Yesterday, a political mini-shocker hit the web when lefty site Think Progress leaked the news that Air America, the national liberal radio station, was preparing to file for bankruptcy. It turns out that things may not be quite as they seem, and that infighting among the station's staff over recent financial cutbacks and employee layoffs may have caused tactical misinformation to be reported as fact.

Strange, right? I mean it's certainly not like liberals to spend more energy fighting among themselves than with their political opposition?

Still, it does appear that Air America is undergoing quite a bit of strain. In the last few days, their flagship station in New York moved from WLIB on 1190 AM to a station with a much weaker signal, 1600 AM on WWRL-AM. They've laid off nine employees. They've lost Janeane Garofalo and Jerry Springer (well, I guess that wasn't really much of a blow).

After reviewing some of their financial decisions, I wanted to offer my advice. If I was them, I would start by cutting Al Franken's ridiculously inflated salary:


The comedian and liberal author said the financial situation is dire enough that he has not been paid recently.

"We have a cash flow problem.  That's what I know," Mr. Franken told the Sun.  "No cash has been flowing to me.  That's the first inkling I got of a cash flow problem."

Mr. Franken reportedly earns a base salary of about $2 million a year from the radio network.


I'm sorry, but give me a fucking break.  Al Franken has earned millions of dollars from the hugely successful liberal polemics he has published over the last several years.  He is a wealthy man, and Air America is a financially strapped enterprise whose goal is to advance a progressive electoral agenda, not make oodles of money for its contributors.  I thought that was what he helped found the radio station for in the first place.

I love Al Franken, but his newly discovered salary represents nothing more than pure greed from someone who not only doesn't need the money, but should know better.  What will he say if the station does go bankrupt, and people point out that he's taken home over $4 million since the network first aired?  The worst thing I can say about it is that it's a very Limbaugh thing to have done.  He should be shamed into not only greatly reducing his salary, but donating much of his previous takings towards keeping the station afloat.