Anna Wolfe published names and receipts as she delved into the ties between Supertalk and the Krewe of New in a story published at Mississippi Today:
The state of Mississippi was entering a new day in the fight against poverty.
At least that’s what conservative talk radio station SuperTalk would have you believe.
It was the summer of 2018, and radio host Paul Gallo was visiting with John Davis, then-director of the Mississippi Department of Human Services, and nonprofit founder Nancy New on site during a government summit at the Westin luxury hotel in downtown Jackson.
New and Davis were hyping their ill-conceived welfare delivery model, Families First for Mississippi, which resulted in the theft or misspending of nearly $100 million. The pair would later plead guilty to several felonies after perpetuating what officials have called the largest public fraud scheme in state history.
“Sometimes it just takes people like Nancy New and John Davis … to say, … ‘We’re going to take the lead on this,’” Gallo boasted.
“Please pay attention,” Gallo said at the same event, “because number one, this will change lives.”
SuperTalk consistently boosted the work of Families First to its statewide audience, broadcasting the organization’s original ribbon cutting, the opening of its generously renovated new center, events featuring free homemade ice cream, massive high school rallies, “exclusive” behind-the-scenes reports on its services, and the infamous Brett Favre radio ad that caused the athlete to be sued.
And for all its promotion over the years, SuperTalk received more than $630,000 in welfare funds.
The money came from MDHS, the welfare agency, which previously employed SuperTalk’s own CEO Kim Dillon and, at the time of the welfare scandal, her son.
With 26 radio stations in its operation, and 45 more to which it distributes the news, Supertalk’s traditionally conservative, older white audience is far from the population needing welfare services. But the media company, officially called TeleSouth Communications, founded and owned by Steve Davenport, had access to the innards of Mississippi’s political machine – and therefore taxpayer funds – because of the platform it gives GOP leaders to promote their agenda.
Now SuperTalk is at the center of two subpoenas and allegations of contract steering as lawyers in the state’s ongoing civil suit attempt to unravel the radio network’s larger role in Mississippi’s good ole boy club.
“Steve (Davenport) and I had drinks with the Gov (Phil Bryant) on Wed night,” Kim Dillon texted Davis in May of 2019, just one month before Davis was kicked out of office for suspected fraud. “He was very complimentary of you. We had the best time!”
At the Westin that day, leaders including then-Gov. Bryant declared that the state did not have to separate families in order to prevent neglect; that neglect was a product of poverty, and it could be eliminated by placing resources directly into the homes of needy families.
Gallo put it best: “Every single day across the state we have the justice court system tearing these kids away from the family, and if they just had one hand to reach out. And if that’s a possibility, why hasn’t somebody done this before? Because, I mean, it’s one of those things that could have saved a lot of families,” he said.
With a faraway stare and her mouth slightly open, Nancy New looked over to the camera, then down at her fidgeting hands.
“Instead of taking the kids out of the house, put them in the court system, and you have to deal with them,” Gallo continued, “and ultimately, if there’s a possibility of a foster family getting some financial help, what if that financial help went to the mom?”
Gallo was describing welfare.
Behind the scenes, though, Davis, New and others were diverting tens of millions of these dollars away from the needy – including, notoriously, $8 million to the pet projects of former NFL legend Brett Favre.
Favre himself received $1.1 million in welfare funds from Nancy New’s nonprofit to cut a radio ad at SuperTalk promoting Families First. The ad ran several times in the fall of 2018, according to an invoice obtained by Mississippi Today, nearly a year after he received his first payment. Favre has since returned the funds. SuperTalk itself was one of those welfare recipients cited in State Auditor Shad White’s explosive 2020 audit report. “Due to the unreasonable cost of the advertising,” the audit found, “… and the lack of any correlation to how the advertising benefited the programmatic nature of the TANF program, these costs are questioned.”....
While the auditor questioned the payments, these expenditures were not listed as a fraudulent or unallowable expense in a separate forensic audit MDHS commissioned and released in 2021. Because TeleSouth conducted the work it was hired to do, Logan Reeves said, the auditor’s office did not issue a demand for repayment to the network....Rest of thorough article.
42 comments:
Breaking! Radio station gets paid advertising dollars to promote an issue/business/organization. Hell, the bigger news story would be why they are still advertising for Covid vaccines when everybody knows the clot shots don't work and have some very serious side effects in certain groups of people.
KF helping Shad keep the focus on a few select folks as long as possible. It’s pretty clear DHS is and has been a dumpster fire for many years with a little help from the AG’s office. How long until things implode on DHS, and Phil?
“While the auditor questioned the payments, these expenditures were not listed as a fraudulent or unallowable expense in a separate forensic audit MDHS commissioned and released in 2021. Because TeleSouth conducted the work it was hired to do, Logan Reeves said, the auditor’s office did not issue a demand for repayment to the network.”
Does Shad really think we believe this bullshit? So SuperTalk, out of all the defendants named in this lawsuit “did the work.” Right. There’s a reason Shad’s on with Gibert and Gallo weekly and it’s not because SuperTalk “did the work”. Mississippi’s political train is rolling to cover ass in this thing.
Supertalk is essentially the media wing of the State. It's Mississippi government propaganda
1:57 Her point is the unconscionable amount of money the state (yours and mine) is sending to TeleSouth. And a lot of us do not give a rat's ass for your brain-numbing comments on Covid vaccines.
2:00 You clearly don't know much about Bob Anderson at DHS. As they say in the Old Country, he's a "massive lad."
Kingfish, please keep on bringing us the good stuff from Ms. Wolfe.
I’ve read, twice, the December 15th Mississippi Today article about Jacob Black, and correct me if I’m wrong, but it looks, to me, like Black and Bryant orchestrated the welfare embezzlement scheme. Black is just now being added to the lawsuits, but not Bryant? Why has it taken so long for this to come about? It also looks as if the nonprofits were told that what they were doing was legal, and, according to the Supertalk article, also had contracts signed. Still nothing about Bryant or his wife, Deborah. They should be considered the Bonnie and Clyde of Mississippi. I’ll leave my comments about Shad White’s cover up and Tater Tot’s campaign til a later post!
"the bigger news story would be why they are still advertising for Covid vaccines when everybody knows the clot shots don't work and have some very serious side effects in certain groups of people." Hell 1:57, you said it yourself, "Breaking! Radio station gets paid advertising dollars to promote an issue/business/organization". $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ talks.
Good for Anna Wolfe!!! Now go after some Democrats like the Mayor! Not!!!
@2pm
Isn't Bryant a Fed project now?
2:00 PM
You can say that about pretty much any MS government department.
1:57 Put your tinfoil hat back on and slowly back away from the computer. Those RINO's and Libs are watching you through your camera looking for a way to steal your soul like they steal all the elections. And we both know that they made up the entire COVID thing to divert attention from the pedophiles that hang out in the pizza restaurant. I have to go now, it's almost time for the daily Q broadcast.
Gallo had already gone super-boomer. He is either pretending to be clueless or is so out of touch to appear confused at things that have been common place for years.
The main thing that made me stop listening is when they decided to start criticizing the vaccine and the lack of critical thought that promoted it, when they themselves were calling people who didn't get the shot "cowards" and "selfish" in 2020-2021.
"Supertalk's traditionally conservative, older white audience is far from the population needing welfare services."
So we are all automatically rich based on our skin color and political affiliation?
3:00 PM, if you listen to Gallo long enough, you can hear a change of opinion in the very same show.
Supertalk is to the MS GOP as CNN is to the dems.
I first learned of Anna Wolfe and her journalism approximately 3 months ago when the Favre news broke. A common compliment on Twitter of her work includes the phrase "she brings receipts", and in my reading of her articles this is true. Due to her reporting I put the Mississippi Today org website high on my favorites list, right after Jackson Jambalaya. She is an excellent reporter, but may have a liberal bent that comes out sometimes. For instance, is the second sentence in her report above fact or opinion? Seems like an opinion to me and it shouldn't have made the final copy. But facts are facts and she reports the facts. I highly recommend reading her reporting.
@2:00 chill dude. Phil is the whistleblower. He's good.
Pleading retarded is the only defense working for the right currently. It’s hard to refute in most cases.
More pipsqueaking out of the Barkdalers. Won't mean a hill of beans in 2023 and won't get Brandon Presley across the finish line.
Gallo has been hitting the vino.
"1:57 Put your tinfoil hat back on and slowly back away from the computer. Those RINO's and Libs are watching you through your camera looking for a way to steal your soul like they steal all the elections. And we both know that they made up the entire COVID thing to divert attention from the pedophiles that hang out in the pizza restaurant. I have to go now, it's almost time for the daily Q broadcast."
Are you on your 5th or 6th shot? Why are you willfully ignoring the loads of information that show the Covid shots do not work and that they have serious side effects in certain segments of the population? You can't possibly be that dumb to still believe the shots work because nobody is that dumb, right?
“ And a lot of us do not give a rat's ass for your brain-numbing comments on Covid vaccines.”, and the same to you, my friend.
3:03 PM, the MT narrative falls apart without racial animus.
So, where’s the evidence that Gallo had knowledge of the bigger scam?
The covid vaccinations do in fact work!!!! They work at making some insiders very rich, many of whom work for the government. Right Fauci?
Anna is a decent storyteller but she lets her personal politics and opinion infect some of her work. And she’s obviously lost her source because she just says the same stuff over and over. The real story that needs to be further flushed out is how involved is Phil and did Shad try and cover for him when this thing started? That, and whatever other politicians are involved is the real story that no one has completely told.
SuperTalk is the comfortable forum for anybody who really wants to "divert" welfare funds away from the hands of the poor and towards "more functional" enterprises. The attitude that welfare recipients are lazy cheats has got to embolden the real cheats like Bryant and the News...They can steal a million and laugh while a welfare mother with a ribeye steak out to be flogged.
“Pleading retarded is the only defense working for the right currently”, at least we are just pleading that handicap, instead of actually being that handicap, like our brothers on the left. How many genders are yawl up to now?
Funny How the Liberal Fish Wrap, MS Today, can't seem to find a single story of corruption or malfeasance in the city of Jacksitan to opine about. Not one single solitary instance of chicanery to wax about.
UNBELIEVABLE.
Anna and Oedipus Ganucheau need to put down the bongs and move onto some real reporting if they are capable. Maybe spend a bit of time on the incompetent regime in Jackson or the ripoff of tax dollars by the administration at Jackson State. Ask Coach Prime what he discovered during his tenure. People know that they aren't real journalists and Anna you have a better chance of traveling to Mars than winning a pulitzer for being a hack/shill for the DNC.
"neglect was a product of poverty, and it could be eliminated by placing resources directly into the homes of needy families."
Anyone who's ever sat through a session of Youth Court knows that's total BS. Child neglect is often the product of mental illness and substance abuse.
With that generalization, Paul Gallo has done a disservice to all three populations (the poor, the mentally ill, and the substance-addicted). It's no wonder we can't address serious problems with that kind of BS flying among the political class.
4:41 &5:13 give us the details and leads, turn them over to Kingfish or any other reporter for them to flush out the facts. I’ll be waiting. It’s more likely that the NCAA will come looking at violations committed by Peon Deion !
Gallo was right about one thing: "This is going to change lives".
“ Anna is a decent storyteller but she lets her personal politics and opinion infect some of her work.”
Some?
I thought her article would have new info in it but nope. Just the same public info spun in a different way. Trying to stay relevant I guess. There’s waaaaaay more to this story. Maybe one day an investigative journalist will be able to crack the Pheel code. I quit listening to any super talk after JT had to go off air.
3:03 here: Like I said, Anna may have a liberal bent to her reporting, but she does well in uncovering the facts. Is she going to cover the city of Jackson with the same fervor? Probably not. Having a conservative bent myself, I know how these things go, as most of you do. However, if she is reporting facts, as is her habit, I think she is doing a public service which allows me to place my trust in particular public servants or not. If she displayed this same talent towards her political tribe (democrats, progressives, etc...) that would be great, but I am not going to hold my breath. Still, as I said, she brings the receipts and that is wonderful.
Supertalk is to the MS GOP as CNN is to the dems.
If CNN received the bulk of its revenue from US taxpayers, this analogy would hold water.
8:49 I would bet that your IQ has increased at least 50% since you quit listening to SuperTalk.
8:51 It’s increased a lil bit now that I listen to the radio strongman show. Super talk is a little too snowflakey nowadays.
Lordy,can some of you stop assuming that anyone who calls "BS" on an elected Republican is " liberal" or a Democrat?
Anna Wolfe is just a first rate investigative reporter reporting facts.
When is it going to dawn on you that the corrupt Democrats that were in power left to become Republicans during Civil Rights? Only now some of them are so rich, they wouldn't stoop to actually running for office, but operating behind to scenes?
I can tell who didn't read the article all the way through and is still naive enough to let a media outlet...any media outlet, cherry pick the facts...they are in business these days selling you what you want to hear and laughing at you on the way to the bank!
You will never ever actually improve your long term, family financial future being so damn gullible. Shirt sleeves to shirt sleeves in 3 generations.
I knew we had public radio with PBS, but I had no idea we were paying for two radio stations. I'm pretty conservative, but Supertalk has to be the most boring station I've ever heard. At least now I understand why Gallo and the others are such enthusiastic ass kissers.
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