Gore Buys Cable Television Channel

[numediaman]

Al Gore and partner buy cable television channel from Vivendi

1 hour, 20 minutes ago

NEW ORLEANS, United States (AFP) - A new media company co-founded by former US vice president Al Gore announced it had bought a 24-hour news channel from French giant Vivendi Universal.

INdTV Holdings, created by Gore and entrepreneur Joel Hyatt, purchased Newsworld International (NWI) for an undisclosed sum, the company said in a statement.

"We are launching an exciting television network for young men and women who want to know more about their world and who enjoy real-life stories created with, by and for their own generation," Gore said in a statement.

The former vice president during Bill Clinton's administration planned to devote "the lion's share" of his time to the venture as its chairman, the company said.

"We want to empower this dynamic generation with a network dedicated to them that has integrity and a commitment to excellence. This will not be a political network," Gore said.

"These stories will be in a voice that young people recognize and from a point of view they identify as their own."

NWI is a 24-hour channel dedicated to global news produced by The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. After the acquisition, programming would still come from the Canadian broadcaster, Gore said.

NWI was distributed to about 17 million cable subscribers in the United States, INdTV said.

The acquisition was financed by "leading equity capital firms," and individual investors including "successful entrepreneurs and media pioneers", INdTV said in a statement.

Among key INdTV staff, Hyatt is the the chief executive and Mark Goldman, formerly the head of News Corp. satellite venture in Latin America, is the chief operating officer. Apple Computer chief executive Steve Jobs is a member of the INdTV advisory board.

Hyatt founded Hyatt Legal Services, billed as a low-cost service that attracted some three million clients and was later acquired by Metropolitan Life Insurance Co.

I guess we lost Sly as a possible switcher, huh?

[blackfox]

I think this is cool, but what does it mean exactly? As a US resident, would I have to have Satellite to watch? I know that the cable service providers pick and choose which channels to include in their line-ups, what are the chances that it will make the cut? I say this because it is the US that needs more in the way of engaging news channels (that aren't full of ******)...will keep my eye on this...
*edit* with Jobs involvement, might it be called " iNews"?

[numediaman]

I have DirecTV so I get NWI now. The channel is OK. Much of the content from the CBC. The best part is that they broadcast "The National" which is the CBC national news. It is usually anchored by Peter Mansbridge, who I think does an amazing job. I'm sure Canadians probably take him for granted -- but you've gotta love an anchor who is bald and a network that doesn't care.

The new owners would need to upgrade much of the content, however. Much of the content is things like "German Journal" which is dubbed news from Germany. It sounds like it might be interesting -- but, trust me, it's pretty boring unless you are an expatriot.

Below: Peter Mansbridge

[pseudobrit]

How long 'til someone cracks a tired joke about how Al Gore invented cable TV?

[mactastic]

I heard Al Gore claimed to have invented cable TV shortly before he invented the internet. :D

Of course I don't have any sources to back that up, but hey! I know it's true...

[SlyHunter]

I was about to buy Apple Stock when I heard they put Gore on the board. I didn't. I won't persue that thought any further on this forum other than to say that prior to Gore being selected for their board I was convinced Apple would one day take away market share from IBM and Microsoft.

Gore owns NWI that use to be one of my favorite news channels. Remember he tried to lie cheat and steal the Presidency. I doubt any channel he is a part of will be non biased.

[skunk]

I was about to buy Apple Stock when I heard they put Gore on the board. I didn't. I won't persue that thought any further on this forum other than to say that prior to Gore being selected for their board I was convinced Apple would one day take away market share from IBM and Microsoft.

Gore owns NWI that use to be one of my favorite news channels. Remember he tried to lie cheat and steal the Presidency. I doubt any channel he is a part of will be non biased.
Get over it. Your guy succeeded in lying and cheating and stealing the Presidency.

[pseudobrit]

hey, zim, you still feeling encouraged by Sly's stock trading methodologies?

[SlyHunter]

Get over it. Your guy succeeded in lying and cheating and stealing the Presidency.
He's not my guy, he's simply the only acceptable alternative.

[skunk]

He's not my guy, he's simply the only acceptable alternative.
We'll have to agree to differ there. I'd like my children to have a chance to live in peace.

[Thanatoast]

He's not my guy, he's simply the only acceptable alternative.You should warn people before you say something like that. I almost choked on my pizza. :p

[SlyHunter]

We'll have to agree to differ there. I'd like my children to have a chance to live in peace.
Which they can't do if terrorist feel free to fly plans into buildings without suffering reprecussions. Nor could other children in other countries have a chance to live with Saddam in their back yard.

[zimv20]

hey, zim, you still feeling encouraged by Sly's stock trading methodologies?
LOVE IT

in a couple months i'll have to thank sly for my new g5

[Neserk]

Which they can't do if terrorist feel free to fly plans into buildings without suffering reprecussions. Nor could other children in other countries have a chance to live with Saddam in their back yard.

Go figure. THey felt free to do it when your best alternative was in office. Looks like Bush is the friend to the terrorists.

[themadchemist]

Nor could other children in other countries have a chance to live with Saddam in their back yard.

Oh, you're right. Being tortured is so much more enjoyable when a foreigner is doing it to you!

[SlyHunter]

Oh, you're right. Being tortured is so much more enjoyable when a foreigner is doing it to you!
lets see the American took pictures of nude prisoners, and had one sit on a box. You compare that to saddam who hung women upside down on hooks while there were menstrating. And much much worse I won't bother to describe them here.

We can describe the things the Americans did to their prisoners here but to do the same for Saddams tortures would be too hard for people to actually take.

[Thanatoast]

lets see the American took pictures of nude prisoners, and had one sit on a box. You compare that to saddam who hung women upside down on hooks while there were menstrating. And much much worse I won't bother to describe them here.

We can describe the things the Americans did to their prisoners here but to do the same for Saddams tortures would be too hard for people to actually take.So you're saying that our liberating torturers were much nicer than Saddam's authoritarian torturers? I don't think that's a distinction that many in the Arab world are willing to make. Especially after our third story (when the first two didn't take) for jusifying the invasion was to "free" the Iraqis.

[numediaman]

lets see the American took pictures of nude prisoners, and had one sit on a box. You compare that to saddam who hung women upside down on hooks while there were menstrating. And much much worse I won't bother to describe them here.

We can describe the things the Americans did to their prisoners here but to do the same for Saddams tortures would be too hard for people to actually take.

Glad you are finally waking up to the reality of the situation, Sly. Indeed, people are comparing what the US is doing to Saddam Hussein. Are we as good at torture as Saddam? Well, only 25 prisoners have been killed while in US custody so far -- so I guess not.

But while you seem to think this is OK, the rest of the world is appalled. Thanks to this war, the reputation of the United States is now on a level where it can be compared to Saddam's Iraq. Congratulations, Sly, your war has achieved results!

** ** **

The view from Canada -- they aren't comparing the Americans to Saddam. But ObL's name is being brought up:

The Globe and Mail - Editorial

The harm perpetrated in Abu Ghraib prison

Wednesday, May 5, 2004 - Page A16

The images are enough to sicken anyone. A U.S. servicewoman smiling behind a pyramid of naked Iraqi prisoners. A hooded man on a box, his arms and genitals attached to wires. The corpse of a man who was put in a body bag, then encased in ice for 24 hours before he died.

The terrorist Osama bin Laden could never have won such a propaganda coup against the United States on his own. In Iraq, and in the broader Arab and Muslim world, the photographic and videotape record of sadistic abuse of Iraqi prisoners by U.S. forces will cause incalculable damage.

Mr. bin Laden wishes to persuade Muslims that they have been humiliated and demeaned by the West. Too often, influential voices in the Muslim world seem to believe his baseless charges, even as they reject his methods. Yet here is a humiliation hard to deny: men in a conservative, Islamic country forced to be naked in front of men, and to masturbate in front of American women; a report of rape of a juvenile prisoner, and of an adult being sodomized by a chemical light and perhaps a broomstick. In the war of ideas, these images from Iraq are the equivalent of a laser-guided bomb . . .

[SlyHunter]

But while you seem to think this is OK, the rest of the world is appalled. Thanks to this war, the reputation of the United States is now on a level where it can be compared to Saddam's Iraq. Congratulations, Sly, your war has achieved results!

You seem to like putting words in my mouth that I did not say.
I never said I thought it was ok I said I thought they belonged in jail.

[Lyle]

lets see the American took pictures of nude prisoners, and had one sit on a box. You compare that to saddam who hung women upside down on hooks while there were menstrating. And much much worse I won't bother to describe them here.The point is, we shouldn't have to be making those kinds of comparisons: "Well, at least our sadistic tortures aren't as bad as Saddam's sadistic tortures were." I am getting sick and tired of people who (allegedly) represent my side of the political aisle making those kinds of excuses. What was done to those prisoners is completely unacceptable.

[mactastic]

I said I thought they belonged in jail.

'They' who Sly? How do you know this was only some abberant, sexually deviant soldiers who just happened to be doing things that made it easier for interrogators to extract info? Or does 'they' include people up the chain of command who knew and ignored, or reasonably should have known and closed their eyes because the ends justified the means?

[Sayhey]

Getting back to the thread topic, does anyone understand the kind of format this new network will be putting out? Will it be a news network or some kind of hip talk show (a sort of modern Dick Cavett show) or something else altogether?