The mind-blowing and clueless Current TV (Al Gore's venture)

Chicago Tribune via S. Florida.com ^ | Aug. 5, 2005 | Maureen Ryan

[FairOpinion]

Ever have a teacher who tried way too hard to be "down" with the kids? Who never knew that he was using out-of-date lingo or patronizing the intelligence of the people he wanted to befriend?

If you have a masochistic desire to spend hours with that kind of person, you could tune into Current TV, a new cable channel that debuted in 20 million homes nationwide Monday. (In South Florida, Current is available on DirecTV.)

For a channel that is supposed to be aimed squarely at 18- to 34-year-olds and reflect their views and concerns, Current (whose chairman is Al Gore) is remarkably clueless and elitist. And a fair amount of the content could be found elsewhere.

After a rather pointless story on a "sneaker pimp," or gym-shoe aficionado, host Shauntay Hinton mused, "I wonder, when his shoes get dirty, does he slap them like a real pimp would do to his own employees?"

Such casual condescension and witless arrogance is all over Current -- that, not the content, is what blew my mind.

[dr_who_2]

We can always hope that AlGore uses as much of his and his pal's money as possible to keep on air as long after Dweezil Reiter, 18, of Greenich Village, NY stops watching and reduces the network's viewership to 0.

[America's Resolve]

After a rather pointless story on a "sneaker pimp," or gym-shoe aficionado, host Shauntay Hinton mused, "I wonder, when his shoes get dirty, does he slap them like a real pimp would do to his own employees?"

I never let my kids watch MTV or VH1, not even ONE time. They seriously think I'm gonna let em watch this trash????

nice try Al! Not gonna happen in the liftime of THIS universe!

[George W. Bush]

I'm not sure we can write off Current too quickly.

As Limbaugh has pointed out for years, talk radio works for conservatives because it's about logic, reason and facts and those lend themselves well to a non-visual medium like radio.

However, people who are affective (emotion-based) succumb to visual media much more readily. So the inherent advantage we have in radio does not translate to television.

The only semmi-conservative news channel is Fox and it has plenty of liberals on it and is funded by the really deep pockets of its owner so it has little competition for its large non-urban audience.

In contrast, this Current bunch don't have nearly as much money and are competing for the prime ad target demographic with MTV stations, with Comedy Central, Fox, WB and the movie channels and a slew of others. I don't see how a slimly funded bunch ever makes it against the established players for that demographic. Nor do I see that advertisers will flock to them, preferring instead to keep a more static tactical situation in advertising platforms. I don't see a particular slot or niche of programming they can offer that will deliver a desired audience reliably for their advertising patrons.

Only if Current TV actually does come up with some compelling content, something whose draw is comparable to the reality-shows or the gay-makeover stuff, do they have any chance to draw viewers. But so far, what they've shown is cluelessness.

[King Prout]

no.

[King Prout]

*bows*

[King Prout]

Only if Current TV actually does come up with some compelling content, something whose draw is comparable to the reality-shows or the gay-makeover stuff, do they have any chance to draw viewers.

a more stinging indictment of the taste of the viewing public I have never read.

[George W. Bush]

a more stinging indictment of the taste of the viewing public I have never read.

Yeah. But it's true. This channel needs some real navel-lint style programming to help it succeed. Otherwise, it'll quickly be replaced with the Bingo Channel or some other hot new channel.

[radiohead]

You can take the girl out of the District of Columbia but you can't take the District of Columbia out of the girl.

LOL. True dat, Boo.

[King Prout]

it needs more nudity, back-stabbing, bed-hopping, and mate-swapping, then.

[patriciaruth]

That's funny!

[King Prout]

we try :)