No Love Lost

Al Gore is not a fan of TV news:

"I think that the influence of television over the last half century has been harmful to the operations of our democracy," said Gore. "In the age of our founding, and for much of the history of the republic, crucial. Individuals could gain easy access to information and could express their own views. They can't do that on television."

"They get plenty of information from it, but they can't participate in a dialogue or engage in collaborative decision-making," he went on. "But the internet is now growing in importance and pervasiveness, to the point where soon it may offer an alternative to the TV media environment that reinvigorates democracy. I'm hoping that's the case."

Gore's dissatisfaction with TV won't stop him from making the talk show rounds next week to promote his new book, The Future. He is expected to make appearances on Late Show with David Letterman, The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, the Today show, and The Daily Show with Jon Stewart.

In his book, Gore complains that "virtually every news and political commentary program on television is sponsored in part by oil, coal and gas companies," a conflict of interest that, he argues, prevents them from reporting the truth about the issue most important to him: climate change.

But he does have kind words for one outlet: Al Jazeera, the network that bought Current from him.

"The change that many analysts believe was most important in sowing the seeds of the Arab Spring was the introduction in 1996 of the feisty and relatively independent satellite television channel Al Jazeera," he writes in his book.

Critics have pointed out that Al Jazeera has close ties to the government of oil-rich Qatar, but Gore did not respond to questions about it.

One man's propaganda organ is another's quick cash sale, after all...