Free Republic

Fresh off Rachel Maddow's ludicrous claim that Abu Musab al-Zarqawi was "not all that well known" until he was killed by the US military in 2006 and allegedly elevated in death beyond what he was in life, Time magazine published a special issue titled "The End of bin Laden." The cover of the magazine, which can be seen here, shows an illustration of bin Laden crossed out with a prominent red "X" -- as in, buh bye. Turns out this is only the fourth time in Time's history that the magazine has gone with the "X" cover. Prior to bin...

Air America Media (www.airamerica.com) has signed a multi-year deal with Montel Williams to host “Montel Across America,” debuting April 6. The program will air weekdays from 9am-12pm ET on radio stations across the country, and streamed live online. “Montel is a multi-media star and a familiar name to millions of people across the country,” said Bennett Zier, Air America Media CEO. “The addition of Montel to our talent line-up is an important step for the continued growth of Air America, as we look to distribute Montel’s show across America.” “After being on television for more than 17 years, I’m looking...

Another all-sports radio station will launch in San Diego on Oct. 28, according to an internal memo sent out last night by a Clear Channel San Diego vice president. The station currently operating as KLSD-AM 1360 will become XTRA Sports 1360 and feature live and local programming each weekday from 6 a.m. to 7 p.m. Starting Monday, Oct. 29, Dave Palet and Jeff Dotseth are expected to fill the 6-10 a.m. slot, with updates from Mike Costa. At 10 a.m., Josh Rosenberg will host a two-hour show called "The Sportspage.'' At noon, Chris Ello will begin a three-hour show, while...

The liberal talk radio network Air America announced this week it will launch a nationwide show focusing on atheism. The first national show will feature Christopher Hitchens, author of "God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything." The Freethought Radio Program, hosted by the co-presidents of the Freedom From Religion Foundation, has been airing on Air America's Madison, Wis., affiliate since April 2006. On Saturday, Oct. 6, the show will begin airing on 14 other affiliates from Palm Springs, Fla., to Eugene, Ore., and on XM Satellite radio. "You can turn on the radio or TV 24/7 to be preached...

Steve Powers, who just retired after 45 years as a New York radio and TV newsman, has seen a whole lot of changes in the news game since he was a young reporter meeting President John F. Kennedy in the White House Rose Garden..... snip- AIR AMERICA CUTS NEWS: The progressive network Air America is eliminating its news service at the end of June. The decision was "based solely on economics," according to a staff memo from COO Scott Elberg. "We spent the last three months looking at all the options," his memo said. "In the end, it didn't work."...

Janeane Garofalo's voice was used to torture Iraqis, and they "hated" it. Tony Lagouranis is a former military interrogator, who's now telling his story. And, believe it or not, the formerly cute comedienne and former Air America hostess played a role: Not long ago in Iraq, [Lagouranis] felt "absolute power," he said, over men kept in cages. Lagouranis had forced a grandfather to kneel all night in the cold and bombarded others in metal shipping containers with the tape of the self-help parody "Feel This Book: An Essential Guide to Self-Empowerment, Spiritual Supremacy, and Sexual Satisfaction," by comedians Ben Stiller...

NEW YORK (AP) - With a blast of Nirvana's "All Apologies," the 17-month effort to establish a talk station at New York's 92.3 FM ended abruptly Thursday afternoon with the return of K-Rock, the station's identity before Howard Stern departed for satellite radio in January 2006.

NEW YORK New York real estate magnate Stephen Green and his brother, politician Mark Green, completed their purchase of the liberal Air America talk radio network on Tuesday for $4.25 million. Stephen Green, chairman of office building owner SL Green Realty Corp., formed Green Family Media to buy Air America, which had entered bankruptcy in October. He will be chairman of Air America and Mark Green will be president. Scott Elberg, who had been chief executive, will stay on as chief operating officer. Air America first launched in 2004 and has lost money ever since. "I'm a businessman used to...

Clear Channel Radio changed the content of WAVZ-AM (1300) this week, from the likes of Al Franken and "The Voice" progressive talk to Dan Patrick and ESPN Radio sports talk. And some listeners are expressing dismay that the format was changed without on-air notice. The station has had previous stints in sports talk, nostalgic music and (way back) Top 40 music, but for the past two-plus years featured political material from a rare vantage point on AM radio — left of center. The station’s ratings weren’t very good, but some who enjoyed recent programming of the 1,000-watt station — operated...

<p>Air America Radio, a liberal talk radio network, said Monday that it had reached a tentative agreement to be sold to the founder of a New York area real estate company.</p>

Excerpt - In what police describe as a "probable" suicide leap, a prominent Monterey Bay Area attorney fell at least nine floors to his death at the Embassy Suites Hotel Monterey Bay in Seaside the morning before Christmas. Shortly before 9:30 a.m. Sunday, officers found the body of Aptos attorney Paul Sanford in the west end of the hotel lobby, where he had landed on a large ventilation grate. Police Capt. Steve Cercone said horrified guests were eating breakfast in the atrium at the time, and a number of witnesses saw Sanford fall from somewhere between the 9th and 12th...

Top employees of a city-financed Bronx charity diverted hundreds of thousands of dollars for personal expenses like home renovations, furniture and the purchase of a Volvo and a BMW, a city investigation has found. The widespread fraud in recent years at the charity, the Gloria Wise Boys and Girls Club, which received $9 million a year in city financing to help children and the elderly, also included off-the-books bank accounts — created under the guise of supporting youth athletic programs — that were used to pay bonuses to the executive director and four other officials, according to the city’s Department...

Liberal Talk network Air America Radio's CEO Danny Goldberg issued a memo to his staff denying published reports that the company had lost its N.Y.C. flagship, WLIB/New York, and was facing financial challenges, reports Radio & Records. In the memo, Goldberg stated, "In almost all cases, the people who say bad things about our company's business are conservative ideologues who have a particular interest in damaging Air America for one reason and one reason only: the political opinions expressed by our on-air talent." Of AAR's financial status, Goldberg said, "Our board continues to be very supportive of our company, and...

Air America Radio has been sued by defense contractor and alleged Abu Ghraib torture-accomplice CACI International, Inc. CACI has alleged defamation per se, according to documents filed last week in federal court. CACI claims material used by Randi Rhodes on her show in late August harmed the company and they are asking for 1 million dollars in damages and 10 million dollars in punitive damages. While Air America Radio has not elaborated in detail on their litigation strategy, Rhodes made a statement on her show that Air America will fight the suit visorously --a partial transcript of her statement is...

On May 20, 2005, comedian Lizz Winstead filed suit in New York, detailing a laundry list of allegations against Air America Radio parent Piquant LLC. Accusing the company of failing to pay wages, promotional fees, accrued holiday compensation and severance, Winstead is seeking $290,716, plus interest. You can download her entire complaint here. Does the company's behavior toward her help to demonstrate a pattern of ethics and integrity lapses in its overall business dealings?

For years, Democratic politicians have reacted with spit ting, consuming rage at the accusation that they are reflexively anti-military. That anger has, at times, been justified, as the charge has been thrown around too cavalierly. But Democratic anger has also been an effective tool because it puts Republicans on the spot, and usually Republicans back off when confronted. You don't hear Republican politicians throwing around the "anti-military" charge these days with the abandon that, say, Democrats hurl the charge that Republicans are "anti-poor."... Sen. Dick Durbin isn't some loudmouth caller to Air America Radio or some psycho poster on loony-Left...

Minutes before showtime on a Tuesday night, Janeane Garofalo slides into the studio carrying a microphone and a backpack stuffed with research. On the desktop, she lines up provisions: a can of supercaffeinated Red Bull, a can of diet Sunkist, an enormous bottle of water. Years ago, when they were scuffling stand-up comedians, Garofalo and her friend Sam Seder used to fantasize about having their very own radio show — perhaps on a pirate station broadcasting from a garbage scow off Rhode Island, Seder had suggested.

Mike Papantonio Issues Legal Fatwa against Privatizers (and Himself) Mike Papantonio, mass tort asbestos trial lawyer extraordinaire and part-owner-made-host of Air America Radio, made quite an argument against Social security privatization in his Thursday’s “Pap Attack” on “Unfiltered.” Well, actually he just encouraged lawsuits against groups that advocate for it. (You can hear the following exchanges at the Air America Place archives, about an hour and 25 minutes in). Rachel Maddow, host of “Unfiltered”, speaking on the controversial ad placed by USA Next: “You know, interesting side note here is that the guys who were portrayed in that ad, the...

HAHA, I must've missed the freep alert for this Air America post (found it while I was laughing at DU), but this is great. Good job guys. Now go freep it some more. http://airamericaradio.com/

Understand that I am not writing to you to push my own political agenda. Most Americans who value a balanced media would be equally upset to see a liberal documentary like “Fahrenheit 9/11” being forced on station affiliates as a news item. That’s why a fair and balanced documentary like “Stolen Honor” is a far better choice than “Fahrenheit 9/11” which is neither a documentary nor news. It is my understanding that John Kerry was actually invited to participate and discuss the issues raised in this film in a live forum directly after the documentary and to give him a...

I'm in a rental car with Al Franken, and we're driving across New Hampshire on the Sunday before the nation's first primary, heading to a John Edwards rally. The Democrats are in a kooky mood following the sudden collapse of Howard Dean in Iowa, and Franken -- comedian, celebrity, scourge -- is spending two days in the state not in any official capacity but as a sort of good-will representative from the party's satiric wing. He is not, as you might think from the outrageous trappings of his comedy, an extreme lefty but rather a devout party man, one who...

The first time I turned on Air America, the new liberal radio network, I heard a commentator arguing that Republicans did not initiate impeachment proceedings against President Clinton because of Monica Lewinsky, Whitewater, lying or obstruction of justice. No, the man said, Republicans knew Clinton had committed no impeachable offenses, but they pursued impeachment anyway, in a diabolically clever ploy designed specifically to make the general public so disenchanted with the very idea of impeachment that they would not tolerate impeachment against the next (Republican) president — who, of course, deserves to be impeached immediately. OK. That's about what I...

This is a vanity, and hopefully a good discussion starter for the weekend. As has been widely publicized, Air America is "brokered radio", that is, the owners of the Air America are paying for air time in major US markets. On the first day of broadcasting Ralph Nader appeared on the station as a guest. Once again, Ralph is an independent candidate running for the office of President of the US. My question is, at what point does the airing of candidates on privately owned brokered radio programs become a campaign contribution, and where does the FEC's position on this...

<p>The left-leaning talk-radio network that wants to restore the dignity of the word "liberal" debuted Wednesday with plenty of Bush bashing and phone calls from G. Gordon Liddy and birthday boy Al Gore.</p> <p>"We love America," said satirist Al Franken, whose daily broadcast will anchor the new Air America Radio. "We're liberals, and we say that without apology."</p>