![irony-meter[1]](http://wattsupwiththat.files.wordpress.com/2013/01/irony-meter1.jpg?quality=83)
Middle East “Big Oil” funded media outlet buys Al Gore’s CURRENT TV with plans to infiltrate offer the English Al Jazeera channel into American homes – my Irony Meter pegged.
Will it be the “All Al” channel now?
Some details…
From NYT’s Media decoder
9:16 p.m. | Updated Al Jazeera, the pan-Arab news giant, has long tried to convince Americans that it is a legitimate news organization, not a parrot of Middle Eastern propaganda or something more sinister.
It just bought itself 40 million more chances to make its case.
Al Jazeera on Wednesday announced a deal to take over Current TV, the low-rated cable channel that was founded by Al Gore, a former vice president, and his business partners seven years ago. Al Jazeera plans to shut Current and start an English-language channel, which will be available in more than 40 million homes, with newscasts emanating from both New York and Doha, Qatar.
For Al Jazeera, which is financed by the government of Qatar, the acquisition is a coming of age moment. A decade ago, Al Jazeera’s flagship Arabic-language channel was reviled by American politicians for showing videotapes from Al Qaeda members and sympathizers. Now the news operation is buying an American channel, having convinced Mr. Gore and the other owners of Current that it has the journalistic muscle and the money to compete head-to-head with CNN and other news channels in the United States.
Al Jazeera did not disclose the purchase price, but people with direct knowledge of the deal pegged it at around $500 million, indicating a $100 million payout for Mr. Gore, who owned 20 percent of Current.
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Al Jazeera apparently has been looking for ways to sneak in for some time. Al Gore provided them the key.
In thinking of what I’d like to say to Mr. Gore about this, I’m reminded of House Speaker Boehner’s missive to Harry Reid making the news today.
There’s a silver lining though, next time Gore bloviates about climate skeptics “being in the pay of big oil”, we can hit him upside the head with his own pathetic hypocrisy.
As for cable TV subscribers, I’d say the best way to exercise your rights of protest is to not pay your bill, and/or disconnect. That will be my choice should it show up in my home.
UPDATES: (via Tom Graves in comments)
“Glenn Beck Tried to Buy Current TV But Was Rejected”
http://news.yahoo.com/glenn-beck-tried-buy-current-tv-rejected-032853589–finance.html
“Time Warner Cable Drops Al Gore’s Current TV Due To Purchase By Al Jazeera”
Louis says:
“Isn’t it fitting that Al Gore will receive his $100 Million in 2013 under the new and improved Obama tax rates?”
A hypocrite like Al?
Do as I say, not as I do…….
Taxes are for the plebs.
“Mr. Gore and his partners were eager to complete the deal by Dec. 31, lest it be subject to higher tax rates that took effect on Jan. 1, according to several people who insisted on anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly. But the deal was not signed until Wednesday.”
http://mediadecoder.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/01/02/al-jazeera-said-to-be-acquiring-current-tv/?smid=tw-share
We live in interesting times, given the vacuum our media has become, Pravda 2009 covered climate gate more accurately and honestly than CBC and most of the rest of North American Media, I would not be surprised to see Al Jazeera exceed my expectations.
Al Gore getting bailed out, thats good too, he will have some money for the lawsuit settlements.
The entertainment Media,for it’s not news or reporting as we knew it, is fading away.
Too few of their viewers trust them anymore, sure they would like to, hence the success of Fox, but its going down,being replaced by trusted blogs.
The media sold the public out, they know it, we know it and the advertisers know it.
Follow the advertisers they know the media is not reaching the public anymore.
We see the media attempting placement advertising, hoping to save their asses, but the shows are feeble and viewers fickle.
The effort to control the internet, is clear notice that they recognize their fading influence and the blatant love affair with Obama, their prince and saviour .
Would intelligent people be that brazen, if they had anything left to lose?
ZootCadillac says: By contrast the Palestinians are using home made rockets with no targeting electronics. they calculate the fuel needed to reach a certain area and point and hope. The Israelis choose their targets with American weapons, the Palestinians just fire their darts in angry retribution at an occupying nation.
For heaven’s sake Zoot–the Israelis are defending themselves againt a vicious gang of terroists that hide behind their children, knowing full well that people like you will blame the Israelis. They are cowards. Teh Jewish people are remarkably restrained considering the terrorists never let up. Many people wonder why they hold back–when the terroists won’t stop bombing, homicide bombing–attacking the Jewish people in their own land. Remember–in Israel women can drive, work, walk in public without a man and not be raped, and it doesn’t take 4 witnesses to claim rape. Women are not stoned for being raped either–It’s a no brainer which side I would be on even it if it were not historically the land of the semites.
GO THERE and see for yourself. stop listening to Al Jezeera. You are not getting the correct story.
He should have stuck to helping Tipper ban Kiss records. They are fake demons AL!
Worthwhile remembering that Al Jazeera celabrated the release of child murderer Samir Kuntar in this manner: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SIkrQGz5ats .
And by the way, the Al-Thani family is known to have protected Khalid Sheikh Mohamed the mastermind of 1993 WTC bombing: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abdullah_Bin_Khalid_Al-Thani
The base problem is the idea of not being biased. All outlets report from what they think is the acceptable range of views. So there key questions, are, do they fake the reported facts? Do they suppress relievent views?
What is your objection to hearing people outside your confort zone? Where people have negative views of you is it not better to understand what they think, even if they are wrong?
If your objection is that they are terrorists, Remember the voice of the current deputy prime minister of North Ireland was banned on UK TV for many years and now he is in the government.
Just because they say it on TV, does not mean you have to accept it. In general it is better to know what it is that you do not accept.
I watch TV sometimes when I travel (never at home, I care about my mental health). In Europe, they’ve had English-language version of Al-Jazeera included in the standard set of TV channels since long ago. I cannot say that I like it but it is definitely not as left-oriented or Israel-hating as BBC.
Western news organizations have become so lazy, biased, and unprofessional that I go to Russian web sites to check if anything of interest is happening in the world. There is no hope to find that out on Yahoo or other American “news” sites (including Fox, unfortunately).
@Other_Andy.
i read your comment with interest. i did consider a reply to each point and did a little research but my PC recently blew up and i’ve been commenting on WUWT from my bed ( it’s 7:30am here) on a small netbook in the dark. It’s difficult, the keyboard is cramped. I make many mistakes.
Also i realised that there was no point. it’s just opinion. That you don’t see things the way i do is no doubt down to your own political beliefs. i personally have no stake on US politics and I’d be pretty much ashamed to associate myself with either party right now but for differing reasons. i see Fox news as I see it. I don’t see how shareholders are altering the style and manner of reporting. i do know the murdoch family and their practices very well due to their exposure in the UK and the subsequent arrest of many of their media bigwigs. It’s my opinion, I’ll let yours be.
@Neill
Having fought your ‘terrorists’ (many of whom are people who have been made enemies from the actions of the west as opposed to being a terrorist threat in the past ) i like to think I have a clue what’s going on in the region. I’m not sure what the rest of the post had to do with me and my point about US media except that I inferred a reference that you might consider me anti-semitic. i apologise in advance if that’s not the case but if it was so then i refute that in entirety. I may not agree with organised religion but that;s the same for one as any other.
I would however defend the right of any individual to practice his faith without interference or persecution. If you were implying that I have something against Jews ( the people who identify as such rather than the people who practice Judaism ) then I’d invite you to come look me in the eye and repeat your claim. I would not allow it to stand. Any accusation of discriminatory practice levelled at me is treated the same. As someone who has fathered mixed-race children i think you can see where that stems from. I find discrimination by race, gender or religion to be abhorrent.
@DaybyDay
I have been there, which is why i find much of your comment anecdotal rhetoric. You would not make such claims if you knew the people. The ‘Arab’ is not the same over the region and nor is ‘the Muslim’ and you media fed understanding of the region, based on your comments simply reinforces my views of biased media.
“I’ve seen US media often, it still amazes me that many posters here see Fox news as a legitimate source as opposed to the far-right political activist mouthpiece it has become.”
I agree and I am still surprised how many (conservative/right wing?) AGW skeptics forget about their skepticism when it comes to other ‘scams’, like politics, patriotism, wars…
> Will it be the “All Al” channel now?
Al Al
@ZootCadillac on January 2, 2013 at 8:01 pm
There were more than just a few “fairly well educated white Englishmen” in the late 18th century that had some difficulty with various American media – including Benjamin Franklin. In 1776, it was made clear what Americans thought of their opinions.
Take your criticism, prejudice, and British colonial attitude elsewhere sir. It’s 2013.
“having convinced Mr. Gore and the other owners of Current that it has the journalistic muscle and the money to compete head-to-head with CNN and other news channels in the United States.”
that it has money was al that mattered for Al.
As for Al Jazeera. I know it has a negative image in the US. But it has good coverage of things happening in the Middle East. I follow their live-blog on Syria, for example. And as an earlier commenter said: you want as much info you can get and make up your own mind about events.
Too bad Al Jazeera is all in for the AGW myth. Now that I learned that Qatar is the main financer plus the fact that Qatar was hosting the last climate conference at Doha, I don’t think that Al Jazeera will provide a different view on that issue any time soon.
ZootCadillac touts being an atheist who thinks all organized religion is the “bane to humanity,” because they are all ethically equal – in accord with the ignorance of most secular atheists. Well, I’m a lifelong atheist, and a one-time student of the late “great atheist” Antony Flew (a UK philosopher most associated with the University of Reading), and that notion is flat out wrong.
Most Muslims ARE (in that much abused term) “fundamentalist.” For instance, not much less than nearly all Muslims believe that the religious crime of apostasy – ie, changing one’s mind about Islam and dissenting from it – requires their death.
No free and open society can function this way, persecuting apostasy, and thus Jews are now almost extinct from their Arabic and other Muslim homelands, and a Christian diaspora leading their is gathering steam.
So the claim of equal worth or abhorrence of religion is ridiculously wrong. ZootCadillac then goes out on a limb and saws himself off, thusly: “I could counter by saying that much of US mainland terrorism has historically been committed by radical, right-wing fundamentalist Christian groups or individuals. If a criminal’s religion is pertinent to his crime then why have the US not declared war on these groups?” As an American historian, let me say that this smear has no basis in fact or reality about the US.
To the contrary – as Harvard cognitive psychologist Steven Pinker makes clear in his latest tome ,”Angles of Our Better Nature” (supported with 70 pages of footnotes) – western religions, but especially Christianity, have diminished human violence by advancing the humanitarian ethic of forgiveness. Through forgiveness, an enemy becomes a useful trading partner, for example, and eventually a friend, despite other deep differences – something Arabs and Muslims have yet to learn from Jews and Christians despite having a millennium of time, as well as sterling examples, like Israel, in their midst to emulate.
ZootCadillac also let’s us in on his real biases: “I watch [Al Jazeera] and to a lesser extent, Russia Today, fairly regularly. Both are far more reliable for global news than CNN, I can assure you.”
I too have watched “RT” and Al Jazeera for years (via local US broadcast public television), and RT is much like MSNBC (the very least watched news source in the US), but with a more conspiratorial twist on Chomskyite nonsense, ie, let’s have our controversial conclusion ornamented by “facts” chosen to serve our “Leftist” ideology, with contrary facts and falsifications completely ignored or derided as strawmen.
As to Al Jarzeera, which I have much more respect for, consider how they reported on the COP18 climate conference in Doha, and the World Bank’s alarmist AGW-propaganda reports about a month ago: I watched a half hour interview program with three “journalists” – it was a chorus of “consensus” – of course all scientists agree….AGW is even worse than we knew…no one disagrees…. BLAH BLAH BLAH indoctrination, not facts nor thinking things through at all.
In short, no criticism, dissent, or skepticism even applied to the “climate crisis.” I was appalled.
If this is representative of how Al Jazeera America will cover climate change, their success will do much more to advance Al Gore’s risible climate propaganda than Current TV ever hoped to do.
I’d like to add to these comments that i do hope I have not upset too many people by my comments. I am aware of how sensitive an issue comments about terrorism still are. it was never my intention to direct the conversation that way, i just found myself responding to responses to me as honestly as i could. I’m a great believer in tolerance and I hope you can tolerate my comments in the same way i do the many others here that i don’t agree with when the discussion goes off topic.
I can get a little heated at times, mostly if called a liar or accused of some form of prejudice. I like to think I’ve met and known enough of the world’s people to know we are pretty much all the same, we were just indoctrinated into different views. many of which we could simply do without.
I will concede that i am not entirely without prejudice or bigotry as i am incredibly intolerant of idiots, whatever your creed or colour.
I enjoy WUWT very much and would prefer to make friends discussing the things we have in common than make enemies over the things we don’t share the same views of. I reserve the right to remain a cantankerous old bastard though 🙂 Happy new year all.
Not only has Al Jazeera been part of most standard cable packages in Europe for a long time, they’re also revered as being one of the most open and transparent new organizations in social media. I highly recommend this talk made by the head of their social media organization at a conference in Sweden two years ago: http://mediaevolution.23video.com/video/3027903/riyaad-minty-al-jazeera#comments
Is Al Jazeera reporting the news that hundreds of people are dying of COLD in Uttar Pradesh in India. Mostly street people they are unable to endure the lowest recorded temperatures in that region since 1969.
A co-worker versed in Middle Eastern affairs told me that the Katushka rocket is quite harmless. A small child can intercept and drive it back with his fist.
Muslim men definitely fall short in their treatment of women. Patriarchy theory tells us that all white males are rapists, beaters, murderers and enslavers of women and have been for millenia. Muslim men simply lack the mobility to rape the huge numbers that a white man rapes.
/sarc off
ZootCadillac says:
January 2, 2013 at 11:49 pm
” I’m not sure what the rest of the post had to do with me and my point about US media except that I inferred a reference that you might consider me anti-semitic. i apologise in advance if that’s not the case but if it was so then i refute that in entirety.”
You called the indiscrimate, untargeted firing of rockets at Israeli villages and cities morally superior to targetting enemy launch sites. You called those rockets darts.
I think you are very anti-semitic. I don’t know you, but you sound like a muslim apologist for Hamas.
Quote: “Now the news operation is buying an American channel, having convinced Mr. Gore and the other owners of Current that it has the journalistic muscle and the money to compete head-to-head with CNN and other news channels in the United States.”
Umm, no. This rather looks like a fire sale by the Current TV-stakeholders to me: The trade of CO2-permits is dead, so Al has no further use for a propaganda-outlet pushing it.
Al is selling a bad-performing asset, because he knows Current TV has exceeded it’s shelf-life.
Mark my words: Some day, in retrospect, the day of selling Current TV to Al Jazeera will be called the official terminal date of AGW.
It seems like Israel can’t do right. They are patient for months as Palestinians or Hezbollah are firing rockets into their country and then they finally respond with superior weapons and they get called “mean” and “nasty.”
We have their news channel in the UK – and it beats the ultra-lefty-biassed-BBC-propaganda-shows by miles. Yes, there is some bias on Middle East issues, but it is easily allowed for and is a healthy (IMO) counter-balance to most of the media over here!
Living in Europe and trying to find a little truth in “”NEWS”” channels I would rate for accuracy and presentation Al Jazeera one million ( 1,000,000,) times better than the BBC, if you want to rant try watching these 2 channels at news hour then compare !
Hi ZootCadillac
Thanks for your reply.
This is not a political blog so I keep it short.
The term ‘far-right’ is overused and a discussion stopper. The whole political spectrum has moved so far to the left, it seems that everybody on the right of Stalin is called far-right and an extremist these days.
As for Fox, I can’t remember the last time I watched them. For the news I watch the MSM but make sure I check the ‘facts’ and read online newspapers and blogs for various points of view.
As for Alwaleed bin Talal spending millions ONLY as an investment and NOT having some influence on the direction of the media, I agree that’s just a guess.
I have read that some commentators, on left leaning blogs, see the ‘anti-AGW’ stance of Fox as proof of Alwaleed bin Talal’s influence. I am not sure that makes sense.
Very lucky to get Al Jazeera…. I travel constantly in SE Asia, and I am alway VERY happy to land a hotel that has Al Jazeera. A very different approach to the usual ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN, FOX etc, and even way ahead of the BBC………
I always see very interesting stories about places and issues that never pop up on the western MSM, and the quality of the reporting and detail is impressive. Far better than the US/Aus/Brit style of a studio full of talking heads on a 24 hour news cycle proving that the stock market and politics are just a game to be constantly chewed over…
Of course, they undoubtedly have their own viewpoints and own bias (though not at all obvious to me) but then again, we should all watch and digest ANY MSM knowing that somewhere behind it there is someone with his own particular viewpoint calling the shots.
As an interesting News broadcaster I cannot praise them highly enough. (Disclosure … I’m an Aussie, from a family of many generations of Aussies).
I read AlJazeera most days as it often has a different perspective on things. It usually is accurate, as long as you skip over two subjects:
1. Palestine, for obvious reasons, and
2. ‘Climate change’, where they are even more alarmist and irrational than the BBC.