![irony-meter[1]](http://wattsupwiththat.files.wordpress.com/2013/01/irony-meter1.jpg)
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”
There is nothing wrong with making money.
There is nothing bad about Al Gore getting out of the television business.
There is nothing wrong with oil.
and I won’t be watching Al Jazeera …ever. So what?
The only unpleasant part of this is that the ultimate creep and sex massage internet liar, Al Gore, just got more money, from the ultimate oil producers.
Al Gore is all about scamming for cash and feeding his ego. When you figure this out then all of Gore’s behavior makes sense. In fact, I hazard a few predictions about what he does next.
He has to feed his ego, troll for money and be creepy all at the same time…
He is going to start a giant ocean fish farm that sequesters CO2 and also functions as a cruise line destination outside US jurisdiction to shelter from tax. All of his crew will be 14 year old girl masseuses. It will be funded by an offshoot of the UN.
Louis:
My understanding is they signed the deal in 2012 thus avoiding the increase in capital gains tax. So much for the wealthy “doing more of their share”.
St. Louis Longhorn says:
January 3, 2013 at 1:21 am
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.”
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
The whole history of that region is complex. Without knowing the history of how the territories were divided after WWII you can not understand the present. If my foggy memory is correct, the formation of a Palestinian nation was raised at the time and the rest of the Arab world shot it down. The hatred of the Jews is not unique BTW. My grandfather was from a reviled Muslim sect. He left Syria/Lebanon before WWII to immigrate to the USA.
If Al Jazeera airs ‘Current TV’ to convince people they’re NOT a propaganda parrot…
they’re doing it wrong!
To me, this is the failure of the CAGW movement. At this point, however, I wouldn’t trust any of them as far as I could comfortably spit out a rat, even if they did go full bore “sustainable”.
markx says:
January 3, 2013 at 5:12 am
…. A couple of important comments from a couple of guys not known for their anti- semetism….
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As I said one has to look at the mess from an historical perspective. Anti-semetism ran high after WWII. It was alive and well in the USA in the 1950’s-60’s. I know because my mother, thanks to being half arab, look Jewish and was often a target despite belonging to a Christian church.
After WWII the Allies were caught between a rock and a hard place. On the one hand they did not want to take in a flood of German Jews and on the other they had the Holocaust media disaster to deal with. Dumping the Jews into a useless bit of sand called their ‘homeland’ which was then occupied by Britian and therefore ‘their’s to give away’ was seen as the perfect solution.
From WIKI
As I said the mess is complicated.
Watching CBC makes Frank Zappa: I am the Slime, rise from my memory.
Gross and perverted
Obsessed and deranged
Yup that our media.
Al Jazeera’s obsession might be refreshing.
Happy New Year All.
Anthony, don’t be biased and give advice on how to protest against al Jazeera. It’s the only big news channel that I can barely tolerate any more. CNN is too superficial, and I flat out refuse to watch BBC because it’s unreliable. I hate the way the big news channels tell their listeners how to think about a news story. When I’ve been watching al Jazeera english, I’ve noticed how they tend to be less biased and they do make an effort to be balanced. Ok, they royally fail to do that when it comes to climate science, which is a big negative for them, though.
Ric Werme says:
January 3, 2013 at 6:11 am
Charles Gerard Nelson says:
January 3, 2013 at 1:04 am
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.
I don’t know, but I was surprised to see it on the headline scroll at the bottom of a local TV newscast here in New Hampshire.
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The Wunderground South East Regional map this morning had snow in Georgia and Alabama. A glitch? Or real? http://classic.wunderground.com/radar/mixedcomposite.asp?region=c5&size=2x&ID=RAX19
ZootCadillac says:…..
“………stop seeing every Arab who’s religion you don’t share as some kind of enemy because the reality.on the ground in these places is far from what your media would have you believe.”
The fact that you would post something like this says more to me about your ignorance of America and Americans, and about what you are being reported about us and our beliefs than it does anything else.
Charles Gerard Nelson says:
January 3, 2013 at 1:04 am
Yes, Al Jazeera is reporting the deaths of the street people of Uttar Pradesh in India.
http://www.aljazeera.com/weather/2013/01/20131311115982714.html
I find that Al Jazeera is excellent for coverage of news items from around the world and in particular from Asia, Africa and South America that are never covered in Western MSM. Yes, they have their prejudices the same as all MSM. But far fewer than many that are quoted as exemplars of CAGW alarmism within the pages of WUWT.
I hope it does not come as too much of a shock for some of you to discover that a media organisation that regularly tells lies about the environment is also similarly economical with the truth regarding everything else that they report. Al Jazeera is not exempt from this. Like in Science, if you can verify, then trust, else do not.
Big Al slipping under the 2013 capital gains wire with a bag of Qatari oil money would be worth a Josh cartoon surely!
The big danger with Al Jazeera English is the assumption that it has the same point of view as Al Jazeera Arabic. BBC and Reuters also have a different face to the Arabic world.
Westerners need desperately to hear what real conversations are going on in other parts of the world, not the “predigested news morsels, ready to eat” provided by the MSM. They only provide the illusion of knowledge.
With free online machine translation reaching remarkable levels of quality these days, anyone can go to the horses mouth…as well as the other end.
“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”
Read more: http://newsbusters.org/blogs/noel-sheppard/2013/01/03/time-warner-cable-drops-al-gores-current-tv-due-purchase-al-jazeera#ixzz2Gvw1kZbz
Gail Combs;
The whole history of that region is complex. Without knowing the history of how the territories were divided after WWII you can not understand the present. If my foggy memory is correct, the formation of a Palestinian nation was raised at the time and the rest of the Arab world shot it down.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Shot down? Stole it would be the better term.
The UN enacted the partition act in 1947. The plan was for Israel to come into existence in 1948 and for “Palestine”, roughly the area now called the West Bank and Gaza, to become a country of their own after that. Unfortunately, the Arab birthday present to Israel in 1948 was war.
Everyone remembers that Israel won that war. What everyone conveniently forgets is what happened to the Palestinians. While Israel won the war, Egypt wound up in control of Gaza and Jordan wound up with the West Bank. With a stroke of the pen they could have given the Palestinians what the UN promised them, but they didn’t. They kept the land for themselves while refusing to make the Palestinians who lived there citizens of their own country, thus creating a nation of refugees on the very land that had been promised to them by the UN.
Fast forward a couple three more wars and Israel not only winds up seizing the West Bank and Gaza from Jordan and Egypt, but eventually winds up turning control of both over to the Palestinian Authority. So now the Palestinians are getting a shot at building their own country, not by the largess of the United Nations, nor by that of their Arab brethren.
With “brethren” such as these, the Palestinians need few more enemies.
Flash on the Purple Onion Network:
Sluggish Current becalmed the Cheater in Chief who required a tow from al Jazeera’s oil tanker despite his aversion to floating away on warming black oil scum.
Josualdo says:
January 3, 2013 at 4:51 am
I ocasionally read AJ on the web. Nothing too special there, slightly boring. Obviously warmist. Now if I could get my hand at a decent Russian news site…
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Try http://www.en.rian.ru .
This english-language page by RIA Novosti is very good to get to see the other side of the coin, too, and for a russian news-outlet is only as biased as neccessary to survive.
TomR,Worc,MA,USA says:
The fact that you would post something like this says more to me about your ignorance of America and Americans, and about what you are being reported about us and our beliefs than it does anything else.
Really Tom? That’s most insightful of you. All it tells me is that i have an opinion i wish to share about my perceived notion of mendacity and obfuscation present in the US media. I didn’t offer any comment on how Americans are represented in UK media so very well done. You don’t appear to go on to share what exactly you have gleaned from my comments so perhaps my congratulations are a little premature?
My knowledge of America, such as it is come from over 30 years of visiting and staying there. Longer if you count how long my father was doing business with the USA and how are particular business attracted the interest of two charming fellows from the CIA who became great family friends and enriched us as a family in a number of ways. including cash. But i’m no Willis and that’s for another time.
I don’t profess to know all of America well, none of it in fact but I bet I’ve seen much more of it than many natives. Whilst some of my comments have clearly been sweeping and not intended to be indicative of every American in residence today i can say this. Americans are a particularly wary, insular people who possess no small amount of bigotry and intolerance, not least of which is for many of their fellow Americans. This said i am a fan of the American having met enough to know that my old adage of ” people are just people, some are good, some are bad” holds true and having been drunk with enough of your compatriots tells me there are more than a good number of gems out there.
However i will say that the one thing I have learned about your average American, with some two sigma confidence* is that he don’t take well to honest critique.
*I made that up, for effect. But i’m sure you know that. If you would prefer i don’t generalise about your varied nation then perhaps return the compliment by not judging me on a few comments?
I’ve turned what was meant to be a bit of honest advice about news gathering into an argument with the US about my opinion of them. None of which was intended. I have the courage of my convictions however.
ZootCadillac:
I write to thank you for your reasoned, tolerant and informative posts in this thread. And I congratulate you for your forbearance in response to the bigoted and unjustified personal attacks upon you.
As you say, all news sources are biased and free speech is about enabling as many sources as possible so more than one bias is available for recognition and comparison. I think this was clearly expressed by ‘son of mulder’ who wrote at January 3, 2013 at 6:11 am:
And the bias of Al-Jazeera was cogently addressed by Richard Burden in his post at January 3, 2013 at 6:55 am which begins:
Perhaps your comments were opposed by people who lack the British experience so clearly reported by ‘stacyglen’ in his excellent post at January 2, 2013 at 11:44 pm. It is certain that your rational comments have been attacked by people with abhorrent prejudices who have generalised despicable behaviours of some as being representative of entire peoples.
But, as ‘Joe’ clearly states in his excellent and informative post at January 3, 2013 at 4:28 am:
‘Joe’ and you say your insights about the Middle East derive from your military experiences. Your views are supported by ‘markx’ who says (at January 3, 2013 at 1:42 am) his understanding of biased media – including Al-Jazeera – is based on his extensive experience of travel in the Middle East. Importantly, at January 3, 2013 at 5:12 am, ‘markx’ also disputes the prejudices which have been so blatantly displayed in this thread when he writes:
Moderators:
My post addressed to ZootCadillac contained a formatting error. This is a = hopefduly – corrected submission which I as be used as a replacement. Sorry.
Richard
ZootCadillac:
I write to thank you for your reasoned, tolerant and informative posts in this thread. And I congratulate you for your forbearance in response to the bigoted and unjustified personal attacks upon you.
As you say, all news sources are biased and free speech is about enabling as many sources as possible so more than one bias is available for recognition and comparison. I think this was clearly expressed by ‘son of mulder’ who wrote at January 3, 2013 at 6:11 am:
And the bias of Al-Jazeera was cogently addressed by Richard Burden in his post at January 3, 2013 at 6:55 am which begins:
Perhaps your comments were opposed by people who lack the British experience so clearly reported by ‘stacyglen’ in his excellent post at January 2, 2013 at 11:44 pm. It is certain that your rational comments have been attacked by people with abhorrent prejudices who have generalised despicable behaviours of some as being representative of entire peoples.
But, as ‘Joe’ clearly states in his excellent and informative post at January 3, 2013 at 4:28 am:
‘Joe’ and you say your insights about the Middle East derive from your military experiences. Your views are supported by ‘markx’ who says (at January 3, 2013 at 1:42 am) his understanding of biased media – including Al-Jazeera – is based on his extensive experience of travel in the Middle East. Importantly, at January 3, 2013 at 5:12 am, ‘markx’ also disputes the prejudices which have been so blatantly displayed in this thread when he writes:
And he provides this link about Ehud Barak
http://www.theage.com.au/world/singleminded-in-military-and-politics-alike-20121127-2a457.html#ixzz2Gw30M4NF
which includes
As usual, Gail Combs sees the reality which has clouded the discussion. At January 3, 2013 at 7:34 am she writes
And she adds to that in her post at January 3, 2013 at 8:22 am.
The complexity is further explained in reply to her by davidmhoffer at January 3, 2013 at 9:17 am.
ZootCadillac, you and I share a common opposition to all forms of racism from wherever it comes and regardless of at whom it is directed. Also, we all understand that simplistic views of the Middle East problem are not only misguided but are also irrelevant to the subject of this thread which is about media bias and free speech.
So, ZootCadillac, I thank you. Your stance for free speech and assessment of all views deserves applause, and I applaud it. The bigotry of those who only want presentation of their ‘side’ of an issue is deplorable, and I deplore it.
Richard
Zoot,
I certainly am not judging you in any way. Apologies if that is what you thought. I just felt that as an American I needed to respond to that little bit of you first post. It sort of jumped out at me.
To be clear, I have no problem with AJE or it’s being broadcast here, or anywhere. As somebody astutely posted higher up in the thread, more information is always preferable to less information.
TB
Well, there goes CNN’s viewer.
{ michael hart says:
January 3, 2013 at 7:25 am
Not one of WUWT’s best articles.
I won’t, and do not need to, drag middle-east politics into global-warming arguments. }
Take another look at the top of the Home page…commentary on puzzling things in….recent news.
Wow. $500 MILLION for 47,000 viewers.
Big Al must have done someone a VERY special favor for that.
Al Gore’s partner in the deal cited high-level resources going into the channel to develop it in a way they could not do before. That was nice code for oil money from an oil export government owner of Al Jazeera. Maybe it sould be named Big Al’s Al Jazeera oil money play. And then they rushed the deal to beat Obama’s tax increase to avoid helping the children.
Anthony Watts:
“… my Irony Meter pegged.”
We all know that’s not a real Irony Meter. It’s only a standard BS-Meter with the word “Irony” photo-shopped over the “BS”. ;-}