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April 9, 2005
The Moonbattery Channel
Posted by Dave Blount at April 9, 2005 2:56 PM
FrontPage Magazine reports the unpleasant news that Al Gore still refuses to go away. His latest venture is "Current TV" — a reincarnation of Newsworld International (NWI) that has already been renamed "DNC TV" by those familiar with its backers and likely orientation.
NWI was purchased from a French company by Gore and his sidekick, millionaire entrepreneur and former Democratic National Committee Finance Chairman Joel Hyatt. Its programming is under the control of the Canadian Broadcasting Company (CBC; also known as the Communist Broadcasting Corporation) — owned by the Canadian Government and reportedly as avidly leftist as you might expect — and by contract will continue to be through at least May 2005, even after the "Current TV" makeover.
Apparently some of Current TV's programming will be produced by CBC. The channel will create some on its own. The rest will be donated by viewers, who are encouraged on the channel's website to go out with video cameras and create dirt cheap content. If the resulting material is juvenile, that's fine with Gore. The infamously stiff bureaucrat who took part in hauling Frank Zappa before Congress to demand that he justify his off-color lyrics is very keen to prove his countercultural trendiness to the MTV and Clearasil set.
According to a Gore advisor, "Liberal TV is dead on arrival." It won't work because young people do not want to listen to wonkish sermons. So to avoid another Air America catastrophe, the strategy was hit upon to sugar-coat the leftist politics with a veneer of adolescent hipness.
Anyone in doubt of Current TV's political outlook need only look at the list of leftists reported to be involved in the project to varying degrees. In addition to Gore and Hyatt (who was appointed to California's Public Utilities Commission shortly before disgraced ex-Governor Gray Davis's mismanagement of the state's electricity supply resulted in his recall), others include Richard Blum (husband of kooky Senator Dianne Feinstein), big-time Democratic Party fundraiser Ron Burkle, Real Networks Chairman Rob Glaser (who also backed Air America), Sun Microsystems co-founder and major Clinton-Gore backer Bill Joy, Hollywood actor Bradley Whitford (who has a roll in the Democrat fantasy series "The Left West Wing"), Orville Schell (Dean of the Journalism School at the University of California Berkeley, described by David Horowitz as a "Gucci Marxist"), cartoonishly PC movie director Spike Jonze, and CNN executive Keith McAllister.
Unfortunately for Current TV's prospects, Gore's thuggish behavior while in the Senate made him some serious enemies in the cable industry. Gore was an outspoken supporter of the Cable Act of 1992, which imposed harsh regulations on the industry. John Higgins, the Deputy Editor of Broadcasting and Cable Magazine, is quoted as telling a reporter for the San Francisco Chronicle that he can't imagine anyone on earth who would have a more difficult time securing carriage from cable operators than Gore, who "cost these guys multiple billions of dollars."
Currently Gore TV reaches 19 million homes. Ironically, access to 11 million of those is provided by DirecTV, which is owned by Rupert Murdoch (whose News Corporation also owns Fox News and the New York Post, both much reviled by liberals). Murdoch is showing a great deal of open-mindedness in providing a video soapbox for Gore and his friends. I wonder if they will reciprocate by allowing conservative and libertarian views to be heard on Current TV. Not that it's likely anyone will be watching.
Hat tip: Fresh Bilge.
Cross-posted to The Wide Awakes.
