When DRUDGE talks, people listen. Despite Rush’s claim to the contrary, it is Drudge that is “America’s Assignment Desk”.
Every newsroom, talk radio, newspaper, television station in America – and yes, even Rush himself – gets their daily assignments via Drudge’s handpicked headlines. If you hear an interesting report on the radio, chances are Drudge had it first and that’s where those guys found it.
So when Drudge declared the day before yesterday that “Liberal Radio Crashes and Burns!” – or whatever the sexy screaming headline was – without actually presenting both sides of the story,, leave it to every Conservative outlet, talking head, DittoHead in the country to run with it.
When you’re starved for good news, you’ll take anything you can get. “Conservatives” these days are, to say the least, hungry for anything to avoid the real shitstorm they’re in the middle of.
For the record, Air America posted it’s initial response yesterday on their website, explaining that the owner of the two stations in question that yanked AA from the air without warning did so “in violation of their contractual obligation”. Whether that’s true, I don’t know. Though apparently the New York Supreme court agrees, at least enough to issue a restraining order forcing the station’s owner to restore AA back to the Chicago station (over which, apparently, that court has jurisdiction). The Los Angeles case is still pending.
The AA press release to that effect is here. And also states in part:
The Sludge Report
After just two weeks on the air, Air America Radio, the fledgling liberal talk-radio network featuring Al Franken, Janeane Garofalo, and that really loud woman from Florida, appears to have encountered serious cash-flow problems.
Stop the presses!!! There’s nothing more exciting than half a story from a third hand source!!!!
Insiders tell SLUDGE, that the reason the network was pulled off the air this morning in Chicago and Los Angeles, the network’s second- and third-largest markets, was because, the owner of both stations, Arthur Liu of Multicultural Broadcasting, said, the network bounced a check and owes him more than $1 million! The run-on sentence, tortured grammar and the exclamation point clearly means it’s true!!
Only it isn’t.
Normally we’d let this go because “habitual liars” like Drudge are laughable, and ridicule is our business.
But Arthur Liu — not funny. He lied to us, he ripped us off and now we’re chasing him down with a pipe wrench. It’s a metaphor.
Here’s what really happened:
This Liu-ser was ripping off our boss Evan Cohen big time (he can’t do that, that’s our job). Evan found out about it and he stopped payment on a check to keep Liu-cifer from ripping him off even more. You can touch Evan for the occasional meal or drinks but a million bucks is crossing the line. And if we ever get low on cash, we can always call Barbra Streisand. Or any of the
Baldwins. Except Stephen.
So we got screwed, Liu’d, and tattooed. How Liu can you get? In Liu of payment. Liu’d and lascivious behavior. These write themselves. What we’re getting at is that we hate him.
So now everyone’s saying we’re going down the dumper in Chicago and Los Angeles, but what they don’t tell you is that we’re still on in Portland. And we OWN Portland. And let’s not forget Riverside and Plattsburgh. And New
York. And streaming on the internet. And XM. And Sirius. Actually we’re fine.
So cool your jets. Air America Radio isn’t dead, we’re in court and we’re going to slam Liu’s head in a car door. Another metaphor. We hope to be back on the air tomorrow or the next day in those markets.
In the meantime, why don’t you give Arthur a call at (212)966-1059, or check out his website www.mrbi.net
Arthur Liu, I wouldn’t show your face around here.
Or Riverside. Or Plattsburgh.
DEVELOPING……
So, what do you think? Were they right to have removed it? Should it have been posted in the first place? Or was it simply – for those who actually know and listen to Air America precisely what you’ve come to expect and appreciate from the insightful start-up with a sharp satirical edge?
The BRAD BLOG thinks it was pretty funny, and a taste of – at least Drudge’s – own medicine. But by any standards, I’d think it’s “gracefulness” and “professionalism” is certainly in question.
But Kerry was having an affair with an intern. Drudge said so…
Wait, that turned out NOT to be true.
David Kay was supposed to have evidence that stated they found stockpiles of WMD’s in Iraq…wait, not true either.
Drudge must be wrong again…
TRIB reporter John Cook: "The network also said it will remain off the air for the time being in Los Angeles, where it was yanked off its station there, KBLA-1580, last week by owner Multicultural News Radio. "The announcement settles an acrimonious legal and public relations battle between Air America and Multicultural. It also means that Air America must seek new homes in the nation’s second and third-largest markets less than three weeks into its short life."
Just wait until Olbermann and the 5 people who watch hs show get on it! Then you’ll have dogged investigation into AA by such neutral journalists as Isikoff, John Harwood, Jayson Blair, Eason Jordan, and Chrissy Matthews.
Oh wait…Olbermann is only worried about his tinfoil hat getting dinged and claiming that those dead people voting in Seattle didn’t really happen.
Keep sucking down the kool aid, when evan is in jail from ripping off the brooklyn boys and girls, we will see how much of a smart ass you dipshits will be then…
This is a very important and serious problem, relating to the possibility of Multicultural Broadcasting’s illegal building of television and radio towers.
In 1985 an MCI Commercial Facility was built on a levee in Sutter County, CA. At the time it was built, they poured a second foundation for another radio/television station. This foundation went unused for 15 years. We were unaware that an extra foundation was built, as the facility is guarded and we are not allowed to enter this part of our own property, not even as the landlords of such.
In 1999 Freedom Broadcasting and Multicultural built the tower for this station on the hidden (1985) concrete foundation. The person that signed as the owner of the property was not the owner. Thus, we, as the owners of this property, do not know anything about what was built, and we thought it was a radio tower, not a T.V. station owned by Freedom Broadcasting, Inc. and/or Multicultural or MCI.
I have asked the FCC, including Riley Hollingsworth of Homeland Security’s FCC Licensing Division, to check the coordinates of this property for the MCI license and the other towers that are used for broadcasting by Multicultural. I gave him the set of coordinates that appear on the Sutter County permits, and he came back with the actual coordinates of our property. He said their was a bulk carrier license: Hollingsworth said, "MCI Network Services, Inc. has a common carrier microwave license, WLC438, at Latitude N38.7463 and Longitude W121.4930." The weird thing is, I gave him the license information in our paperwork that was in the Sutter County permits file, which is:
Latitude N38.44468 and Longitude W121.29309. How did he know about a license for our coordinates, when I did not give them to him? And, why can’t they tell me the address of the facility that is linked to the one at our ranch? The county does will not even recognize this property as having any structures on it, and they say it has never even had a parcel description, as it is the levee.
I just got off the phone with the Federal Communications Commission in D.C. I spoke to Donald Campbell, in charge of FCC regulations and enforcement. He told me that he would try to find out the wattage of the Multicultural Broadcasting facility. Why could he not tell me how many stations are using our land? He said there could be many companies using the facility. Well, they are using our electricity for water at all the facilities on that levee, and our electric bill for water is outrageous. We had no idea that they did not get a permit to install a well of their own. But, after some research, I found that this property had once belonged to Pacific Gas and Electric Co. and the deed states, "…[n]o well shall ever be drilled on this levee." How could this facility being built on a levee that was built to protect the people on the east of it, allow for the geological integrity of that levee?
The owner of this property is receiving $500 per month, after 20 years, for the use of this land, and the electric bill is twice as high as the amount received in payment of rent. Neither the radio station nor the MCI Commercial facility were ever legally noticed by publication, to the public, which is required in Sutter County. Why not? Because we would not have allowed any of it to be built, that’s why.
Although, according to Campbell "It may be a government facility…" and they have no information on them, it still borders on adverse condemnation. And what about the landowner in terms of not being compensated for the damage that these facilities may be causing in health and monitary problems that she now finds to be her legacy to Multicultural’s greed, as well as to her own ignorance of the business world. She was a farmer for the past 65 years, and as a lifelong, loyal American, she deserves better than Multicultural has been allowed to perpetrate against her.
This woman who negociated the contract with Multicultural and MCI, is now 84 years old and in poor health. She is already spending a fortune on electricity in order for them to use her water pumps, and for that she is now receiving a pittence. The FCC should take the roll as the agressor in this case. However, I have been trying to get answers to all of our questions since October of 2005.
All we want to know is how Multicultural built their radio/television station on the MCI cement foundation of 1985, with no contractor (fraudulent person) signing as the owner (did MCI own Freedom Broadcasting and Multicultural, since they made allowances for the cement foundation when MCI built out, in 1985?); wheher they have the appropriate licenses; when an inspection was last made at the property location; the address of the property that actually carries the license of this Sutter County facility, since the licensee is supposedly below Elk Grove, CA; and what the total wattage of the facilities is, which could tell us how dangerous it is to live here. Also, there are halon cylinders around the MCI facility, and from what I know of "liquid ice" it is used for the purpose of cooling highly radiated areas. Why was it needed at this location?
As for our government, they beat around the bush….They give me misinformation, and then I tell them that I know that they are doing so, at which time they change that tune to another. I still have not had one question answered, but I will keep trying to see why everything has turned upside down here, since Multicultural built the September 11, 2000, station on this property. Meaning, everyone who comes there becomes ill. The owner, grandma, is fainting every other day, her daughter is plagued with all sorts of complaints, ranging from short term memory loss to unexplainable physical complaints which are mirrored by unrelated persons, such as friends who visit her, a little too often for their own good. Is it too much RF or radiation that might be associated with MCI and Multicultural?
Please help me find the answer to these questions, and help me fight Multicultural, if for only one reason, they built their towers by saying an unknown man (Leonard Harris) was the owner of the property, so they would not need a contractor’s license. We don’t even know if it was built to code, as there have been no inspections by the FCC, as far as the FCC knows, anyway. Another peculiarity is that the "Final Inspection" was "cancelled" by the county. Well, they built it, so, why did they cancel the final inspection? Who is Multicultural Broadcasting? How far will they go to keep Americans in the dark? How many of these publicly hidden facilities exist, and where else, besides here? Who is their audience; government, other countries, American Citizens? I think we have a right to know. One last question: Have they gone too far this time? In my opinion, the answer is, emphatically; YES!
Furthermore, regarding Multicultural’s station, we hear conversations on our phones and even on our televisions. The voices are not in English, and sound like telephone conversations, not Hispanic music, as they told us that would be the Multicultural station’s purpose. The voices in the conversations are all different languages and dialects, but mostly Middle Eastern. This is absolutely annoying, but not getting the truth from the FCC, is unconscionable.
After 4 months of working with our government, which seems to have implicit ties to Multicultural and to MCI, I would hope that someone out there will help me find the truth. I have watched Air America, and feel that it is one of the very few sources that are still available to Americans who want to hear the truth. I thought long and hard before turning to this Blog, in order to get help. I keep thinking what it would be like to be arrested and sent somewhere, interrogated, and interned where I will never be heard from, again. Our government scares me that much…But, this is more important than me. This whole situation borders on Big Brother, not only watching us, but us having to watch and listen to Big Brother, beginning with the Reagan Administration, continuing since that time, to the present Bush Monarchy.
Finally, if anyone in our government is reading this, I gave you plenty of time to answer my questions. So, don’t think that I am some kind of subversive that does not love this country. My father was a Disabled American Veteran, dying from overexposure to ionizing radiation, after testing over 140 nuclear weapons, for a period of 11 years. Thus, I hope you can all empathise with my need to find out if the Radio Frequency radiation exceeds the legal limits, irreparably harming my 28 year old son.
Thank you for this forum…and anyone who thinks they may be able to help me…please email me as soon as possible. The FCC said they would get back to me in about a week or so, which means I would like some type of input before Campbell calls back and gives another feeble explanation, lacking truth, and misinforming me, even further.