Current TV, the small cable news channel that was co-founded by former vice president Al Gore, has been sold to Al Jazeera, the Qatar-based media company, that was the primary network that aired al-Qaeda’s videos to the West. Time Warner Cable dropped Current TV from its lineup as soon as it learned it had been bought by al-Qaeda’s spokesnetwork in Qatar.
KTLA The acquisition gives Al Jazeera the opportunity to establish a footprint in the United States, where it already has an English-language version of its Qatar service — called Al Jazeera English — but only limited reach. Just buying Current does not guarantee instant distribution, however. Time Warner Cable, which offered Current in roughly 10 million of its homes, is dropping the channel. Without Time Warner Cable, which is the largest distributor in New York City and Los Angeles, Current TV is in only about 50 million homes.
Typically, when a cable network is sold or changes its programming direction, distributors can renegotiate their deals. It is possible that other distributors that carry Current may see the sale as an opportunity to drop a low-rated channel that is fairly expensive in proportion to its ratings.
The loss of Time Warner Cable from Current’s list of distributors would certainly lower the value of the channel. Last fall when Current first acknowledged it was for sale, speculation was that it could fetch $300 million. Without Time Warner Cable, that price would be significantly lower. (A source close to negotiations told The New York Times that the deal was probably worth around $500 million, meaning a $100 million pay-day for Gore)
An image grab taken from a video broadcast on Al-Jazeera television 23 January 2007 shows Al-Qaeda number two Ayman al-Zawahiri speaking in an online video message.
Originally a home primarily for documentary-style programming, Current spent the last two years trying to build a news-talk network that would appeal to a liberal audience. It spent heavily to woo commentator Keith Olbermann to its network, hoping that viewers and advertising dollars would follow. But the plan backfired when Olbermann clashed with management and was forced out. In the meantime, other personalities Current brought into boost ratings, including former New York governor Eliot Spitzer and comedian Joy Behar, have failed to generate much attention.
In a memo announcing the sale, Current TV co-founder Joel Hyatt said Al Jazeera plans to rebrand Current TV as “Al Jazeera America” with a focus on international news. Hyatt said he and Gore would serve on an advisory board for the new outlet.
Al-Jazeera put Osama bin Laden on air to promote slander proven to be untrue against Israel
Gore and Hyatt said in a statement that Current and Al Jazeera shared similar goals of speaking “truth to power” and providing “independent and diverse points of view and to “tell the stories that no one else is telling.”
Al Jazeera is expected to move fast in making over Current and will probably try to have its imprint on the channel by spring. Officials from Al Jazeera were not made available for comment. One of the largest international news operations, Al Jazeera has close to 100 bureaus around the globe, and its content is available in over 250 million homes in 130 countries.
So Al Whore is working for the propaganda arm of the OIC. No surprises here.
If the audience doesn’t watch, the network will bomb like a jihadist. Americans won’t be interested in watching anti-American propaganda from self-hating Americans.
Good for Warner. Without carriers the network is worth zip. Let’s see if the others are Americans or have joined the Muslim-in-chief.
more propaganda from the “commie’s” from the middle east !!!! as if we do not get enough ” commie propaganda ” from cnn,abc,nbc,cbs npr and fox !!!!!!!!!!!!! . can’t we get these scumbags ” on the same sinking ship as the politicians and lawyers are on !!!!!!!!!!
Way to go Al. Are friends George, Barry, Bill, Jeremiah,Hassan, … in on this deal as well?
Al-Jazeera gets more gore-y by the minute. Al Gore high paid Sharia Whore!
What is a surprise????….That the demos folks are allies of islamofascists, and obama’s is a muslim, that are doing all to submit the world under sharia law
boy are they going to be in for a rude awakening, no one that I know, or have ever heard of watches anything to do with al whore of the progressive tribe. I guess there is such a thing as “stuck on stupid”.
I am sending DirecTV and e-mail this morning!
Dish network has current tv. I have dish network but I will be contacting them about this and will let all my friends and family no about this.
for what it was worth ol Beck threw his iron in the fire in the hopes of birthing a net work like sun tv up north ,
Who knew Current TV had so many suitors? Before Al-Jazeera snapped up Al Gore’s little-watched cable network, Glenn Beck tried to buy it, but, as Beck himself tweeted, “we were rejected by progressive owners.” The conservative media personality’s TheBlaze approached Current last year but was told 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
All Al, the Bore cares about is whatever lucre he can grab. When Kruschev predicted America eould fall from within I doubt even he would have believed this traitorous action by a former V.P. Whatever ever happened to the definition of treason?
Boycptt any carrier that carries this muslim pedophile garbage.
Jamal, for the first time, I am happy that I am with Time Warner.
Dear BNI:
Al-Jazeera buys Al Gore’s Current TV. I am so not surprised. I could mention several things; but the BNI posters have already done a pretty good job of expressing themselves. I will say this. How likely is it that the new owners of Current TV will implement “on the job sharia?”
Just the thought of Joy Behar forced to wear a burkha and having to adhere to sharia restrictions would be worth tuning in and watching her program. Unfortunately, me by my lonesome doing that might very well raise her viewership ratings by 80%. A jump that high might cause the new owners to keep her show on… and that I definitely wouldn’t want to be responsible for. Not taking the blame for that!
Arjay, she’s as good as gone as are most of the rest of them. They’ll keep that guy Cenq from the Young Turks because he is one of them.
never heard of current TV
It has an audience in the tens of thousands. Certainly was not worth anywhere near what Al-J paid for it. While Bush was in office, no cable company would have the terrorist network. But that was then. Now with a terrorist-lover in the White House, anything goes. Al-J is the spokesnetwork for the Muslim Brotherhood.
That’s goodbye to grassroots journalism and hello to government propaganda.
Thank God I have the internet.