New Yorker Story On Accusations Against Al Franken Includes Look At KABC/Los Angeles' Role In The Controversy

Franken (Photo: Debby Wong / Shutterstock.com)

A new article by JANE MAYER in THE NEW YORKER exploring the accusations that forced AL FRANKEN to resign from his Senate seat includes an examination of the role CUMULUS News-Talk KABC-A/LOS ANGELES played in the incident.

In the article, which raises questions about KABC news anchor LEANN TWEEDEN's accusations about FRANKEN's conduct during a U.S.O. tour in 2006 that led to FRANKEN resigning from the Senate under pressure in DECEMBER 2017, MAYER writes that "(a) big part of FRANKEN’s political problem was the way the story broke," namely that KABC posted TWEEDEN's story on its website as a news story but had not done "even the most cursory fact-checking," instead helping TWEEDEN craft her story and not giving FRANKEN the chance to respond until after the story had been posted and tipped to THE DRUDGE REPORT and TWEEDEN had started a media tour to give her side of the story. MAYER describes KABC as "a struggling conservative Talk-radio station whose survival plan was to become the most pro-TRUMP station in LOS ANGELES."

TWEEDEN's former co-host, then-morning host DOUG MCINTYRE, told MAYER that he had "bluntly" lobbied OM DREW HAYES and former News Dir. NATHAN BAKER to offer FRANKEN more time to respond but was overruled for fear the story would leak; MCINTYRE and BAKER confirmed to MAYER that TWEEDEN's story was not fact-checked, instead relying on the photograph of FRANKEN jokingly posing as if groping TWEEDEN while TWEEDEN slept.

In addition, the article follows TWEEDEN's relationship with PREMIERE NETWORKS and FOX NEWS CHANNEL host SEAN HANNITY, who, MAYER says, wanted TWEEDEN to use the photograph to derail FRANKEN's first run for Senate in 2007. MAYER also notes that earlier in her career, making an appearance in 2002 to promote FHM magazine's "100 Sexiest Women" article, HOWARD STERN raised questions about TWEEDEN's biography and its claim that she had turned down admission to HARVARD to go into modeling.

And MAYER reports on several additional accusations of misconduct by FRANKEN, some of which occurred while he was hosting a radio show for AIR AMERICA.

Read the story by clicking here.

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