I’m not so sure. Air America is under an obligation to act ethically and legally, sure: but I’m not convinced that these obligations require them to repay the money immediately.
Ethically, they might make a case that (legal concerns to the side) the deal benefited the Boys and Girls Club. I don’t know enough details of the case to say whether that argument holds water; but if the BAGC is receiving interest from endowment-style funds and is receiving free publicity, then Air America might well argue that both sides are benefiting. (By “endowment-style funds,” I mean the funds that nonprofits often set aside for capital projects or emergencies, funds that won’t be spent in the current fiscal year).
Legally, they’re required to abide by the law surrounding such loans. If a court tells them to repay the funds immediately, then I agree that they’re required to pay them back immediately. Short of such an order, I see no such obligation.
I must politely disagree. Coingate is a serious scandal with, apparently, genuine embezzlement - as in, the guy managing the coin fund is alleged to have transferred the state’s money into his personal bank accounts. And Ohio can kiss that money goodbye.
Compared to Coingate, this is a triviality: no allegation that the money’s been diverted for personal use; no claim that the money’s gone. Just that it shouldn’t have been loaned to Air America.
You’re ignoring half of what I posted. I noted that the links you provided do not support your implication that Air America did anything wrong. The facts may not all be out there, but the facts I do see make me think your undisguised glee is misplaced. I called you on it, other posters on it, and your response has been a string of disingenuousness.
No, but I did think it was important for our intelligence agencies to do their job properly.
threemae, Cohen is out of a job. Karl Rove still works for the President who promised to fire him. See a difference?
So far, this thread barely is enough to get a yawn out of me. My silly brain keeps repeating the phrase “so what”. Is this the best dirt you can find on those nasty scummy freedom hating libruls?
You can use the link to check any radio market in the country. You just have to know the call letters of the radio station in question.
That’s a good point, rjung. However, I think there are a couple of factors that still need to be considered.
First, The political climate is much more stratified now than it was in the early 90’s when Rush started. Therefore, I think people will more easily find and be open to a radio network that reflects their political tastes today than they were 15 years ago.
Also, you can’t compare the overall numbers of the entire station to the three hours of Limbaughs numbers. The numbers I used were overall ratings for both stations. To get a true comparison, one would need to add up the combined ratings of the “left” shows and compare them to the “right” shows. And it would need to be done on a national level, because of the different political tastes in different parts of the country. This leads me to a central point in my dismissal of the viability of Air America. If they are only pulling a 1.0 in New York, the largest radio market in the country, perhaps the most liberal behind San Francisco and with a large politically aware population…they will never make it in other less hospitable markets.
Being entertaining is definitely the key. But listeners have to be receptive to the overall message as well. Air America may survive if they can hang on long enough to build an audience…we’ll have to see.
No, I can’t. Donahue was a huge name and high name recognition. I don’t know what he was paid, but it was probably in keeping with his recognizability to the public. When he didn’t pull the numbers they expected, they cut him loose. He might have suffered because of MSNBC running a distant third to CNN and FOX.
Perhaps. The right person hasn’t been found yet, and the TV people won’t wait long enough to let them build an audience before pulling the trigger.
I’m hoping the Young Turks will be picked up for a TV show. Their radio version is pretty popular (as shows on Sirius Left go) and entertaining, they have TV experience, and they’re much more reasonable than, say, Janeane Garofalo.
If it is continuing to expand, it would appear it’s not just hanging on. But we’ll see. I only listened a couple of times, and was forced to listen sometimes at a job and just couldn’t deal with it. Shouty talk radio is not my cup of tea. This place is.
New York is the perfect incubator for Air America. As I said, the market is large enough that even a niche demographic can be large enough to make the advertising rates profitable.
However, the options narrow as the markets get smaller. In a city with four AM stations instead of 12, it’s a harder decision to sign on. When you get down to cities with one or two AM stations, you’ll be hard pressed to get someone to give up Limbaugh and company to go with Air America.
How far back into the boonies do you have to be for there to be only one or two AM stations?! I doubt Air America is worried about making it there for awhile yet. First you start with the cities that are big enough to support a major-league ball club of some sort, and pretty much all of them have a half-dozen or more AM stations, I betcha.
Plus, remember that in the smaller cities, it’s a lot cheaper to buy an AM station than in NYC, which cuts your costs down, so you can afford a much smaller audience.
