At long last, we have heard from the local Newspaper of Record on the Air America scam! I'd repaste some of it here, but frankly it's already stuff we have hammered upon ad nauseam here. The only new snippet I found was this:
Ms. Horn added that investigators recently told the network that Mr. Cohen had served simultaneously as the development director for Gloria Wise, although the network was not aware of that at the time.
So far as I know, this claim, that Progress Media was somehow unaware that one of their board members was also the development director for a major local charity, is a first. I guess he sort of forgot that on the resume? Never came up in a background search? Heck, a Google search? Cohen never once mentioned it to the good folks he ran a company with?
They also repeat Al Franken's very dubious claim that Air America no longer has to legally repay the money. We are still waiting to hear an explanation for why the DOI is giving them guidelines for loan repayment if this is so.
Michelle also gets a nice mention in the article, and the Times also recognizes the role of the blogs in bringing this story to the forefront.
On the whole, the article is somewhat less than we'd expect if it was the EIB under consideration, as opposed to Air America.
The good news is that the Times was only behind the Arizona Republic, the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, The Oregonian, the Washington Times, the Sun, the Post, the Daily News, the Opinion Journal, Investors Business Daily and about a zillion blogs (with no editors!) on this story that almost exclusively happened within the confines of New York. It also makes you wonder, given the fact that papers from across the country beat them by several days, why this story was carried in the local/regional section.
Further good news is that they are only two weeks behind the curve, which means that they are slowly but surely catching up to the rest of the world.
Be sure to check out Michelle's post on this, as well. Kudos to Michelle for providing much of the momentum on this story - without her sticking on it, this probably never sees the light of day.
Maybe the N.Y.Times should bring back Jayson Blair!
Posted by: Tom Bosee | August 12, 2005 at 04:32 AM
Congratulations Leon. I would rather give you the credit for this than Michelle Malkin.
I don't think this is a big story, but you were right to question why it hadn't received any major press.
Posted by: Blue Neponset | August 12, 2005 at 06:01 AM