MichelleMaklin.com and Brian Maloney’s Radio Equalizer have posted part two of their series Inside Air America. Looks like Sheldon and Anita Drobny, the couple that started Air America, have a new venture up their sleeves. Perhaps just in time to bail on, instead of bail out the faltering radio network as well as on its financial liabilities, including paying back the $875,000 borrowed from Bronx based Gloria Wise Boys and Girls Club. Unfortunately for Gloria Wise, it looks to have more trouble coming at it very soon, with the staff of Boys & Girls clubs recommending to the national board of directors that this club be dropped from the organization’s ranks.

“Dropping an organization from membership is not something that’s done lightly,” said Evan McElroy, vice president for communications at the Boys and Girls Clubs headquarters. “It’s a very, very serious matter, an uncommon thing.”

The Gloria Wise club is one of 1,165 Boys and Girls Clubs affiliates nationwide operating about 3,700 clubs. Problems came to light this summer when New York City investigators determined that $875,000 in club funds had been loaned to Progress Media, the parent company of Air America.

New York City has since canceled about $9 million in contracts it had awarded the Gloria Wise Club. A spokesman for the New York Department of Investigation said Wednesday that the investigation into the club’s finances continues. It’s uncertain when the department’s final report will be complete.

Brian has some in-depth analysis of the Drobnys and their business practice MOs, plus he questions whether they have broken any SEC rules in the apparent pitching of a private placement just this last July, without any apparent prior SEC disclosure. That inquiry should be fun for them to answer!

Over at Michelle’s blog, she gets to the heart of the New York Times’ lateness in reporting on the Air America scandal, and its continuing reluctance to follow up via quotes from NYT ombudsman Byrone Calame and follow up quotes from Captain Ed and Thomas Lifson.

With hard-working, tenacious bloggers like Michelle and Brian delivering this type of one-two punch, what’s a discredited newspaper gonna do? The MSM must be woozy and swaying, just looking for a soft place to fall. BTW — don’t ask this of our local piece of thin-sheet landfill, ’cause they still haven’t printed a word about this. Guess they are gonna wait until Air America goes tits-up or somethin’ and then look at each other goin’ “Holy Krikey! How’d that happen?” Whatta rag we got for ourselves to read! (db)

This entry was posted on Thursday, August 18th, 2005 at 2:03 pm and is filed under Fever Swamp Madness, Media Bias. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.  |   Print This Post  |   Email This Post

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