Posted on 06/18/2003 8:30:22 AM PDT by areafiftyone
Look out, Rupert, here comes … Al?
Since deciding not to make another race for the White House in 2004, former Vice President Al Gore has been devoting considerable time to another dream, one he shares with many Democrats these days — creating a media enterprise that could challenge the dominance of conservative voices in cable television and talk radio. Numerous sources in Hollywood and Washington tell TIME that Gore has been quietly sounding out potential financial backers for a cable television network that would feature "progressive" viewpoints. Additionally, Gore has helped arrange meetings between key Hollywood figures and a wealthy Chicago couple who have publicly announced plans to invest $10 million in a liberal radio network.
What role Gore himself would play in any of these ventures is still far from clear. "He can pull out at any time," says one associate who has spoken to him about the concept. "He can say, 'This isn't my deal.' But he's interested." Gore has been exploring and encouraging several types of possibilities in recent months, and consulting closely with Joel Hyatt, the founder of Hyatt Legal Services, a nationwide chain of low-cost, storefront legal clinics. (Hyatt ran for Senate from Ohio in 1994, unsuccessfully seeking the seat that was vacated by the retirement of his father-in-law, Howard Metzenbaum.) One entertainment industry source who met with Gore and Hyatt earlier this year said that, at that time, part of what they envisioned youth-oriented programming, "putting video cameras in the hands of kids."
Gore is also making his influence felt in other ways in Hollywood, a place where he has not always been warmly received. When the former Vice President attended the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah, earlier this year, he arranged a series of private meetings with politically oriented entertainment industry figures. One session was with a handful of people from the Environmental Media Association, a group that promotes the idea of incorporating environmentalist story lines into movies. "He was very interested in what we are doing, because he is very interested in media," says Debbie Levin, the group's executive director.
Gore has also been helpful to Chicago venture capitalists Sheldon and Anita Drobny, who announced in February that they planned to fund a liberal radio network to counterbalance such conservative commentators as Rush Limbaugh. Several sources said Gore has helped introduce the Drobnys to such Hollywood political forces as producer-director Rob Reiner. Comedian Al Franken, author of the book "Rush Limbaugh is a Big Fat Idiot," is considering hosting a show on the Drobnys' network, and added that the couple has approached Gore to do regular essays. Anita Drobny declined to comment about any venture involving Gore, telling TIME: "I'm not at liberty to say anything about that. As far as Vice President Gore, you'll have to call him to ask him about his project and what they are doing." Gore and Hyatt did not respond to repeated requests for an interview.
Gore has long been interested in the nexus between politics and media. His 99-page senior thesis in college was titled "The Impact of Television on the Conduct of the Presidency, 1947-1969." Before running for Congress in 1976, Gore worked as a newspaper reporter for the Nashville Tennessean.
The ascendancy of conservative outlets such as Rupert Murdoch's Fox News Channel — and particularly such ratings powerhouses as commentator Bill O'Reilly — have been a growing source of frustration for Democrats. And while liberal commentators such as former Texas Agriculture Commissioner Jim Hightower have made a stab at syndicated talk shows, they have by and large been unsuccessful. In March, the MSNBC cable news network canceled Phil Donahue's talk show after a disappointing six-month run against The O'Reilly Factor. However, some liberals point to the success of Hillary Clinton's just-released memoir as evidence that a marketplace exists for their viewpoint.
Gore has shared their frustration. In an interview last December with the New York Observer, he described the conservative outlets as a "fifth column" within the media ranks that injects "daily Republican talking points into the definition of what's objective."
"The media is kind of weird these days on politics, and there are some major institutional voices that are, truthfully speaking, part and parcel of the Republican Party," Gore said. "Fox News Network, The Washington Times , Rush Limbaugh — there’s a bunch of them, and some of them are financed by wealthy ultra-conservative billionaires who make political deals with Republican administrations and the rest of the media."
Ironically,this was never said about Bill Clinton...
At least they admit they use the entertainment media to push their views onto the masses.
Since it's part of this article, can someone get us an update on just how well this book is actually succeeding? I haven't seen any updated numbers recently.
Sales of sleeping pills would plummet!
Huh?
What role Gore himself would play in any of these ventures is still far from clear. "He can pull out at any time," says one associate who has spoken to him about the concept. "He can say, 'This isn't my deal.' But he's interested."
Ten Million? You bet your sweet a$$ he's interested.
NO ONE WANTS TO HEAR YOUR OUTDATED, WHINEY, LEFTIST BULLSH!T!
Cripes, they already have NPR, CNN, MSNBC, ABC, CBS, NBC, every major motion picture company and studio, almost all of Hollywood's "playas", every single major newspaper across the country, Time, Newsweek, etc, and they are "worried"?
Liberals don't play well in the market unless it's a captive audience. Once Fox News and talk radio and the Internet broke the left's domination of all major media, people were given a choice and the PEOPLE CHOSE FOX NEWS CHANNEL AND TALK RADIO AND THE INTERNET, YOU MORONS!...what galls the Democrats and the left is they just can't believe the majority rejects them and their message. It's always got to be "some other reason" that they aren't "connecting"...when the idiots don't get that it is precisely because their message isn't connecting.
What's it gonna take to get it through to these morons?
MSNBC put on Donahue and he tanked so bad the ratings weren't even measurable some nights. And he's not some "leftist icon"? So where was this huge "progressive audience", eh? Nowhere to be seen.
Hightower, Cuomo, Koch, Dershowitz, etc, all tried and failed on talk radio.
Same reason.
When people are actually given a choice in media coverage, they will choose the conservative angle every time.
Al Franken will fail as miserably as every other leftist who has tried. Because the left listens to NPR...they already have a network...paid for by you and me and our tax dollars no less.
Again, advertisers don't support NPR...the left needs public funds to stay on the air...they can't compete in the market place of ideas...they LOSE EVERY TIME!.
I'm so tired of this bullsh!t. I want them to get this network underway so that it can fail miserably and then we can roundly mock them. What will they say then? I'm sure it will be some other excuse then..."the evil, conservative, media empires killed it", "Rupert Murdoch destroyed it", etc. I'm sure that's what we'll hear next.
THE LEFT'S MESSAGE IS REJECTED BY THE MAJORITY! GET IT THROUGH YOUR HEADS, MORONS!
They've got TV, too. Free Speech TV, I think it's called. It shows up on my cable as FSTV.
Anyway, it's a barrel of laughs. Sort of like VideoDU. There is no position so outrageous and offensive that they can't find some documentary filmmaker who hasn't covered it.
It's like the freak show at the circus: you feel guilty about gawking at them, but they did put themselves on public display.
In other words, if you don't toe the Democrat line you are a "fifth columnist" spewing false information to the masses.
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