Selling Out and Cashing In

Trey Smith

Current TV, the struggling cable news network co-founded by former Vice President Al Gore, has been sold to Qatar-based Al Jazeera. CEO and co-founder Joel Hyatt announced the sale to staffers Wednesday, characterizing the deal as "very difficult." The move comes as Time Warner Cable -- the nation's second-largest cable operator -- confirms that it is dropping the channel.

"Our agreement with Current has been terminated and we will no longer be carrying the service," TWC said in a statement. "We are removing the service as quickly as possible."

Other cable operators also are said to be exploring options to drop the channel.

The sale to Al Jazeera -- valued at close to $500 million -- means that TWC was contractually permitted to drop Current, sources tell The Hollywood Reporter. But as of Wednesday evening, the channel was still available to TWC video subscribers. It's unclear what will replace Current on Time Warner Cable. But the cable operator serves close to 12 million customers nationwide and was among Current's biggest carriers.

"We are proud and pleased that Al Jazeera, the award-winning
 international news organization, has bought Current TV," Gore and Hyatt said in a joint statement Wednesday. "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, like Current, 
believes that facts and truth lead to a better understanding of the world
around us."
~ from Current TV Sold To Al Jazeera; Possible $400 Million Deal For Al Gore and Co. by Matthew Belloni ~

A lot of progressive have had a longstanding love affair with former Vice President Al Gore that, frankly, I have never understood. Yes, he's gung-ho on addressing climate change, but that's about it. He remains a Democratic Party foot soldier and rarely goes out on a limb.

Now, it appears he is joining the ranks of people like Arianna Huffington who sold her liberal website, Huffington Post, for a ton of money. Like Huffington, this sale is wrapped in laudatory and effusive rhetoric about how the seller and buyer share complimentary visions. Yes, blah, blah, blah. But while Current TV never gained a sizable market share, it looks like its sale will make Gore and associates a lot richer than they were previously, while concurrently putting scores of less wealthy people out of work.

That's how these things always seem to go. The people at the top laugh their way to the bank, while the folks on the bottom trudge off to the unemployment line.