Al Gore, former Vice President and former almost ex President, was in the news this week. Al and his partner, Joel Hyatt (Hyatt was sort of the legal profession's answer to Earl Schibe) have sold their television station Current TV to Al Jazeera. Al Jazeera is based in and financed by the government of Qatar (impress your friend at cocktail parties by correcting their pronunciation of Qatar as "cutter".) In that Vice President Gore has been the world's most visible and vocal advocate for all things green, he has received a fair amount of gas (greenhouse and otherwise) for selling his broadcast baby to oily oil sheiks. That's a bit like Rupert Murdoch selling Fox News to George Soros. In a spirit of full disclosure it should be reported that I have tried unsuccessfully to sell isitjustme to Hamas, The Symbionese Liberation Army, Shining Path and the La Familia Drug Cartel for what amounts to the cost of a corned beef sandwich and a cream soda. So far, no takers. Before we take up the morality of the sale a few facts should be examined:
What exactly is Al Jazeera? No it is not the name of the guy who owns the falafel stand on Broadway and 52nd St. That's Sal Jazeera. Al Jazeera is a broadcast network based in Doha, Qatar. It is unique in that it is owned by neither News Corp or Disney. Originally the broadcasts were in Arabic but 2006 they launched Al Jazeera English.They are, given that part of the world, reasonably independent. They have been praised by the Index on Censorship for their free exchange of information. Their coverage of the war in Afghanistan and the Egyptian uprising were far superior to Western media. They show the world through the eyes of someone other than Bill O'Reilly or Mickey Mouse. Naturally because they present the world from the point of view of the Middle East they are reviled on Fox where Arab always equals terrorist.
As for Current TV, it was launched in 2002 as the brainchild of Al Gore and Joel Hyatt. Naturally, Mr. Gore presented his offering as an independent news source without bias or agenda. Clearly, the decidedly liberal Mr. Gore who had advocated for left-wing causes for practically all of his life, could expect to be taken at his word...or not. Nothing much happened at Current until two "reporters" from the network were arrested in North Korea for following their GPS device across the border from China. Although it was never made clear what the two planned to do in this frozen armpit of the world. the Koreans made a big deal out of putting them on trial. America sent Mr. "clean-up on aisle four" himself Bill Clinton to secure their release. In that he was returning from his Fortress of Solitude anyway, it was on the way.
In 2011, Gore and Hyatt decided to shake things up. They reformatted the programming, paid for a new logo and hired Keith Olbermann to anchor their prime-time news hour; a move akin to hiring Sasquatch to cut the Hope diamond. Olbermann, fresh from his marathon hissy-fits at MSNBC, was a train wreck from day one. He complained about everything: his driver, his sets, the coffee in the studio, the type size on his office door. Keith's crabbiness was as unprofessional as it was constant. True, he garnered a few more viewers (people smart enough to realize they had Current TV on their satellite and then find it) but the gains were minuscule. March 2012 saw the end of Project Olbermann. Ratings suffered but hey, you can't fall off the floor. At present Current is pulling ratings numbers commensurate with the number of people who are lobbying for a mosque in Vatican City.
Selling Current TV to the oil sheiks of Qatar is a little like selling the cancer wing of your hospital to American Tobacco. (BTW rumors that the Supreme Court tried to prevent Al Gore from selling Current TV have proved unfounded.) There is nothing wrong with Al Jazeera. True, the list of potential advertisers might be shortened (liquor, beer, Victoria Secret and anything fun) but every rose has its thorns. The issue is that Al and Co. look like they sold out; like if Jimmy Buffet moved to New York to run a hedge fund. For Al to take oil money makes him look like an unprincipled, greedy capitalist stooge...like the Koch Brothers' illegitimate cousin. If we wanted to watch an American business person sell his soul to the highest bidder for nothing more than a few bucks and a little bit of instant gratification, we could watch the replay of the Republican Presidential Contest. At least that got ratings.
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