NEW OWNERSHIP

Al Jazeera To Take Over Current TV

Al Gore's cable channel being sold to Qatar-based network

Jan 2, 2013 by David Mark

Editor-in-Chief t

Image: AP.

Al Jazeera is finalizing a deal to take over Current TV, owned by former Vice President Al Gore and his business partners, The New York Times reports. The deal for the Doha, Qatar-based network to take over low-rated is nearly done.

Current would provide the pan-Arab news giant with something it has sought for years: a pathway into American living rooms. Current is available in about 60 million of the 100 million homes in the United States with cable or satellite service.

After several years in obscurity showing user-generated videos and documentaries, Current tacked to the left in 2011 with the hire of MSNBC's Keith Olbermann. A year later, Mr. Olbermann was fired, but a liberally-minded channel made in his image remained. The channel now simulcasts liberal radio shows in the morning and features news-talk shows in the evening by Joy Behar, Eliot Spitzer, Jennifer Granholm, and others.

The plan will bring Al Jazeera, which is financed by the government of Qatar, into closer competition with CNN and other news channels in the United States.

Via The New York Times.

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Jan '13

PoliticalSpice

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I like to watch news from different perspectives. When i had them i watched msnbc, fox, comedy central and pbs, if i had ak jazeera i'd watch that too...
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Jan '13

ConserveUSA

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I like TruTV Shows. I don't know bout Al Jazeera.
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Jan '13

PoliticalSpice

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@ConserveUSA I don't know yet either, but if I got the station I'd likely watch...
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Jan '13

marine1

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I might be more cncerned about underllying agendas that Al Jazeera might have in store. As for Gore. i always figured he was as big a phony as the rest of them.
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Jan '13

PoliticalSpice

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@marine1 well i'm concerned with fox adgendas as well, but since i know the source i take that into consideration when watching, same with al jazera' same with any meda...
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Jan '13

sittinduck

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Not only no, but HELL NO.
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Jan '13

BigD1391

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You should probably watch it sometime.
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Jan '13

sittinduck

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@BigD1391Why? I was around those people enough when I worked in Iraq, I know all I want to know about them.
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Jan '13

malpaso

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So much for MR AMERICAN Al Gore....and his honor. He is just another money grubbing shitheel.....and should be ashamed of himself. Now to the real problem, letting a foreign country control an American channel is bullshit! How much better a way to send coded information to Islamic operatives in the US?
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Jan '13

sittinduck

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@malpaso You got that right!
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Jan '13

Waynestew

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@malpaso Well this is the "American way." Capitalism is a great thing isn't it? When everything becomes about making money can't criticize someone for doing exactly what people say we should all be striving for.
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Jan '13

2b1ask1

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Figures....
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Jan '13

Jack-Black

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ummmm. Al Bore had a TV station? No I wont watch.
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Jan '13
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Jan '13

Neo_NtheMatrix

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Who is surprised by this? Two birds of the very same feather in bed together. Watch the partisan Dems attack me though instead of this abomination.
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Jan '13

PoliticalSpice

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I'm not a dem, but want to be one of the first to attack, you lnow, to ring in the new year. Consider this an attack.
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Jan '13

frigginhell

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Fox's second largest share holder is Prince Alwaleed bin Talal from Saudi Arabia (maybe you've heard of this country, it's where the men who planned and executed the largest terrorist attack on US soil came from). So the precedent has already been set, no?
Also, quite the martyr complex there, bub.
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Post @frigginhell
Jan '13

DARSB

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I'll be interested in counting the number of times per day Al Jazeera blames something on President Obama - and comparing that to the number of Neo's noun-verb-blame Obama tics.
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Jan '13

Neo_NtheMatrix

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@DARSB - In fact, I've not blamed obama for anything in a very long while now. Nothing, nada, zero. You can check my posts for the last week and you'll find nothing. Nice try though.
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Post @Neo_NtheMatrix
Jan '13

DARSB

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@Neo_NtheMatrix What, you found a 12 Step Program, Friends of Barack O?:-)
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Jan '13

RobertJHarsh

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Yeah...anything would be better ALGORE channel.
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Jan '13

Keyjo

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Being open minded, I'll certainly give them a chance. I like as many perspectives as possible. Sticking one's head in the sand, leaves one's ass exposed!
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Jan '13

martydotcom

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Know thine enemy
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Jan '13

PoliticalSpice

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Thats why i watch fox
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Jan '13

martydotcom

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We think too much alike - I love the snarky comedy Fox provides. Al Jazeera should provide an interesting insight to how our actions are viewed from the other side. All we get in the way of TV global news is Pablum dumbed down for the masses. We get a tiny bit of the European perspective via BBC, but for now the only way to really only get a global insight is from from the on-line newspapers.
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Jan '13

Denizen_Kate

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I may tune in out of sheer curiosity, but I would never consider it as a source of news anymore than I do Fox or MSNBC.
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Jan '13

Sharpshooter

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All this time I thought "Gore" was an alias.... so it's really Al Jazeera? With a name like that he should have gone into porn or making background music for the porn industry. He might have been useful in that profession.
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Jan '13

malpaso

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My tour in Viet Nam was 13 months...his was 13 weeks got out to attend divinity school; flunked out and went to law school? Who was he kidding, his daddy the senator got his ass out of the combat zone [even though he was a PIO in Siagon....

So now we know exactly what he is and where is loyalty lies don't we?
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Jan '13

jessejaymes

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@malpaso Sorry voted you up by mistake. Using your logic GW Bush's going AWOL from flight school and refusing to participate in the Reserves as he did should make him, oh I don't know, a kissing cousin to Bin Laden? Before you fire back remember the Bush family and the Bin Laden family have long, deep, historical business ties.
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Jan '13

malpaso

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@jessejaymes I was commenting on Al Gore....but to set the record straight; GW Bush was a fighter pilot with the Texas NG...now, about you?????
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Post @malpaso
Jan '13

jessejaymes

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@malpaso No he wasn't. He went to flight school but washed himself out and went AWOL and went home for the remainder of his service contract and was never held accountable for that.
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Jan '13

Sharpshooter

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@jessejaymes I don't know or much care about your military experience BUT when I served, deserters did not receive "Honorable Discharges." Going AWOL and remaining at home for the remainder of a service contract as you put it, is desertion.

You might not like his politics and may not respect the man, but YOU ARE LYING and that is easily proved.

Where on your slime ball scale does lying in place of a reasoned argument place? It's pretty high on mine.
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Jan '13

Rogue

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Generally, i watch news from several different sources and several points of view. However, rarely waste time watching radical, opinionated, and "fact-less" sources that pretend to be airing news! Since i've never previously watched Al Jazeera, i haven't a clue whether it would be a reliable, unbiased news source, or a mouth-piece for unsubstantiated dogma like Fox news, or not. One would have to watch it for a few times to get a handle on the type of info it's presenting before forming an opinion!
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Jan '13

jessejaymes

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Probably not something I would watch since I refuse to watch religion owned TV. They are Muslim first and last. Not my cup of tea. But then I don't watch the 700 club either. Or Fox. Or MSNBC (except for Morning Joe).
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Jan '13

talkenhed

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en you say "radical & opinionated" you don't include either of the two most radical & opinionated MSNBC & FOX?
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Jan '13

AndBegin

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i voted yes. i will continue to watch current tv if they keep the same programming that they air now. It is a lot of different stuff, mostly short documentaries and news. It is a good watch.
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Jan '13

MongoAPillager

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what do they say,keep your friends close,keep your enemies closer.....that being said they do have some "interesting" stories as does as does Pravda and a few others
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Jan '13

MongoAPillager

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here is a good example from Russia,who wooda thunk t...??? http://english.pravda.ru/opinion/columnists/2...
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Jan '13

MongoAPillager

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Russians are jealous,they want Obama for their president??? http://english.pravda.ru/opinion/columnists/1...
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Jan '13

Bullitt

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No. Never.
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Jan '13
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Jan '13

BigD1391

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Gotta be pretty ignorant to comment negatively on it without having ever watched the channel..
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Jan '13
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Jan '13

TheJimmy

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The Salman Rushdie show would probably do pretty well on that network.
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Jan '13

Wary

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The less TV I watch the better off I am.
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Jan '13

Souljah

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I dont believe its a good thing to give these guys ratings, it's like helping their hidden agenda.. and we got enough Anti American sentiment coming from our own people right now...
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