Former veep Al Gore has sold his struggling, barely watched Current TV network to Al Jazeera. In a statement accompanying the sale, Gore’s network said:
Current Media was built based on a few key goals: To give voice to those who are not typically heard; to speak truth to power; to provide independent and diverse points of view; and to tell the stories that no one else is telling. Al Jazeera has the same goals and, like Current, believes that facts and truth lead to a better understanding of the world around us.
The first outcome of the sale has been the departure of former MI Gov. Jennifer Granholm. She hosted a show called “The War Room,” a bellicose name for a left-leaning network. Imagine if Fox had a political show whose title compared public affairs discussions to warfare. It once aired “War Stories,” but that was a show about actual stories of war. Granholm’s contract went through the year, up to a possible sale.
The second outcome of the sale is an announcement by Time Warner Cable that it will drop the new Al Jazeera-flavored Current TV “as soon as possible.”
Gore likely doesn’t care. He pocketed about $100 million in the sale, a remarkable take for a network with such a tiny audience.
Al Jazeera is mostly funded by the government of Qatar.
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