July 17, 2009, - 12:51 pm
Meet Frank Turner: Anti-Semitic Mortgage Bailout Poster Boy of the Week
By Debbie Schlussel
Meet Frank Turner, this week’s poster boy for everything that’s wrong with the continuing mortgage bailout. He’s kind of like the “kinder, gentler” version of Jeremiah Wright.
Longtime Detroiters knows Turner as the two-time former Detroit news anchor, unfunny former comedian, and openly anti-Semitic radio talk show host who became a televangelist. Turner was given chance after chance, and now he’s getting a grand chance to rebuy his mansion, courtesy of American taxpayers.
Turner, a rising star in the 1990s and 2000s as a news anchor for Detroit’s ABC affiliate, the Scripps-owned WXYZ-TV and its “Channel 7 Action News,” is a great example of how many boys raised by single mothers are destined to turn out . . . even when they “succeed.”
Turner, born to a single mother drug addict on welfare in the projects, was raised by a relative. He became a drug addict, but overcame it. Soon, he was anchoring the news down South and eventually in Detroit. But while an anchor for Channel 7, he charged over $200,000 for phone sex on his girlfriend’s credit card.
The girlfriend sued, he stopped showing up for work and blamed it all on a mental breakdown. Then, Turner was fired from Channel Seven and filed for bankruptcy to avoid the default lawsuit judgment handed down against him. At the time, he was making over $300,000 and driving a Mercedes 500SL. To fill his time during unemployment, Turner tried his hand at being a stand-up comedian. He wasn’t funny.
Turner also frequently subbed for trial lawyer Geoffrey Fieger on his talk radio show on WXYT-AM, which, at the time, was running the Rush Limbaugh Show and was Detroit’s sole talk radio station that wasn’t sports-centric. It was during this show that Frank Turner frequently told us his views on “THE JOOOOOS.” “The Jews are cheap,” Turner said. “The Jews own everything, and what they don’t own, they steal,” was another of his favorite comments. Turner also frequently told lies about Israel and championed the P.L.O.
It got so bad that I and my father implored the do-nothing Anti-Defamation League (ADL) to write a letter. That’s all the ADL did and when I contacted The Detroit News to cover the story, then-ADL chief Don Cohen (who now heads the dying Bnai Brith International in Michigan and whose wife is an editor at the Detroit Jewish News) called me and screamed at me and convinced then-Detroit News religion reporter George Bullard to ignore the story. This is how anti-Semites rise and thrive . . . when cowardly left-wing Jews cover up their antics.
Soon, though, Turner was back at Channel Seven, ultimately returning to a salary of $250,000 per year. But Turner, who began chanting his opinions and religious beliefs during newscasts, became a Christian Minister and began a lucrative Christian radio show (and continued his anti-Semitism and hatred of Israel). WXYZ-TV forced Turner to choose a career, and he left the station. Times were good for him as a radio and TV evangelist, as Turner and his new wife bought a million dollar home, drove fancy cars, and expensive tailored suits.
But apparently, they weren’t “good enough.” Now, you are bailing Frank Turner out so that he can allow his home to go into foreclosure and rebuy it at a pittance . . . all with the bank (and you) paying for his, um, “move.”
A former Emmy-winning news anchor from Detroit’s ABC affiliate WXYZ-TV Channel 7 was evicted this week from his nearly $1 million home, which was in foreclosure.
Frank Turner, who left Channel 7 in October 2006 to found his ministry, “God’s Amazing Grace,” said the eviction is actually “a blessing.”
“The net result for us is we are actually going to profit,” Turner said. “What they meant for evil is turning out for my good. In an extraordinary move, the bank is paying thousands of dollars to move and store my furniture and as soon as the house gets listed, if we’re interested, we’re going to be able to buy it back for less than what we’ve been offering them. . . .
Turner and his wife, Annick, purchased their home on Mystic Lake Drive in the Mystic Creek subdivision in Genoa Township in February 2007, for $960,000, according to their loan agreement filed with the Livingston County Register of Deeds.
They owed $954,970 on the principal balance in April 2008 when they were notified by Trott & Trott that Bank of America wanted to begin foreclosure proceedings. Unpaid interest, late fees, inspection fees and escrow advance bumped the amount due to $999,627, according to a letter from Trott & Trott.
The couple said they have tried for more than a year to work with Bank of America and Trott & Trott to redeem their 8,000-square-foot home . . .
Frank Turner said he wrote to Trott & Trott in February indicating that his ministry would buy the home for $500,000, but the company did not respond until June 24, when it wrote a letter saying the Turners could get their house back but the price, with interest and fees, came to $1.1 million. Otherwise, they would have to vacate the premises by July 31.
Frank Turner said he had the cash to pay for the home when he made the offer. He said he didn’t have the cash at the time foreclosure proceedings began because his family ran into a rough financial time. . . .
“We were forced to default on the mortgage,” Frank Turner said.
Hey, maybe Channel 7 will hire this anti-Semite and phony back for a third time. You know what they say: “The Third Time is the charm.”
WoW… he says Jews are cheap and he’s too cheap to buy his own home – which he can clearly afford. Frank Turner is not just an anti-Semite; he’s a hypocrite and hustler. Yep, forced alright. No one, not even the Jews, forced him to default on his mortgage. And let’s hope Turner doesn’t get a Third Time at fame.
NormanF on July 17, 2009 at 3:14 pm