seperation. Some of Daily Kos' posters are blaming the "right wing blogosphere" and letting it go at that. Similarly, Blatherwatch immediately responded with two blasts accusing Republicans of making false allegations of impropriety.
Gloria Wise's web site, as of this posting, was still promoting their "Air America experience".
The New York Daily News and Bronx News have been following this story. NY's DOI is probing allegations that program officials "approved significant inappropriate transactions and falsified documents that were submitted to various city agencies." NewsMax has been following the investigation.
And a very unofficial spokesman for Air America chips in.
One thing's certain: The Al Franken decade is over.
{UPDATE: The New York Sun and The New York Daily News advance this story today (Aug. 1st), and we begin tracking back to sites following this developing story. The Sun digs into Air America founder Ethan Cohen. and it's not pretty. We're now looking at wire fraud, forgery and other charges, and the amount involved may be nearly double that originally reported. Frankengate, indeed.
We are especially interested in this story from the angle of how certain sites respond to a scandal which might be ideologically inconvenient, or even embarassing. That is, we wonder how the many sites that have been calling for the heads of White House officials (particularly Rove, who is popular/notorious in these circles) are treating this story, where the malfeasance is quite evident. Are such sites interested in pursuing corruption wherever it turns up, or simply in advancing an agenda? We will periodically check in on Koz and other sites and report back here. We're not the only ones wondering about this, either. So far, all we're hearing from Franken sympathizers is attacks on those breaking the story - or silence.}
{UPDATE 2: Nice comment from one blogger, re The Sun: "The Sun, of course, is the tiny newspaper that hits way above their weight by finding the stories that the NY Times is embarrassed to cover." We wish we had time to write as much as we want to on these matters, but long story short: Sometimes the MSM does exemplary work. Sometimes bloggers do as well. What matters is that the job gets done. Lately, we've seen a real go-get 'em attitude in The Jersey Journal that we hadn't noticed in years. Did bloggers light their fire, or was it declining sales, or both? Or was it the move to tabloid, or the years of arrests of Jersey public officials that were not foreshadowed by a single Journal story? We don't know, but we are grateful to see this new vigor in local reporting. We need it.}
{UPDATE 3: Subsequent events.}
Categories: Corruption
posted by Mister Snitch! at 8:41 PM
14 Comments:
Incredible ... When I'm in the US, I flip from Air America to NPR to WABC, just to stay balanced. Air America is an embarrassment to the left, even more so with the taint of graft thrown in. Their feeble response is just classic. Did they let an intern write it? They basically say, "We had nothing to do with it but we'll pay the money back." How long until Franken, Garofalo and Co. pack it in and go back to being mediocre at their former careers?
Leave it to Tom Paine to stop by with some common sense. You hit the nail squarely with your assessment of Franken and (while we're at it) Bill Mahr. Mediocre, aging comics, their open secret is that they found they could cling to an audience and a semblance of a career by pandering to a segment of society. Mahr, at least, got some better writing and management after his first HBO season (his own skills have not improved, but he's being made to look somewhat better). However, Franken is on a straight downhill slide. Still, his core audience is loyal (dependent) and I doubt this scandal will sink him, even if it sinks his ramshackle network. He can always get a spot on the Huffington Post.
Side note: If you've seen The Aristocrats (which I recommend), you'll note that neither Mahr, Franken, Garofolo or Gallagher carry much weight in the society of comics. Of the many comics appearing in this doocumentary, the only one of this crew who made the cut was Mahr, and only for a brief and inconsequential appearance. Garofolo and Franken are never mentioned, and while Gallagher is often cited, it's not fodder for his autobio.
The film is brilliant, but I don't know that Maher's lack of screen time necessarily means he's not thought of highly by his peers. Maybe he just didn't have a great version of the joke to tell, or as many interesting anecdotes about it as some of the others.
Sure, Al Franken's not in the movie, but neither is Dennis Miller. I don't know why any specific comics didn't make the cut, but in a Time Out New York interview, Penn Jillette mentioned that he called around to comedians he knew to ask for their participation when he was starting the project. Anyone who hesitated on that initial contact didn't get a callback. That could explain some absences.
And by the way, those of us on the left hate Gallagher too.
Can't say with any certainty why Franken, etc., weren't in the film. I don't know that they did or did not get that initial call from Penn. If he didn't call at the outset, he probably didn't want them. I think it's safe to theorize that if a comic did not appear in the film (a) Jillette didn't think they were worth having, and/or (b) they didn't need the exposure and said 'no'. Franken and Garofolo aren't such heavily-booked comics that they would have been too busy for it, so it is more likely they just did not get that call.
I should have been more clear about Gallagher - the comics hate him as a comic. They don't like his act. Maybe they don't like him personally, either, I don't know. (Maybe to a comic, not liking the act and not liking the person are the same thing.) This may have something to do with being a prop comic - I remember a Seinfeld episode where a prop comic was shown distain. Perhaps prop comics are a step down the comic social ladder. At the other end of the spectrum, Gilbert Gottfried was revered - a comic's comic.
My remarks were not about these comics' political leanings, but about their relative skills and respect among their peers. I think their politics per se weren't an issue re their inclusion in the film. Indeed, this is apparent from the inclusion of Robin Williams, who certainly leans left, and Phyllis Diller and Don Rickles, who have a different viewpoint. I believe inclusion was largely based on Jillette's overall assessment of each of them as comics, as persons with something to say, as a piece of the greater mosaic of the film.
Franken somehow didn't fit, and apparently neither did Miller. Miller was nowhere mentioned in the film, but like Gallagher, he stands apart from other comics. As does the once-hilarious Woody Allen. I suspect the comic community has mixed feelings about this pair as well, and this would not have played well in the film, which depended on an underlying subtext of a community of comics.
As far as Maher is concerned, your points are well taken. But his inability to make a worthwhile contribution speaks precisely to my main point - that Maher, Garofolo and Franken are trying to get by on politics because their skills won't carry the freight. To be more holistic about this, one could expand this example to a number of right-wing commentators who similarly pander to that market segment and fail in their promises of genuine insight. However, none of them that I can think of are failed comics trying to pass themselves off as funny (which may or may not be a greater lie). They're just lousy talk show hosts and Monday morning QBs, trying desperately to maintain their celebrity. They deserve contempt as well, but were not the subject of this post.
These guys are pikers. Dang, take the money and pay people to listen. Better yet, pay the Nielsen houses to say they are listening.
BTW, Gilbert Gottfried is the only one who can actually tell the Aristocrats with any authority. Maybe Bob Saget before he was neutered on Full House
Did you see Saget trying to tell the joke in the movie? He looked like he was passing a kidney stone. Now that is comedy.
Updated my post to link yours. Looks like you missed the link to me, though, under Update 2?
Thanks for pointing that out (I fixed it). Whole lotta linking going on, as this story is developing fast.
Took a look at your comics blog. I have always had a fascination/repulsion with Wayne Boring. He is the Bizarro mirror image of Kirby (who should have been named Jack Exciting, to draw the proper counterpoint). Boring was really old-school, always underplaying the most powerful being on earth. Most static drawings I ever saw. Curt Swan drew the sweetest Superman, and Lois Lane looked like a well-drawn newspaper strip (very underrated art, with well-spotted blacks). Thanks for the stroll down memory lane.
Boring was a great artist in the Golden Age, but pretty miserable in the Silver. I agree with the static comment; Boring liked to draw Superman flying as if he were strolling along a street. Plus of course he had that awful problem of drawing people with glasses (i.e., Clark Kent) looking 3/4 away--he could never get the spectacles perched on the nose right. Lois was mostly drawn by Schaffenberger, who's one of my all-time faves.
That's right! Kurt Schaffenberger. Haven't heard that name in years. Really a forgotten master of the medium. I guess it's too much for me to demand a reprint of his work, since they recently re-released Russ Manning's Magnus Robot Fighter, which I'd wanted to see for years...
While I agree that this story needs full coverage, it HARDLY equals the willful outing of a covert CIA agent's identity. One is fraud, the other is treachery. It is a joke to push both stories as if they are equal.
It's hard for me to place an empirical value on an illegal disclsoure of a CIA operative and on the theft of hundreds of thousands of dollars from children in need, so as to compare the two. If you can do that. more power to you. However, such a comparison was never the point here. The point was, and is, that serious allegations (regardless of the nature of the alleged illegal act, regardless of who we believe committed the act) need to be carefully considered... and that those who live by the blithe allegation...
More about this in comments on the subsequent post.
I've actually never really listened to Air America, my friend and I enjoy listening to the right wingers on 770. It makes you cringe sometimes because they take themselves seriously, but it's entertainment, whether they acknowledge it or not.
As much as everyone makes fun of NPR, it really is the best source on the dial. Not only does it give you news, but it also provides relaxing stories about cucumber enthusiasts and the history of candy cherries that the hacks just don't offer.
- Jersey Perspective
I have listened to NPR about as long as it's existed. It's a national treasure. Daniel Pinkwater (of The Hoboken Chicken Emergency) is often featured (although he rarely talks about "Old Hoboken"... too bad).
There are worthwhile commentators all over the spectrum, as well as loose cannons and opportunists. I think the New York Times has the finest arts criticism I've ever seen, and I've read many outstanding Wall Street Journal pieces. I have seen many lamebrained editorials in both papers.
You gotta grab what's worthwhile wherever you find it. And, if you look hard enough, you can find it almost anywhere. I grieve over the posturing and choosing up of sides in this society, but that's an unavoidable part of human nature. It's important, I think, to be on good terms with as many people as possible and not get drawn in to turf wars. Living on the East Coast, I am embarassed by the cheesy bashing of the Red States (although they clearly get their own back... for reasons you and I have discussed, they are the only ones who can elect a president these days).
As usual, you are one of the more discerning visitors to this site. Always a pleasure.
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