From The Holier Than Thou Department:

Three Tenors swag not as valuable as once thought...




Scandal shakes public radio...

The sedate, urbane world of public broadcasting was rattled Thursday as prosecutors charged three former employees of Michigan Public Media with illegally accepting golf club memberships, Persian rugs, airline tickets and massages in exchange for on-air considerations at the state's top public radio station.

Golf club memberships and Persian rugs are racist. Massages are sexist. And that last one sounds like good old fashioned payola. Haydn's publicists must have been working overtime...

Each of the men -- current WDET-FM general manager Michael Coleman, Jeremy Nordquist and Justin Ebright -- was charged by Washtenaw County prosecutors in Ann Arbor with embezzlement of under $20,000 while working at Michigan Public Media-controlled WUOM-FM (91.7). Each could face up to five years in prison if convicted.

An internal audit also found sloppy recordkeeping, excessive bonuses and expense-account fraud that totaled more than $50,000 from July 2001 to December 2005, said Timothy Slottow, University of Michigan's chief financial officer. U-M owns and runs Michigan Public Media.

WDET (101.9) and WUOM are the major public radio stations in Michigan, and public radio has long had a trustworthy image of being above the kind of influence-peddling that has occasionally tarnished commercial radio.

The charges shocked listeners of the National Public Radio affiliates.

"This is a sad revelation for Detroit, which has functioned as Michigan's cultural engine for so long," (Huh? If true, that explains quite a bit about the death of Detroit. - F.G.) said public radio listener Willie Northway of Ann Arbor. "The talk and news offered by Michigan Radio is an invaluable service to the community."