Liberal Talk and News Radio Network Air America Files for Bankruptcy

Now some fresh pickings from the Political Grapevine:

Chapter 11

Air America, the liberal talk and news radio network today filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection after negotiations with one of the company's creditors broke down. The filing, made in U.S. District Court in Manhattan listed liabilities in excess of $20 million and assets of only 4 million.

Air America was launched back in March 2004 with programming to counter-balance politically conservative talk radio. It reportedly owes outspoken on-air personality Al Franken over $300,000. The company plans to keep operating while it reorganizes.

No Lights in the North

North Korea may or may not have conducted a nuclear test earlier this week, but it doesn’t seem to be able to produce enough electricity to keep the lights on. Analysts estimate that North Korea's current total electrical output fell nearly 70 percent in the last decade.

Now Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld is once again circulating this satellite image of North and South Korea showing how dark the North gets at night where a shortage of power forces people to turn off the lights... leaving a stark contrast with the bustling cities of South Korea.

Little Election Coverage?

With the midterm elections just 25 days away, it seems as though the airwaves are full of political coverage. But a study released by the University of Wisconsin-Madison's news lab suggests otherwise. It shows an average of only 36 seconds per broadcast is dedicated to election coverage in nine top Midwestern markets.

In the average 30-minute broadcast, stations devote 10 minutes to advertising, 7 minutes to sports and weather and about 2.5 minutes to crime. The only topics that get less air time than politics are foreign policy with 23 seconds … and unintentional injury with 11 seconds.

No Winner Here

Military mom turned peace activist Cindy Sheehan announced yesterday that she was a finalist for the Nobel Peace Prize at a book signing in Texas. But the committee in charge of selecting the winner never reveals the list of nominees, raising the question of how Sheehan knew she'd been nominated? And what's more…national blogs that take bets about who will win the prize didn't even have Sheehan on the list.

And as you know by now—Sheehan was not the winner.

—FOX News Channel's Aaron Bruns contributed to this report.