Air America: Raleigh's N&O sort of reports

Yesterday, two weeks after newspapers and bloggers began reporting on the loan scandal engulfing liberal talk-radio network Air America, Raleigh's News & Observer got around to reporting it, sort of. (Loans to Air America under scrutiny, Aug. 13. Pg. 6A). The report began:

The state attorney general's office and the city's Department of Investigation are looking into whether a boys and girls club serving poor children and ailing elderly people in the Bronx had improper financial dealings, including loans to the Air America radio network, state and city officials said yesterday. (The loans tolal almost $900,000.00. - JinC)

The N&O's sort of report is based on a The New York Times report which ran the previous day.

Why is the N&O's report a sort of?

For one thing, readers aren't told why The Times and the N&O delayed for almost 2 weeks reporting a scandal every other New York City daily, and newspapers and columnists across the country were reporting. Neither paper even bothered to inform readers of their delays.

This N&O paragraph in more sort of reporting:

Jim Grossman, a spokesman for Gloria Wise, said the club had given Air America about $875,000. He said the money had been placed in an escrow account and would eventually be repaid to the club.

What escrow account? Where? Who controls it? Is anything signed? If yes, by whom? Did New York City's Department of Investigation (DOI) and the Attorney General's office approve the account?

The last I read about any escrow account, NYC's DOI was complaining that all Air America had done was place $50.000.00 in an escrow account controlled by Air America's lawyer.

Updates, NYT and N&O? Investigative journalism, anyone?

Don't N&O readers deserve more than a delayed sort of report, Editor Sill?

Former NY Times public editor David Okrent has said, "If you think The Times plays it down the middle on (issues), you've been reading the paper with your eyes closed."

I won't dispute that. And to me that explains The Times delay and sort of reporting on Air America's troubles.

But Editor Sill says there's no liberal news bias in the N&O.

Well then, what explains the N&O's delay and sort of reporting?

(Readers of this post may be interested in the next post, "When you care enough to fawn and gush." It reminds us of the kind of coverage liberal news organizations like to give Air America.)

Now will the NY Times hire Michelle Malkin?

Michelle Malkin continues to provide detailed, fact-based coverage of the Air America loan scandal.

This morning she has two posts up here and here. Don't miss either of them.

Yesterday, Michelle reported the NY Times had botched a quote of Al Franken discussing the scandal on his show.

Here's how The Times reported the quote:

"I don't know why he did it," Mr. Franken said, according to a transcript of the broadcast made by the Department of Investigation. "I don't know where the money went. I don't know if it was used for operations. I think he was borrowing from Peter to pay Paul."

Michelle responded:

Here's what Franken actually said (via audio at Brainster's Blog and transcript at Brian Maloney, who busted this story wide open in the blogosphere the Times sneers at):

"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 [softer, especially fast], which I imagine it was. I think he was robbing Peter to pay Paul." (Bold added by Michelle)

Look at the difference those bold words make!

Yesterday, how many MSM "real journalists" would have believed Michelle had the quote right and the "journal of record" had it wrong?

Well, today Michelle reports:

As I reported here on Thursday night, New York Times reporter Alan Feuer botched the Al Franken quote in his article about the Air America loan. To its credit, the New York Times has run a correction acknowledging the error:

An article yesterday about state and city investigations of a loan made by a Bronx social service agency to the liberal radio network Air America quoted incorrectly from comments made on the air by Al Franken, the host of an Air America program. Referring to Evan M. Cohen, a former official of the network whom Mr. Franken accused of having engineered the loan, from the Gloria Wise Boys and Girls Club, Mr. Franken said: "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. I think he was robbing Peter to pay Paul." (He did not say: "I don't know why he did it. I don't know where the money went. I don't know if it was used for operations. I think he was borrowing from Peter to pay Paul.")

The Times still has not corrected its false assertion that the Franken quote came from a transcript of the broadcast provided by the NYC Department of Investigation. Anyone who still cares can write a letter of complaint to reporter Alan Feuer (feuer@nytimes.com), spokeswoman Catherine Mathis (mathis@nytimes.com), spokesman Toby Usnik (usnik@nytimes.com), and ombudsman Byron Calame (public@nytimes.com).

Nice work, Michelle. You make every blogger who believes in fair, full and accurate reporting proud.

An editor's "One standard for thee; another for me."

Remember Raleigh News & Observer exec. news editor and blogger Melanie Sill who famously told readers the N&O hadn't reported on the Air America loan scandal but “if a story is reported and distributed we will look at publishing it." Liberal bias, she said, had nothing to do with the N&O's silence.

Sill recently posted on another matter that has her very upset. She says many public officials and others are giving N&O reporters the brush-off. She's even experienced it herself.

According to Sill, the N&O only wants to ask people:

the kinds of questions readers often ask in online forums, letters to the editor and notes or calls to The N&O.

But Sill says a growing list of public officials:

are comfortable adopting no comment as standard practice.

An example?

The latest example is Gov. Mike Easley’s (denial of a request by an N&O reporter) for an interview.

And there's more:

Public information officers who don't return phone calls. Police chiefs and sheriffs who won't answer questions.

Brush-offs by police chiefs, sheriffs and governors understandably upset journalists.

But it's even worse than that for Sill and her team. All North Carolinians know there are a handful of people here who are far more important than even the governor. And Sill says they too are now brushing-off the N&O:

UNC basketball coach Roy Williams … wouldn't talk to N&O reporters.

And:

N.C. State football Coach Chuck Amato wouldn't grant us an interview — on the phone or in person.

Sill ends with this:

While working on this column, I sought to hear (Governor) Easley’s side of things. I put in a request to interview the governor or his representative on Monday afternoon, noting I was on deadline. The response? No interview with the governor or anyone else. Instead, I received a lengthy email statement from Cari Boyce in the governor's press office saying that our reporters are free to chase down the governor at public events (as they do as often as they can) and ask him questions.

Thanks, Ms. Boyce, but that's not what I asked.

Well, we don’t know what the folks Sill’s talking about would say to us; but we sure know Sill is in foot-stamping mode.

That said, I find myself asking a question: Why is Sill so upset with people she feels don't respond to her and her staff's questions when she hasn't responded to important questions and comments readers posted days ago at her blog?

Examples:

Many readers saw Sill’s “if a story is reported and distributed we will look at publishing it” remark as an excuse or worse for not reporting on Air America.

One of them noted:

On March 31, 2004 (you published) an A1 front page piece entitled "New liberal network takes on conservative kings of radio" on Air America by James Rosen of your Washington Bureau.

So, apparently you have no problem with reporting on Air America on your front page AND doing your own independent reporting on it when it is a good, positive happy piece. However, when it is not so happy, it doesn't even make it into the paper, much less A1.

Many readers made observations such as this:

In her first Air America post, Melanie said:

"We've checked our news services in recent days and do not find this story"

but in her second post (after many commentators told her where to find "this story"), Melanie said:

"I found the same stories on Air America that you all mention a couple days ago in Internet searches and by using Factiva, a paid service we use for research"

Sill tells readers, “ public officials who won't discuss issues central to their public responsibilities are dissing you, the public.”

But she says nothing about news editors who make glaringly self-contradictory statements and don't bother to explain them.

Tell us what they're doing to the public, Melanie?

NY Times report: Fact and spoof

Some of the following is true; some is spoof. I bet you can guess which is which. If you're not sure, here's a big hint: The NYT is finally reporting about the Air America loan scandal.
__________________________________________________

Blogger Michelle Malkin is reporting that The New York Times, America's highest circulation liberal daily, will announce in Friday's paper that a sister liberal media organization, talk-radio network Air America, is the subject of investigations by both New York City's Department of Investigation and New York State's Attorney General.

The investigations deal with bizarre loan(s) totaling $875,000.00 made by a community service organization to one of its board members, who at the time was also an executive with Air America. Some money paid for the executive's personal expenses, but investigators believe most want to Air America.

Air America talk-show host Al Franken, self-identified as a scandal victim, seems to have suffered no loss in public approval because of the scandal.

According to a poll completed just this evening by The Pew Center for Liberal Humbuggery, Franken's approval rating is statistically the same as those of America's two most popular liberal icons, Sen. Ted Kennedy and the Rev. Al Sharpton.

The Times' announcement follows by almost two weeks reports on the scandal by every other New York City daily.

Asked to comment on The Times' delay, Malkin said only, "Well, that's The Times for you, isn't it?"

Thank you & a bit about the N&O editor

I wanted to post an update on what's happened since Aug. 9 when Raleigh News & Observer news editor and blogger Melanie Sill claimed the liberal N&O couldn't report on the loan scandal engulfing liberal talk-radio network Air America because: "We've checked our news services in recent days and do not find this story."

A lot has happened these past 2 days.

But I need more time to pull it all together. So please check back tomorrow after 5 PM Eastern.

Now, please read on. Thanks; and other important items follow.

Heartfelt thanks go to all of you who've pitched in and helped put Sill's "do not find" claim out in the blogosphere. You've given clear context to what Sill is saying. It will be hard for anyone to misunderstand her position.

There are the bloggers who linked: Michelle Malkin, Confederate Yankee, Captainsquartersblog, Palmetto Pundit, and others I'm sure I missed.

There are also the more than 140 of you who have either posted informative and/or appropriately critical messages at Sill's blog, commented at JinC or e-mailed me.

Be sure to go to Sill's blog here (her first post) and here (her second post). Read those messages. They'll tell you an awful lot about the Raleigh N&O and what's acceptable in MSM news organizations.

After reading them, I doubt anyone but folks like Sen. Kennedy and Al Franken will say there isn't liberal bias in at least one MSM newspaper.

Yes, there have been a handful of "messages" to Sill and me that we'd all be better off without. They don't belong in civil discourse.

But with more than 140 valuable messages --- and that kind still coming in -- well, readers, what can I say but thank you.

Now, I'll leave you with just one example of what I mean by a valuable message. It was left at Sill's blog. She's yet to respond to it, but she sure needs to. Here's part of it:

________________

In her first Air America post, Melanie said:

"We've checked our news services in recent days and do not find this story"

but in her second post (after many commentators told her where to find "this story"), Melanie said:

"I found the same stories on Air America that you all mention a couple days ago in Internet searches and by using Factiva, a paid service we use for research"

The commentator added:

I am so confused...
___________________

Let's hope Sill gets around to clearing up her self-contradiction and the ensuing confusion.

Contact info for McClatchy papers

For those of you who want MSM to report on the Air America scandal here's a list of the McClatchy news organization dailies with contact information.

While some papers have reported on the story, most of MSM is ignoring it.

My hope is that if we can convince the McClatchy papers to publish, their publishing will encourage other MSM papers to do the same.

If enough readers make short, civil, fact-based calls to McClatchy news execs, we may convince them to give the story the attention it deserves. Thanks in advance.

California

The Fresno Bee
fresnobee.com
Publisher: Ray Steele 559-441-6060
Editor: Charlie Waters 559-441-6410

The Modesto Bee
modbee.com
Publisher: Lynn Dickerson 209-578-2090
Editor: Mark Vasche 209-578-2356

The Sacramento Bee
sacbee.com
Publisher: Janis Besler Heaphy 916-321-1885
Editor: Rick Rodriguez 916-321-1002

Merced Sun-Star
mercedsun-star.com
Publisher: Hank Vander Veen 209-385-2400
Editor: Joseph W. Kieta 209-385-2456


Minnesota

Star Tribune
Minneapolis
startribune.com
Publisher: Keith Moyer 612-673-7902
Editor: Anders Gyllenhaal 612-673-1734


North Carolina

The News & Observer
Raleigh
newsobserver.com
Publisher: Orage Quarles III 919-829-4659
Editor: Melanie Sill 919-829-8986


South Carolina

The Beaufort Gazette
beaufortgazette.com
Publisher: Sara Johnson Borton 843-706-8105
Executive Editor: Steve Blust 843-986-5530

The Herald
Rock Hill
heraldonline.com
Publisher: Valerie D. Canepa 803-329-4042
Editor: Terry Plumb 803-329-4060

The Island Packet
Bluffton and Hilton Head Island
islandpacket.com
Publisher: Sara Johnson Borton 843-706-8105
Editor: Fitz McAden 843-706-8110


Washington

The News Tribune
Tacoma
tribnet.com
Publisher: Cheryl Dell 253-597-8554
Editor: David Zeeck 253-597-8434

Tri-City Herald
Kennewick
tri-cityherald.com
Publisher: Rufus Friday 509-582-1443
Editor: Ken Robertson 509-582-1520


Alaska

Anchorage Daily News
adn.com
Publisher: Mike Sexton 907/257-4210
Editor: Patrick Dougherty 907-257-4303

Hat Tip: Contact information comes from McClatchy's site: http://www.mcclatchy.com/newspapers/non_dailies/

Also,a blog visitor linked me to McClatchy's site.

Air America and N&O editor: There's more to do.

With very few exceptions, the messages responding to Raleigh News & Obswever exec. news editor and blogger Melanie Sill have been civil, informed, and literate. The best of the blogosphere!

The e-mails I've received have been the same.

Very many of the messages have focused on a self-contradiction Melanie put before us. Here, in part, is what one commentator said:
________________

In her first Air America post, Melanie said:

"We've checked our news services in recent days and do not find this story"

but in her second post Melanie said:

"I found the same stories on Air America that you all mention a couple days ago in Internet searches and by using Factiva, a paid service we use for research"

The commentator added:

I am so confused...
___________________

Melanie needs to clear up her self-contradiction and the ensuing confusion so people can move on.

Meanwhile, the N&O should report on the Air America scandal.

I think N&O readers would be proud if the N&O led its sister McClatchy papers in reporting on the scandal.

And wouldn't it be great if then the McClatchy papers broke through the current MSM blackout and brought the story to the American public’s attention?

Here’s a chance for MSM news organizations and bloggers to team.

I’ll post tomorrow by 11 AM Eastern a list of McClatchy papers with e-mail and phone contacts.

Check back then. If we all do our bit, something good might happen. Don’t give up on MSM.

BTW – If anyone does the McClatchy contact work first, please send the link.

And now, good night.

John

Help an editor find the Air America story

(Welcome visitors from Michelle Malkin, Mudville Gazette, and other blogs I may have missed. After you read this post, you can go here for more about the N&O's liberal bias. If you'd like something lighter, you might try: Sen. Kerry sure makes a lot of demands.)


Raleigh News & Observer news editor and blogger Melanie Sill and I have had a few back-and-forths regarding whether readers' complaints of liberal bias in the N&O’s news columns are valid. You can guess what each of us believes. But right now that’s not important.

What’s important is that Sill says she can’t find the Air America scandal story, so the N&O can’t even consider reporting on it. That was after other readers had alerted her to the story, and I had e-mailed her regarding a post which included the following paragraph:

The scandal has been widely reported in all New York City newspapers except the liberal Times. For instance, here and here. National newspaper columnists have reported on it. Here’s Mark Steyn’s column. Bloggers have reported, with Michelle Malkin and Ed Morrissey on top of the story every day. I just Googled “Air America loan scandal” and got more than 330,000 hits.

Sill responded at her blog and by e-mail.

Here's Sill’s blog post in full:

Re Air America complaints

Here's a brief response I've sent a couple of email correspondents who accuse The N&O of liberal bias for not publishing a story on financial questions they have heard about involving Air America, the national radio network heard in the Triangle on WCHL-AM in Chapel Hill, and a charity in the Bronx. Here's what I said: "We've checked our news services in recent days and do not find this story... if a story is reported and distributed we will look at publishing it."

Blogs can draw attention to overlooked stories, and perhaps that's the case here. We'll keep looking.

Here's Sill's e-mail response in full:

John,

I'll repeat this brief response on the blog... we've checked our news
services repeatedly and do not find this story. In searching blogs I
find repeated references but no original reporting. Thus I'm not
certain at this point what "story" exists on Air America, but if a
story is reported and distributed we will look at publishing it. I'd
point out that this is an example of conspiracy theories without basis.
You accuse me and The N&O of bias -- where is any evidence of this?

Best regards,
Melanie Sill

Well, obviously I failed to get my message across. But let’s move on.

Can any of you help Editor Sill who will "keep looking" but is "not certain at this point what 'story' exists on Air America?"

Raleigh's News & Observer is one of the two largest daily circulation newspapers in North Carolina (The Charlotte Observer is the other). The N&O is part of the McClathey news chain. So any help given Sill could have a big impact.

Readers - bloggers - journalists - please help.

I'm glad Sill is blogging and dialogues with readers. Many MSM execs won't.

Here’s the link to her blog. Her e-mail is: msill@newsobserver.com

Thanks,

John

An MSM pundit wants to fire someone

We hear day-by-day about all sorts of questionable practices by MSM news organizations and it seems nothing happens. But now there's a MSM pundit ready to fire someone?

If you're saying to yourself, "Sure. Is it Carl Rove or the President the pundit wants fired," then you understand just how most of MSM works.

This time it's the President who should be fired/impeached; and it's Beth Quinn of Middletown, New York's Times Record-Herald who wants him impeached.

Quinn's evidence for the impeachment? Must you ask?

Well, she offers the discredited Downing Street memos which the reporter who claimed to have gotten the originals from "a reliable source" says he no longer has. But he did make photo copies of them.

The photo copies? Where are they?

Why, the reporter burnt those, of course. Don't you understand?

Anyway, Confederate Yankee does a first-rate job of telling us about the "Downing Street memos," and in the process he helps us recognize the kind of pundit Beth Quinn is.

His post is a model of the sort of post I try for but often fall short of.

Nice work, CR!

Palmetto Pundit picks up on some MSM hokum

With some gentle poking at The Washington Post for its annual whine about the President's vacation, Palmetto Pundit reminds me again of why he's one of my favorite bloggers.

But I've a question for him. Something he didn't cover in his post.

When comparing President Bush's vacation days to President Clinton's, does the Washington Post count days Clinton spent in the Oval Office with Monica as work or vacation days?

How about all that time Clinton spent with attorneys working up his defense in the Paula Jones suit, and the time he later spent negotiating that $800,000.00 settlement with her?

I'd say all that time was vacation/play related, but I'll listen to any Democrat in or out of MSM who says it was work.

But, of course, the final call is the Washington Post's.

Sen. Kerry sure makes a lot of demands

At Realclearpolitics.com, author and scholar Thomas Sowell notes Senator John Kerry "has called the activation of reservists and National Guardsmen 'a backdoor draft.' " Kerry has demanded those activations stop.

In 2003, as American troops were fighting their way into Baghdad, Kerry demanded regime change in the capital city. He was, of course, talking not about Baghdad but Washington.

At the outset of the 2004 presidential campaign, Kerry called a group of businessmen "Benedict Arnolds." Shortly thereafter, he demanded people stop questioning his patriotism.

Later in the presidential campaign, Kerry called the Swift boat veterans liars. Then he demanded they stop criticizing him.

Recently, Kerry demanded the release of all records relating to Judge John Roberts' government service, including records most legal scholars say are protected by attorney-client privilege.

Come to think about it, Kerry's demanded just about everything except release of his own military records.

A kinder, gentler Al Franken?

If you've read Al Franken's books Rush Limbaugh is a Big Fat Idiot and Other Observations and Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Then; and listened to his harsh personal attacks on those with whom he disagrees, you may have said to yourself: "Al Franken just can't be nice to anyone."

Well, you'd be wrong about that.

An article in today's New York Post reveals a soft-spoken Franken who's sympathetic to someone he sees as a victim: himself.

AL Franken says 20,000 poor kids and old people weren't the only victims of an exec who allegedly arranged a Bronx charity's mega-buck "loan" to Air America.

"About three weeks into the life of Air America, I became an involuntary investor — I stopped being paid," Franken told listeners yesterday on WLIB (1190 AM).

It was the first time the all-liberal network's biggest star addressed at length a controversial $875,000 loan from the disgraced — and now de-funded — Gloria Wise Boys & Girls Club.

Is this really a new kinder, gentler Al Frankem we're seeing? Or is he just being careful what he says concerning his former boss and friend about whom he may have to testify in a number of legal proceedings?

And what's with this Franken being victim number 20,001? He's financially very well off, unlike the kids who are among New York City's poorest.

Finally, when will Franken tell us whether he'll invite Michelle Malkin on his show; and if so, under what terms?

I'm sending him another e-mail as soon as I finish this.

Hat Tip: Michelle Malkin

Raleigh News & Observer editor has a bias test

Raleigh News & Observer executive editor and blogger Melanie Sill continues to get readers’ complaints about liberal bias at the N&O.

Sill denies the paper's news columns contain bias:

People I meet often seem to think we make decisions on news based on politics, either overtly or unconsciously. Instead, our framework for pursuing news is based on journalistic questions.

Sill wants readers who see a N&O liberal bias to take a kind of test:

When I've spoken with others who share this perception, I've asked them to look at the paper for a few days as if they were on the other side.

As for any readers who might still see bias, Sill says:

If you're looking for evidence of bias, you can find it.

Despite Sill’s dismissive "If you’re looking for evidence of bias, you can find it," I hope readers will take Sill’s "the other side" test.

But first Sill should give us a clearer idea of what she means by looking from "the other side."

Does she mean political leanings left and right? What constitutes looking from "the other side" for those of us who are political independents or apolitical?

Will Sill accept readers' identification of bias based both on what the N&O reports and on what it fails to report? After all, what a newspaper fails to report can be an excellent indicator of its bias.

For example, on Aug. 5 the N&O ran a pg. 2, three- column, top of the page story with photo about a dustup conservative columnist Bob Novak and Democrat political operative James Carville had on CNN which resulted in Novak’s walking off the set, and subsequently being suspended by CNN.

I’ve no problem with the N&O running a story on the Novak/Carville dustup. It’s newsworthy.

But when I read the Novak/Carville story and also know the N&O has maintained for at least 10 days a news blackout on the loan scandal engulfing liberal talk-radio network Air America, I think about new bias.

If you’re familiar with the Air America scandal, you may want to skip the following paragraph. If you count on the N&O for your news, you may want to read it.

The Air America scandal is now in its 11th day. New York City’s Department of Investigation and New York State’s Attorney General are investigating how and why a community service agency, funded primarily with government grants and charged with serving poor children and the elderly, made unsecured loans to one of its board of directors, who at the time was also an owner of Air America . At least $875,000.00 in loans is involved. Investigators have determined some of the money was spent for personal items; the rest given to financially strapped Air America. New York City will no longer provide money to the community agency. That's forced it to suspend most of its services to some of the city’s poorest children and elderly in the Bronx. Air America has issued a number of statements but they've failed to answer important questions.

The scandal has been widely reported in all New York City newspapers except the liberal Times. For instance, here and here. National newspaper columnists have reported on it. Here’s Mark Steyn’s column. Blogger have reported, with Michelle Malkin and Ed Morrissey on top of the story every day. I just Googled “Air America loan scandal” and got more than 330,000 hits.

All of that, but not one word about the scandal in Raleigh’s liberal N&O.

Besides clarifying what she means by “the other side,” I hope Editor Sill will encourage readers to identify N&O bias not just by what the paper reports, but by what it leaves out.

I'm trackbacking to her post and e-mailing her this post.

Mr. Orkin: Stop by The New York Times

First, The New York Times tried secretly to get into the sealed adoption records of the 4 and 5 year old children of Judge John Roberts and his wife Jane.

The Times "investigation team" only stopped when Matt Drudge and Fox News' Brit Hume turned the lights on them.

The Times then scurried for cover with a Bill Keller "Hey, I'm adopted to" statement.

Now those who fill the The Times "news columns" are back with this headline: "Roberts's View About Privacy Is Still Unclear."

Someone needs to call the pest control man, Mr Orkin. He can be reached here.

If Malkin's ready for Franken's show, where's Al?

Is Michelle Malkin ready to go on Al Franken’s show?

Yesterday, I posted an open e-mail to Franken saying I understood it’s hard for him to talk about Air America’s loan scandal. So why not invite Michelle Malkin on. She’ll present the facts and history of the scandal; then answer listeners’ questions. It’s the least his listeners deserve.

I’ve heard nothing yet from Franken. Malkin responded with “fat chance,” which I think means she’s willing to go on but feels Franken will duck and not invite her.

But one commentator at my blog thinks Malkin’s "fat chance" remark means she wouldn’t go on. I replied (see below)

I’m sending this to Malkin. She can speak for herself.

Meanwhile, if you know Al Franken, please ask him to get in touch with me. If he prefers, he’s of course free to call Malkin to let her know his decision.
____________________________________________________________

REPLY TO COMMENT:

A commentator said Michelle Malkin's response indicated she didn't want to go on Al Franken's show.

I think her response indicated she thought there was a "fat chance" (her words) Al Franken would invite her on his show to discuss the Air America loan scandal.

I think Malkin is willing to go on.

Anyway, Malkin can tell us if she'll go on Franken's show and under what conditions.

Franken can tell us whether he'll invite her on and under what conditions.

And meanwhile, the rest of us can visit Malkin's blog and read her latest updates on the scandal.

And we can also visit Franken’s blog at Air America. Maybe one of us will be the first person to see a recent post by Franken or anyone else at Air America about the loan.

I'm going to ask Malkin if she'll promise to link on her site to anything Franken or Air America posts at theirs.

Then, we can all make up our minds.

Are you OK with what I'm proposing?

Thanks for commenting.

John

To Al Franken: Invite Michelle Malkin on

(Welcome visitors from Michelle Maklin and Mudville Gazette. - John)

I just sent the following e-mail to Al Franken. What do you think he'll say?

Dear Mr. Franken:

You’re understandably uncomfortable talking on your show about the Air America scandal.

Who wouldn’t be if New York City’s Department of Investigation and New York State’s Attorney General were looking into how their employer spent on himself and his network hundreds of thousands of dollars meant for needy children and Alzheimer victims?

What’s more, I’m sure attorneys have told you that at some point you may be called to testify in a criminal investigation. So besides being uncomfortable, you must be extraordinarily circumspect.

Yet Air America listeners deserve to know the facts.

What to do? How about inviting Michelle Malkin on your show? Let her give listeners a summery of what’s happened and then take questions. You wouldn’t have to get into “sticky stuff” yourself; you could just facilitate.

Malkin would be a great choice. She’s followed the scandal since day one; and posted on it often. She’ll be able to state the facts, provide informed commentary, and answer listeners’ questions.

How about it?


Sincerely,

John
www.johnincarolina.com

Millions approve what The Times did

(Update: Rightwingnews.com satires the NY Times' efforts to get into the Roberts' children's adoption records. Take a look at it here along with the post bolow.)

Michelle Malkin has an excellent post regarding The New York Times' efforts to get into the sealed adoption records of Judge John Roberts and his wife Jane's children. Her post includes letters rightly critical of The Times but none supporting it.

While they may be silent now, we can be sure millions approve what The Times did. We'll hear from them soon.

I bet we can agree they'll turn out to be people:

who said it was a private matter when President Clinton had oral sex with a young intern in the Oval Office while he talked on the phone with a California congressman about troop deployment;

who join liberal interest groups like People for the American Way and NARAL because they "care passionately" about their "right to privacy;"

who still think Fahrenheit 9/11 was a documentary;

who oppose airport and subway baggage searches;

who had no problem with Dan Rather and CBS's use of forged documents;

who are just fine with The Times' "fake but accurate" standard when President Bush or anyone else they oppose is concerned, but who would never accept "fake but accurate" if used by police and DAs to convict a career criminal who murdered a store clerk;

who love the ACLU because of "it's defense of due process," but want Carl Rove fired and his security clearance lifted immediately;

and who say, "What liberal media bias? Conservative are just making that up."

In short, the usual collection from "the Democratic wing of the Democratic party," Move-on.org, the far Left, the Academy, and MSM.

Mark Steyn on Britain and what it must do

Mark Steyn is the kind of pundit I like. He speaks clearly and always leaves me thinking. Here he is in London Daily Telegraph yesterday saying things the ruling Establishment would just as soon leave unsaid:

It's not black (the bomber) and white (the rest of us); there's a lot of murky shades of grey in between: the terrorist bent on devastation and destruction prowls the streets, while around him are a significant number of people urging him on, and around them a larger group of cocksure young men gleefully celebrating mass murder, and around them a much larger group of people who stand silent at the acts committed in their name, and around them a mesh of religious and community leaders openly inciting mayhem, and around them a savvy network of professional identity-group grievance-mongers adamant that they're the real victims, and around them a vast mass of progressive elites too squeamish about ethno-cultural matters to confront reality, and around them a political establishment desperate to pretend this is just a managerial problem that can be finessed away with a new bureaucracy and a bit of community outreach.

And at the end of this chain of shades of grey is you. And, be honest, were you surprised at any of the developments of the past four weeks? Was it really shocking to you that young men born and bred in the United Kingdom are willing to take bombs on to the Tube and buses? Were you stunned that cells of Islamic terrorists from countries with which Britain has very few traditional or historical ties are living at taxpayers' expense in London council flats? Were you knocked for six to discover that bookstores in Leeds sell video games where Muslim men can play at slaughtering infidels? Were you flabbergasted to hear Birmingham's senior and famously "moderate" Islamic cleric, invited along by the West Midlands Police to their press conference, argue that the men named as responsible for the attacks were merely innocent commuters?

Not only has Britain been tolerent of terrorists and terror enablers in its midst, Steyn feels it's all but encouraged them to settle there.

In 2001, after a Dutch crackdown on benefit fraud, 10,000 Somalis moved from Holland to one East Midlands town - Leicester. Why wouldn't a Somali jihadist fancy his chances in such a country?

Steyn makes clear that defeating terrorism in Britain will require Prime Minister Blair to lead the country in a new direction. Failing to do so will lead to catastrophe.

Tony Blair talks a good talk, explaining the rationale for war far better than President Bush. But he now needs not just to talk but to act. In France, the interior minister, Nicolas Sarkozy, has just expelled another dozen Islamists. By contrast, Mr Blair seems paralysed. In the weeks after 9/11, Mr Bush rethought 40 years of US policy in the Middle East. The Prime Minister has a more difficult task: he has to rethink 40 years of British policy in Leicester and Bradford and Leeds and Birmingham.

He has to regain control of Britain's borders from the EU and of Britain's education system from the teachers' unions and of Britain's welfare programmes from wily Somalis and others. In 20 years' time, no one will remember whether Tony Blair abolished the House of Lords or foxhunting: that's poseur stuff. They'll judge him on whether or not he funked the central challenge of the times. If "the images of ruin and destruction" come to pass, it will not be because of the bombers but because of a state that lacked the cultural confidence to challenge them. (Bold added)

Steyn's column is here. (Registration may be required.)

The Times won't say what's up at Air America

Michelle Malkin and Captain Ed at Captains Quarters are all over a pair of growing scandals.

One involves liberal network Air America's receipt of hundreds of thousands of dollars from a New York non-profit. The money was supposes to benefit poor children and Alzheimer sufferers. The network can't say what happened to the money. Investigators are tracking the money trail. Al Franken is giving not very helpful interviews.

The second scandal is the refusal of major MSM news organizations to cover the Air America scandal. For instance, the New York Times has said nothing about the ongoing investigantion even as other New York papers - The Daily News, The Post and The Sun -have reported extensively on it. The Times' silence has many media types scratching their heads since in the past The Times has always been eager to trumpet Air America's activities. Malkin and Captain Ed are going to follow the scandals. Stay with them.

Meanwhile, if your not already familiar with the Air America scandal, here's part of an editorial from this morning's Washington Times which provides a good summery of what is known so far.

Here's what is known thus far. On Friday, Air America confirmed that last year it did in fact take money from a city-funded nonprofit that runs progams in the Bronx for children and Alzheimer's sufferers, and that it plans to pay the money back. It also revealed that it refuses to accept responsibility: First it blamed the Gloria Wise Boys & Girls Club, the nonprofit, calling the club's alleged behavior "absolutely disgraceful"; then it blamed Progress Media, a now-defunct Air America parent company, and said it had no obligation to pay the money back. But Air America announced it would pay the money back because it is "very disturbed that Air America Radio's good name could be associated with a reduction in services for young people."

It's also clear that Air America was the primary beneficiary of whatever "absolutely disgraceful" corruption occurred. As Jeannette Graves, president of Gloria Wise's executive committee, explained to the New York Sun this week, Mr. Cohen received more than $800,000 for himself and for Air America. She and her colleagues approved two $35,000 "loans" to Mr. Cohen plus another $167,000 for Air America because "he had thrown a tremendously successful fund-raising affair for Gloria Wise in Manhattan last year." He was "a very wonderful young man" who "left a very favorable impression." The rest of the transfers apparently happened without Mrs. Graves' knowledge: Someone approved a $213,000 loan with Mrs. Graves' name rubber-stamped on it plus a whopping $400,000 wire transfer.

Sounds serious. Do you thing Sen. Schumer will want to take a look?

Cultural tolerance cuts both ways

David Davis, the leading candidate to succeed Michael Howard as Britain's Conservative Party leader, writes today in the Daily Telegraph (registration may be required):

Let us be clear. Non-Muslims have obligations to their Muslim fellow citizens - to strive for equal opportunities for all, to accept the mainstream version of Islam as a part of society, and to reject the vile racism of the BNP (extremist, anti-immigrant party - ed.) and its like. But Muslims in turn have obligations: not simply to condemn terror, as one Labour MP put it, but to confront it.

Most Britons, Muslim and non-Muslim alike, will accept, even welcome, what Davis is saying.

But Davis' words are sure to draw objections from his country's multiculti far Left which typically supports what's worst and opposes what's good. It's been for the Bolsheviks, for Stalin, for Hitler when Stalin made a pact with him, for Mao and Che, for the Islamic fundamentalists, and for Castro's Cuba and North Korea. It's been against the Marshall Plan, against NATO, against defending South Korea, and against the Anglo-American and Euro-American alliances.

Unlike many British political leaders reluctant to act unless they can persuade the far Left "to join with us," Davis moves on and offers specific proposals to implement the principles he sets out.

Al-Qa'eda's long-term ambition is to eliminate moderate Islam altogether. It is therefore in the interests of moderate Muslims to support such measures as the extension of stop and search, the closing down of websites which support terror, the barring from Britain of clerics who support terrorist activity, and the licensing of visiting clerics.

To Britain's Muslim religious leaders Davis says:

Religious leaders have a special responsibility when those who commit crimes claim to be motivated by religion. We must acknowledge that there are good imams and bad imams. Most preach the true Muslim faith in a manner consistent with the society in which they live. Others, though, do not represent Islam properly and fail to understand the conventions of British society. Indeed, their aim is to destroy it. The Government must do more to encourage good imams to train here in Britain. Muslims themselves should help root out the bad ones.

Davis also has a message for all Britons:

Britain has a proud history of tolerance and respect towards people of different views, faiths and backgrounds. But we should not flinch from demanding the same tolerance and respect for the British way of life.

Making an unflinching demand for the same tolerance and respect Britain has shown others will require a course adjustment by Britain's ruling establishment. Let's hope it can make that adjustment. Davis seems determined to see that it does.

Unknown to most American's, Davis is obviously a person to watch. I'm now very interested in the Conservative party leadership election. I'll post more on it tomorrow.

Hat Tip: Instapundit.com