DOI to Air America: Stop blaming us for holding up restitution

Air America has been saying that it had agreed to pay the misappropriated money back, but claimed the plans were put on hold because of the city's DOI probe. "We're waiting for directions from the investigators on how to proceed," Air America spokeswoman Jamie Horn said. Today New York's Department of Investigation said there is nothing to prevent the radio network from repaying its debt immediately.

"DOI has done nothing and given no instruction preventing payment of money owed to Gloria Wise [Boys & Girls Club]. Any statements to the contrary are inaccurate," said DOI spokesman Keith Schwam. (There is every reason to believe that this "loan" was all that was keeping the network afloat. RedState.org explores this further)

Investor's Business Daily expresses surprise that the Air America story is not receiving wider coverage, contrasting this story with Rush Limbaugh's prescription drug addiction, which was splashed all over the media. IBD believes that the few MSM outlets covering the scandal (such as the Sun and Daily News) and the bloggers and columnists keeping it alive, are 'providing a public service'. IBD pegs the siphoned money at $613,000.

The Washington Times latest piece reflects our view: "[Franken] didn't seem to know much about Air America Radio's loan scandal [on] Monday, and said he had just learned the details last week. He sounded a lot like the politicians he plays "gotcha" with. Maybe Mr. Franken's ambitions for Norm Coleman's Senate seat are sobering him up a bit... Mr. Franken should get to the bottom of this scandal. He didn't create it, but he's part of it, and he will be implicated if he does not help find the wrongdoers and compensate the victims. ...the Senate [is] a place where fistfights and jokes won't cut it."

Some thoughts on the legal and ethical ramifications: "What makes this case potentially different is the involvement of public funds that never should have been in the coffeurs of Progress Media in the first place... there are very large legal loopholes for people (with talented lawyers) to jump through to avoid corporate debt, whereas the loopholes are smaller when it comes to knowingly bilking the government of money. My feeling, as I have followed this story, is that the folks from Piquant will probably walk free, legally speaking. That, of course, doesn't make what they did any less sleazy. According to their own admission, they knew of this fraudulent loan over a year ago, given to a company that they were intricately involved with, and have still yet to pay back a dime. We expect this kind of behavior from evil corporate tycoons like Andy Fastow. We ought to expect better from the folks who are "looking out for the little guys." (We posted on this very subject just before this scandal broke.)

It's still a bit early for this comparison - but the trend bears watching. Via Nexis: Number of NY Times articles mentioning Air America since March 2004: 59 Number of NY Times articles mentioning Air America since this news broke: 0 That's one mention every eight days, so the Times is not wildly overdue - yet. (From Outside the Beltway) On this subject, we feel some sympathy for the New York Times' executive editor Bill Keller, whose interview with Charlie Rose was broadcast last night. Regarding the often no-win nature of managing the Times, Keller expressed that while the right reflexively dismisses the Times as liberal, the assaults from the left are the most vicious and partisan. (We believe Keller, since we are seeing this everywhere we turn these days.) We invite readers to explore a post on this subject from The Columbia Spectator (Keller: “This is not a time when editors swear off alcohol.”).

Meanwhile, Al Franken is on vacation.

Michele Malkin lists the most current stories at this time. Further developments in this post.

Categories: Corruption