Interesting timing to say the least.  Air America expected to declare bankruptcy as part of a restructuring on friday; The Young Turks show starts on AAR the following monday.  Did TYT know this was coming?

Predictably there is much rejoicing in the conservative blogosphere.  Michelle Malkin, for instance, has this gleeful reaction: "May I just say: Bwahahahahahaha."  ; Of course you may, Michelle.  I'm sure Instapundit and others will link approvingly with a "Heh, indeedy."

But what does this really mean?  Many corporations continue about their business while in bankruptcy.  Air America remains tight-lipped about its internal business affairs as usual.

Apparently Jerry Springer is gone.  Details on other personnel changes are unclear as of yet.

Randi Rhodes stated that she will provide some information after 4pm EST today.  Update: Well, she did not address it after all.  Sam Sedar received a call about the bankruptcy story but was only able to rattle off the new schedule.

Further Reading:

Keep an eye on The Professor's posts over at WFMU's Beware of the Blog.  It has a number of interesting posts about Air America.  (See Air America vs. Reality, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4).

If you prefer the "bwahahaha" crowd, keep an eye on the Air America bashing Radio Equalizer.

Update: Air America Responds:

If Air America had filed for bankruptcy every time someone rumored it to be doing so, we would have ceased to exist long ago; it may be frustrating to some that this hasn’t happened. No decision has been taken to make any filing of any kind, we are not sure of the source of these rumors and frankly can not respond to every rumor in the marketplace.

If you enjoy right wing schaudenfreude, be sure to check out the comments at Think Progress starting with #69.  After a Drudge inspired blogswarm of gleeful trolls deluged the comment thread, it was finally shut down at post #215.  (It reopened later the same day.)

That part in Think Progress' headline following the conjunction but ("Progressive Radio Remains Strong"), is naturally the butt of a lot of jokes in the bwahaha-sphere.  My Drudge reading dad brought it up ("no ratings!") along with the talking point that all AAR offers is extended rants against the president and, by extension, America.  He didn't get around to claiming that AAR is redundant because the entire media is left wing (NPR, CNN, ABC, NBC, CBS).  I'm sure he will.

The Retraction

Franken: Air America Not Filing for Bankruptcy Today

Despite reports the liberal talk network would file for bankruptcy protection by week's end -- that apparently isn't happening.

I don't like the inclusion of "today" in the lede, yet it's understandable since the headline was written on the day of the anticipated filing.  Besides, tomorrow never knows.