Captain's Quarters Blog


« Egypt Got Tip On Bombing | Main | IRA To Renounce Violence »

July 27, 2005
Air America Took Money From Poor Kids & Alzheimer Patients

Radio Equalizer and Michelle Malkin have followed a scandal in New York that, given the involvement of the nationally-broadcast Air America, should have received national media attention by now. It turns out that the Gloria Wise Boys & Girls Clubs almost had to shut its doors following a funding shortfall despite receiving a half-million dollars in grant money and much more in city contracts, getting rescued at the last moment by other independent groups. The $500K in grant money had been loaned out -- to Air America:

The nonprofit Gloria Wise Boys & Girls Club and its affiliate Pathways for Youth found their city contracts, running into the millions of dollars, abruptly ended last month by the city Department of Investigation. ...

He said he and other elected officials are still in the dark over the exact nature of the probe.

In its initial announcement, the DOI said it was probing allegations that program officials "approved significant inappropriate transactions and falsified documents that were submitted to various city agencies."

According to published reports, the allegations involve Charles Rosen, the founder of Gloria Wise who has stepped down as executive director, investing city contract funds in Air America Radio, the liberal talk radio network.

Evan Cohen, Air America's former chairman, had served as Gloria Wise's director of development.

Evan Cohen appears to have sold Gloria Wise a bill of goods in its investment in Air America. First, given AA's performance, anyone putting that kind of money into it and expecting to even see the principal ever again has to be out of their minds. Second, the grant money involved was earmarked for Alzheimer's patients, senior citizens, and a mentoring program. Even if AA sounded like a brilliant investment, earmarked grant money has to go to the specific programs it intends to fund, not a flyer on some hot stock tip.

Evan Cohen's involvement on the board of Gloria Wise and his position at AA makes this decision a massive conflict of interest. Cohen had struggled to maintain his position with the netlet after it became clear that the enterprise had not captured much audience even in the more liberal areas it served. Advertising revenues remained very weak and the corporation barely eked out an existence on donations, making it a poor (and badly-behaved) cousin to NPR. If Cohen used his position on the board at Gloria Wise to misdirect government funds, then AA needs to cough up the money immediately, and any ties Cohen has to other non-profits should be thoroughly investigated.

Has Air America paid back the loan, or even made preliminary payments? We don't know; AA hasn't issued a statement, and more curiously, the national media hasn't asked them. The only papers covering this story are the New York Daily News (but not in its national paper) and the Gotham Gazette, a local newspaper for New Yorkers covering the borough beat. It seems to me that if Salem Radio or Clear Channel had taken money from poor children and Alzheimer's patients to stay on the air, we would hear about that from all major media outlets within nanoseconds of it coming out.

So why haven't we heard about this scandal from the Exempt Media?

Sphere It Digg! View blog reactions
Posted by Ed Morrissey at July 27, 2005 5:33 AM

Trackback Pings

TrackBack URL for this entry is

Listed below are links to weblogs that reference Air America Took Money From Poor Kids & Alzheimer Patients:

» Thieves at Air America? from Macmind - Conservative Commentary and Common Sense
Michelle Malkin has the low down on the low life (I mean, oh, leave it alone), shenanigans of Air America ripping off poor kids. [Read More]

Tracked on July 27, 2005 6:23 AM

» Liberals stealing from poor kids? from Danny Carlton: codenamed "Jack Lewis"
I saw it linked from FreeRepublic, covered by the Gotham Gazette and now see that Michelle Malkin is mentioning it,... [Read More]

Tracked on July 27, 2005 7:54 AM

» Nine Nibbles Before Noon from Electric Venom
... [Read More]

Tracked on July 27, 2005 8:47 AM

» Al Franken steals money from kids and old folks from Mark in Mexico
Re: Post title; Hey, the lefties do this all the time so why can't I? [Read More]

Tracked on July 27, 2005 10:41 AM

» What’s the Matter with Kids Today? from Harleys, Cars, Girls
Among other things, they like cars that go vroom. BlameBush! discovers this and soils his hemp undershorts. If you don’t keep a proper secular humanist watch on them, they are likely to want to become Christians, as revealed by Citizen [Read More]

Tracked on July 27, 2005 10:58 AM

» Air America Allegedly Stole Money From Poor Black Kids in New York from La Shawn Barber's Corner
Blogger Brian Maloney writes:What happens when the mainstream media, after years of seething over conservative talk radio's success, discover its alternative got diverted public funds, earmarked instead for inner-city youth and seniors? The answer, ... [Read More]

Tracked on July 27, 2005 11:03 AM

» Did the Liberal Talk Network Really Steal from Kids and Seniors? from BizzyBlog.com
In my posts about the state of talk radio (here, here, and here), I’ve concentrated on audiences and trends at stations with noticeable audiences (and yes, at this point, they are predominantly center-right and conservative). That has meant t... [Read More]

Tracked on July 27, 2005 11:09 AM

» Al Franken Starves Poor Children from Hennessy's View
So it appears. According to Michelle Malkin, Ed Morrissey, Brian Maloney, The Bronx News, and other sources, several federally supported relief agencies in New York have been illegally funelling hundreds of thousands of dollars to Al Franken’s ... [Read More]

Tracked on July 27, 2005 1:31 PM

» How Can Anyone Listen to Air America?? from The Bailiwick
The other day, my son and I were driving to Ithaca and when the NPR station we were listening to cut out we tuned into Air America.... just for kicks. My son, reading over my shoulder just asked, "Is that the station where the lady was talking about t... [Read More]

Tracked on July 27, 2005 2:03 PM

» Air America Steals Half Million Dollars From Bronx Kids Charity from Wizbang
And the kicker is they're not sorry... Here's the short version of the story, covered first by Brian Maloney with followups from Michelle Malkin and Captain Ed. The leader of the Bronx-based Gloria Wise Club, Charles Rosen, reportedly loaned $480,000... [Read More]

Tracked on July 28, 2005 12:56 AM

» The Corruption In Air America from Flopping Aces
I wonder if the supposed champions (cough cough) of the downtrodden, Al Franken & Janeane Garafalo, have been exposing this corruption? Has the MSM been all over this story? I'm sure you can guess the answer to both of these questions. [Read More]

Tracked on July 28, 2005 11:34 AM

» Nigerian Link Scamming from it comes in pints?
Received this email. I don't know if it's legitimately Nigerian or not.... [Read More]

Tracked on August 2, 2005 5:27 PM

» Air America from The Right Nation
Even though mainstream media are trying desperately to make public opinion forget this story, every day the blogsphere provides us with new details of he scandal that is sweeping away Al Franken, Evan Montvel-Cohen and Air America, the radio network ... [Read More]

Tracked on August 19, 2005 9:05 AM



Design & Skinning by:
m2 web studios





blog advertising



button1.jpg

Proud Ex-Pat Member of the Bear Flag League!