The Wall Street Journal reports that Glenn Beck–who approached Current TV about a sale last year–was too right-wing for the network to even consider his offer. But an authoritarian-Islamist government that has criminalized homosexuality, discriminates against non-Muslims, prosecutes journalists, and has a “Not Free” rating from Freedom House? That was fine:
Before Al-Jazeera, there was Glenn Beck.
According to The Wall Street Journal, Glenn Beck’s media company, The Blaze, approached Current Media about a sale last year, but was told in the words of one source that “the legacy of who the network goes to is important to us and we are sensitive to networks not aligned with our point of view.”
The Blaze “reached out to them to buy it,” a source familiar with the talks told POLITICO. “They would have replaced Current programming with The Blaze programming, but were told on initial calls that [Current] wouldn’t sell to someone they weren’t ideologically in line with.”
In explaining the reasons for selling to Al-Jazeera, Current co-founder and CEO Joel Hyatt told the Journal that the Qatari-based broadcaster “was founded with the same goals we had for Current,” including “to give voice to those whose voices are not typically heard” and “to speak truth to power.”
Sure, Al Jazeera can “speak truth to power,” as long as the powerful are not in Qatar.
Whatever your feelings about Glenn Beck, he doesn’t advocate government censorship of the Internet or crackdowns on dissidents for “insulting” the nation’s leadership. He also isn’t funded primarily by the oil and gas industry, which Al Gore has spent his post-government career criticizing. So the fact that Qatari-owned Al Jazeera is supposedly more ideologically compatible with Current TV than Glenn Beck gives you an idea of how far off the left is from any genuine position of liberalism.
But Al Jazeera’s Qatari funding also raises other questions for Current TV. While foreign, authoritarian government-funded networks aren’t required to register under the Foreign Agent Registration Act, they often act as propaganda arms for their respective regimes (a prime example being the Kremlin-funded Russia Today, which now goes by the inconspicuous moniker RT). Al Jazeera is no exception, pushing an editorial line that supports the ruling emir’s interests, along with a clear anti-Western and anti-Israel slant. This isn’t something that will play well with advertisers or cable providers–Time Warner Cable dropped Current TV almost immediately after the sale was announced. If outside pressure mounts, others could follow suit. After all, it’s not as if Current TV had strong ratings to begin with.
The most amazing thing about the deal was not how the Left completely ignores your first 3 points (that was obvious), but they actually ignore Al Gore selling his channel to petrol-giant Qatar. n nThese people have no scruples do they?
Seems to me our own networks "often act as propaganda arms" of our President and the Left. Consider the MSM are "pushing an editorial line" that "supports" BHO and his Lefty friends. This is how corrupt our country has become. And if you look at the crony capital payments in special tax credits the "fiscal cliff" bill provides to GE, Goldman-Sachs, etc thanks to the lobbyists who are former Congreessmen and the "pork" that is in the Hurricane Sandy Relief bill ,then it should come as no surprise that we are in a heap of trouble.
The MSM in the USA is nothing more than an extension of the current regime, just like Pravda. Now and then they throw us a little bone, to put us off guard. It will probably stay like that for a loong time, because it is now so entrenched. The only news worth listening to in on FOX.
And of course, Fox is really fair and balanced? Give me a break! It's the propaganda arm of the GOP. nWhen you live in glass houses, you shouldn't throw stones! n nBTW, who watches "Current TV" anyway and who really cares? It's been a big flop from the beginning. I hope the Arabs like it more than we have.
I am going to go out on a limb and bet that you've never even watched Fox, especially in the traditional 6-7pm news time slot. n nif you had, you would have seen Bret Baier's show, which is straight-up news the way you remember it from Huntley-Brinkley. think Brian Williams without the smirk. n n it's 100% excellent, and yes–fair and balanced. the panel at the end of the show is also excellent, and always includes liberals and conservatives (eg Kirsten Powers and Charles Krauthammer). oh–and you won't hear one single ad hominem insult. n ngoing out on another limb: I bet you won't bother to watch. the MSM has already made up your mind for you.
Well, your limb just broke as I have been watching Fox on/off for years. In addition to Bret I also like Neil Cavuto and Studio B's, Shepard Smith. Do you watch MSN? nYou may not like what they have to say but they don't blatantly distort the facts as Fox does. Just a few weeks ago, Hillary Clinton had Bengazi flu according to Fox News and for days they managed to somehow inject the misinformation that she was faking and needed a doctor's note to excuse her absence which was juvenile at best and demeaning, not to her but to the idiots at Fox who thought they were being pithy.
The most amazing thing about the deal was not how the Left completely ignores your first 3 points (that was obvious), but they actually ignore Al Gore selling his channel to petrol-giant Qatar.
Gore remains completely unhinged as a result of his loss to W….Like so many Dems and lefties he hates his domestic opponents so much that he will do absolutely anything to spite them….. His idea of cultural relativism/"Tolerance" comes down to this: Judge my own culture by the harshest standards imaginable,but don't apply any standards whatsoever to the"Other".
David, his station is irrelevant so the impact of it's sale will be close to zero. I feel he did it just for the cash, his venture was loosing tons of money, had few sponsors and the Arabs offered to make his looses go away. I don't think Gore really cared about much else in this deal.
So you are saying that Al Jizzera's money was greener than Beck's money.
Do you know for a fact what Beck offered? Do you really think that Al Gore would turn down more money for principle? You give Gore more credit than I do. BTW, the cable providers in Tampa Bay, a market with 4.2 million people don't even carry it.
No, I don't know what Beck offered — and the article suggests that Gore doesn't either, and simply let Beck know that Gore would not entertain any offer from the Blaze because the values of the buyer were too important. Regardless of whether the motive was financial, there is no doubt that the sellers have blasted Beck's values as inconsistent with their own, and praised Al Jizzera's as being consistent with their own. That alone tells you something.
What do you rely on for your assertion that "his venture was loosing tons of money"? Perhaps that is true, but I would like to see it confirmed. On NPR, they said while Current had pitifully few viewers (~40K last week vs. NBC's 7.5M), they still had an impressive revenue stream ($100M in sponsorships).
Hand to God I thought Current TV had gone off the air last year and went to an all web format. I don't even know if Time Warner carries it now. They've announced they won't carry it of al Jazeera owns it but I don't know what channel it's on. Probably buried in among all the MTVs, extreme junkyard snowboarding and whatnot.
What's especially outrageous is that despite the sale to Al-Jazeera Gore will remain a "good friend" of the Jewish community, receiving plenty of lavish invitations from mainstream American Jewish organizations followed by thundered applause. Meanwhile, Al-Jazeera and its Hamas-backing Qatar financiers will push their anti-Israeli agenda to a mass American audience, moving forward the day that American opinions toward Israel more closely coincide with the hostile ones held by Europeans. That combined with Kerry in Foggy Bottom, Hagel in the Pentagon and Hussein in the White House means the halcyon days of an American-Israeli alliance are truly numbered.
"Mainstream American Jewish organizations"? Are those the same folks who managed the shower schedules at Auschwitz?
Current "TV" was owned by America-hating trash and it will continue so. Nothing has changed. Gore probably got the initial seed money from Arab terrorists anyway.
…. the oil and gas industry, which Al Gore has spent his post-government career criticizing …. n nThe while waxing fat from his family's corrupt generational relationship with the as-treasonous Soviet-agent, Armand Hammer and with the latter's Occidental Petroleum. n nTraitor, gangster, rapist. Not much Left for Al-Fredo Gore-leone to spiral down, to.
there is a void in international news – where I have DirectTV, I can not get C-Span3 or BBC World, but with this news, I did discover Current TV. which I will continue to ignore. n neasier to interpolate news by flipping between CNN and Fox. n nMaybe Zakaria will move on from CNN? THAT would be a benefit
While Ms. Goodman is right about the Foreign Agent Registration Act, I suspect we will see the Cable/Satellite TV industry itself following Time/Warner's lead and both dropping Current TV and pressuring all the members of its industry to do likewise. For a very self-serving reason, their fear of the FCC — and not wanting to have the "American" rules of broadcast TV being expanded into their realm. n nTelevision is a child of the Cold War and it was feared that the Communists would purchase a station so in addition to all the "in the public interest" rules, there also were strict rules on how stations had to be owned by Americans and the like. To give an example of how far this went, when the Kieser-Globe Broadcasting Company was starting what became WSBK-38 on the UHF TV band, they wanted the call letters "WKGB" which made perfect sense because it was their corporate initials — and the FCC refused on the grounds that "KGB" also was identified with the then-existent Soviet Union. n nNow one immediately interjects that the FCC doesn't have authority over Cable/Satellite TV (or radio) and that irritates them to no end. They would dearly love to regulate Cable/Satellite TV/Radio and the internet itself — and they have a solid rationale in that they already have authority over interstate telephone "wires" (now mostly glass fibers) and all uses of the electromagnetic spectrum; and all forms of Cable/Satellite TV reach the consumer via either some form of electromagnetic radiation (i.e. Dish reception from a satellite broadcast) or via a wire of some sort. n nThe big players, such as Time/Warner Cable, really don't want to be dealing with the FCC and they are going to make it clear to everyone else that the industry really doesn't want to be dealing with the FCC either, and hence they aren't going to give Congress grounds to seek to regulate them, not for the small amount of revenue that Current TV generates for them.
There is a second and quite sinister possibility — that this is nothing more than a bribe to Al Gore and others. Assume that Al Jazeera knows that Current TV is without any real value but purchases it for a princely sum — this is a standard means of getting money to someone without having to explain why you are giving it to him/them. n nIs Al Gore being bribed?
Al Gore now a Muslim Terrorist? Would only sell his business to a firm which is in line with his own views? So it goes to a Terrorist Muslim Muhammadan radical group which is so anti-American and anti-Freedom it stinks to high heaven! So much for the tree hugger and inventor of the internet. I knew the man was crazy are just plain EVIL to the core! These liberals sicko's and weirdo's and just plain evil mental disturbed people! NO American citizen who cares for his country and our values and purposes would EVER do such a thing as Al Gore did!! His sale of the T.V. deal had nothing to do with money needs, but rather, giving it to someone who holds to his same values from what Mr. Gore actually said. So, HE IS A Muslim at heart, he is a pervert at heart, he is a sponser of hate at hearet! He hates America, he hates our Constitution he lovess Islam and terrorism! The man is in need of being incarcerated and pllaced in a mental health hospital!!
We shouldn't forget that the mainstream Democrat Party nominated (quite easily) Gore, probably the dumbest candidate ever nominated by a major American political party and that he nearly won. That he is a hypocritical, anti-American, and corrupt on a megascale is further testimony that the Democrat party has let itself be hijacked by the left and that a large proportion of its adherents continue to vote based on tradition and party loyalty without any real thought being applied.