Prepare to be flabbergasted

I know I was flabbergasted to read this as Michelle Malkin keeps up with all things Air America:

David Lombino of the New York Sun updates yesterday’s article about MultiCultural Radio Broadcasting’s lawsuit against Air America/Piquant. This morning Lombino reports that the $255,754 lawsuit first reported on by Brian Maloney and myself two days ago is part of a larger attempt by MultiCultural to collect more than $1.5 million it says Air America owes it. That’s in addition to the $875,000 the network owes the Gloria Wise Boys & Girls Club.

This story gets stinkier and stinker. Michelle has a ton of links, interesting quotes and even a nice little excerpt from a WaPo online chat that caught WaPo media/culture reporter Paul Farhi offguard and had him offering up the old “Air America is not a big endeavor, hence the lack of interest” excuse.

Alexandria, Va.: (Farhi had answered) “Air America barely registered in the last ratings book here. It isn’t locally based. I guess that combo makes it less than a compelling story for us.” I guess that’s why their lead personality was the subject of a long Post magazine story earlier this year.

Paul Farhi: Reasonable journalists can differ. I personally thought that was a dumb story. At the time, you couldn’t even hear AA in Washington. Now you can, and almost everyone chooses not to.

Weak. But then again, I’m starting to feel badly for people like Farhi and NY Times ombudsman Byron Calame who are trying so hard to explain why the bigwigs at the Times and WaPo simply cannot bring themselves to report on this story. Pirate’s Cove points out that the NY Times has not printed a word about Air America since they put together their short, sloppily done piece on August 13.

Jason Smith at Generation Why is surprised to see the Gorelick Wall being used as a sort of excuse for the NY Times’ blackout on the AA story:

Calame blames it all on a Gorelick Wall-esque policy

While it’s no excuse for such a belated response to the brewing scandal, it’s true that pieces of the unfolding story fell in the domains of three different parts of the newsroom: the metropolitan desk, the business desk and the culture desk. There was, my inquiries suggest, a lack of coordination and awareness of what the paper’s competitors across town were writing.

A lack of coordination between “agencies”? Sound familiar? The obvious ridiculousness of this defense is summed up in one reader’s email to the NY Times:

“If a conservative radio network had been started with money improperly ‘borrowed’ from a charity like a boys and girls club, it would be front page news for weeks in your paper. Once more, your left-wing bias is showing.”

Michelle points out that since the big guys are not covering AA, the NY Sun has put together a helpful collection of its articles.

Meanwhile, am I the only one who has noticed that this story has pretty much disappeared very quickly? I mean, I know that “I” have trouble keeping up, but I am a dyslexic amateur news reader…the fourth estate are professional journalists. Maybe everyone has short attentions spans, nowadays…