Friday, October 13, 2006
Posted by:
Kevin McCullough
at
1:29 PM
There will be many talking heads on many business shows in the days ahead that will discuss the finer points and nuances of where Air America went wrong and why it has now officially filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protections.
Let me offer a singularly unique viewpoint on the matter.
"MORAL FAILURE"
Before you dismiss the idea too quickly allow me a moment to make my case.
A corporation is little more than the character of the individuals who run it. Sure the X's and O's can be manipulated to sometimes, for a short period of time, appear to mean something other than that - but ultimately the truth is known.
Enron is now such a dirty word that it nearly became banned in the U.S. as one of the "unspeakable seven" words that are considered indecent.
The flip side if also true, names like Jack Welch, and Steve Forbes bring to mind gracious intelligence, steady resolve, and character to do the right thing.
An examination of the world view of Air America easily showed that the product it was selling to American radio consumers was faulty and corrupt. It made many of the same arguments that many liberal special interest groups make, but this time instead of being funded by deep pocketed benefactors, a certain degree of its success was going to have to be dependent upon the free market. But Air America also surrounded its management and personnel who were like-minded, those who shared the morally compromised views of the acidic spewing hosts of the network.
For Al Franken, Randi Rhodes, Jeneane Garrafalo to espouse the murder of vulnerable children through the act of abortion - demonstrated several flaws in regard to moral clarity.
One of which was to say that "truth doesn't matter." Talk to a woman who has experienced the "choice" of an abortion, the nightmares that haunt her, and the sadness she still feels years later and it will sound very much like the average woman regrets the snuffing out of her innocent child's life.
When the facts thusly begin to be shaded for convenience, then not only does truth become victim, but theft becomes reality. And as well all were witness to in 2005 Air America's top leadership got caught red-handed with the their hands in the cookie jar of federal tax-payer dollars. (To the tune of roughly $875,000...) (I wrote extensively on the matter in my new hardback hot of the press: MuscleHead Revolution:Overturning Liberalism with Commonsense Thinking.)
These funds were to be used for after school tutoring programs, as well as administering needed treatments to low income Alzheimers patients. After months of denials from everyone at the network including their primary front man Al Franken, eventually the city of New York opened the investigation that stopped the lies, but sought to hold Air America accountable. To date, according to public information, it does not appear that Air America has made good on the hundreds of thousands of dollars that it stole (wrongfully possessed) from the tax-payers of America and to dump into their operational coffers.
So if truth is the first victim of a corrupt worldview, and theft follows shortly thereafter, how much further behind can bankruptcy be? If a corporation is not paying its bills, and has no conscience to do so, is it any surprise that it would find itself owing $20 million dollars in outstanding liabilities to landlords, even employees?
The answer is no. But one of the biggest reasons that Air America was ultimately doomed was because it could not stomach being put under those ancient ideas of truth, honesty, integrity, and virtue.
They also just weren't very entertaining either...
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