N.Y. Community Center Loan Investigated
By DAVID B. CARUSO
The Associated Press
Saturday, August 13, 2005; 12:14 AM
NEW YORK -- State and city officials are investigating how $875,000 from a community center funded largely by government grants and contracts wound up in the coffers of Air America, the liberal radio network.
A spokesman for Attorney General Eliot Spitzer said his office has opened a probe into the financial dealings of the Gloria Wise Boys & Girls Club, which runs programs for poor children and senior citizens.
The center and officials at Air America Radio have acknowledged that at about the time of the network's founding in early 2004, the club made a series of loans to a company called Progress Media, which was then Air America's parent company.
Both entities have said the payments were arranged by Air America co-founder Evan Cohen, who, at the time, also was a development director at Gloria Wise.
Cohen's involvement with Air America was severed in May 2004 amid confusion surrounding the network's finances just a month after it went on the air. A new corporation, Piquant LLC, purchased the assets of Progress Media later that spring.
In June 2005, city agencies began canceling contracts with the Gloria Wise Boys & Girls Club while the city's Department of Investigation probed allegations that the club approved inappropriate transactions and falsified documents submitted to city agencies.
Department of Investigation spokeswoman Emily Gest said Friday that the probe is ongoing. Spitzer spokesman Brad Maione declined to comment on the attorney general's investigation into the club's activities, other than to confirm its existence.
Air America Radio said in a statement posted on its Web site that it had agreed to repay the $875,000, although it believed that the now-defunct Progress Media was legally responsible for the debt.
"If the allegations of mismanagement and corruption at Gloria Wise Boys and Girls Club are true, it is absolutely disgraceful," the statement said.
The network's star, comedian and talk show host Al Franken, addressed the issue briefly on his show Monday. He called Cohen "a crook" and said the network's current managers had discovered the loans through forensic accounting.
"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," Franken said. "I think he was robbing Peter to pay Paul."
He added that he believed the station has a moral obligation to repay the money.
Attempts to locate Evan Cohen were not immediately successful Friday.
A spokeswoman for Gloria Wise said the center is in "continuing discussions" with Air America on a repayment schedule for the loans.
N.Y. Community Center Loan Investigated
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Matt
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NYT Ombudsman Chides Paper for Being Slow on Air America Uptake
Times ombudsman and loyal company man Barney Calame (who's making predecessor Daniel Okrent look like a profile in courage) finally finds something to criticize his paper about in his latest web journal entry: The paper's almost nonexistent Air America coverage. (Hat tip to MediaCrity.)
Calame admits: "Readers of The Times were poorly served by the paper's slowness to cover official investigations into questionable financial transactions involving Air America, the liberal radio network. The Times's first article on the investigations finally appeared last Friday after weeks of articles by other newspapers in New York and elsewhere. The Times's recent slowness stands in contrast to its flurry of articles about Air America in the spring of 2004, when the network was launched. 'Liberal Voices (Some Sharp) Get New Home on Radio Dial,' read the headline on The Times's article the morning of March 31 when the network went on the air. The article noted that the network had a staff headlined by comedian Al Franken and hopes of establishing a counterpoint to conservative radio personalities such as Rush Limbaugh."
Calame makes the same points many conservatives have made: "Yet The Times was silent as other publications reported that city and state investigators were looking into whether the Gloria Wise Boys and Girls Club in the Bronx had made improper loans of as much as $875,000 to Air America. Mr. Cohen, it turned out, had served simultaneously as a top executive at Air America and as the club's development director. And since the club operated largely with grants from government sources, any money passed to Air America may have come from the public till. It has become clearer in the past week or so that Air America hasn't yet fully repaid the 'loans' from the club, and its financial condition remains murky even in The Times's article Friday. So the future of the radio network seems to be a key question for The Times to answer."
He gets associate managing editor Rick Berke to say: "We were slow in the first place and need to do more."
Calame asserts, with a nod to "conservative bloggers": "But it seems to me that this story is still unfolding, and The Times, for the sake of all its readers, needs to get to the bottom of any improper conduct and assess Air America's future. There's another reason to get to the bottom of the scandal. It's the perception problem -- a perception of liberal bias for which I haven't found any evidence after checking with editors at the paper. Failing to cover the story until late last week has led numerous readers, especially those who seemed inspired by conservative bloggers, to write in saying that a liberal bias in the newsroom caused the paper to downplay the budding scandal. One reader put it this way: 'If a conservative radio network had been started with money improperly 'borrowed' from a charity like a boys and girls club, it would be front page news for weeks in your paper. Once more, your left-wing bias is showing.'"
In this case, Calame is actually fulfilling his role as a reader advocate, not merely defending the integrity of the paper while acting insulted by criticism. The acid test: Will Calame bring up his Air America concerns in his actual biweekly column for the dead-tree version of the paper?
For the rest of the newly caffeinated Calame, click here.
Times ombudsman and loyal company man Barney Calame (who's making predecessor Daniel Okrent look like a profile in courage) finally finds something to criticize his paper about in his latest web journal entry: The paper's almost nonexistent Air America coverage. (Hat tip to MediaCrity.)
Calame admits: "Readers of The Times were poorly served by the paper's slowness to cover official investigations into questionable financial transactions involving Air America, the liberal radio network. The Times's first article on the investigations finally appeared last Friday after weeks of articles by other newspapers in New York and elsewhere. The Times's recent slowness stands in contrast to its flurry of articles about Air America in the spring of 2004, when the network was launched. 'Liberal Voices (Some Sharp) Get New Home on Radio Dial,' read the headline on The Times's article the morning of March 31 when the network went on the air. The article noted that the network had a staff headlined by comedian Al Franken and hopes of establishing a counterpoint to conservative radio personalities such as Rush Limbaugh."
Calame makes the same points many conservatives have made: "Yet The Times was silent as other publications reported that city and state investigators were looking into whether the Gloria Wise Boys and Girls Club in the Bronx had made improper loans of as much as $875,000 to Air America. Mr. Cohen, it turned out, had served simultaneously as a top executive at Air America and as the club's development director. And since the club operated largely with grants from government sources, any money passed to Air America may have come from the public till. It has become clearer in the past week or so that Air America hasn't yet fully repaid the 'loans' from the club, and its financial condition remains murky even in The Times's article Friday. So the future of the radio network seems to be a key question for The Times to answer."
He gets associate managing editor Rick Berke to say: "We were slow in the first place and need to do more."
Calame asserts, with a nod to "conservative bloggers": "But it seems to me that this story is still unfolding, and The Times, for the sake of all its readers, needs to get to the bottom of any improper conduct and assess Air America's future. There's another reason to get to the bottom of the scandal. It's the perception problem -- a perception of liberal bias for which I haven't found any evidence after checking with editors at the paper. Failing to cover the story until late last week has led numerous readers, especially those who seemed inspired by conservative bloggers, to write in saying that a liberal bias in the newsroom caused the paper to downplay the budding scandal. One reader put it this way: 'If a conservative radio network had been started with money improperly 'borrowed' from a charity like a boys and girls club, it would be front page news for weeks in your paper. Once more, your left-wing bias is showing.'"
In this case, Calame is actually fulfilling his role as a reader advocate, not merely defending the integrity of the paper while acting insulted by criticism. The acid test: Will Calame bring up his Air America concerns in his actual biweekly column for the dead-tree version of the paper?
For the rest of the newly caffeinated Calame, click here.
-Matt