Current TV, a great opportuinty to BE the media! DU this is your chance

[Melodybe]

Much like Gore was the only politican to hear about the internet and say, "hey that might be a good idea to put money into," he also just decided it was a good idea to give anyone in America the oppurtunity to be the media. Current may not be a leftie news channel, but if we got off our asses and got a camera, it could be.

The limits are endless, if you live in Ohio and want to talk about the stolen election, why not get a video camera and interview people that couldn't vote.

Want to hear more about global warming, why not do some research and do your own piece?

Want to talk about Teenscreen and the new freedom commission? If you live in a state that is doing it, why not interview a few folks about it.

What someone to show Bush saying what he said when he said it, when the rest of the media won't, use the internet and put together your own slide show for the masses.

Seriously folks we could really build Current into something great!

Get your cameras, interview your friend that just got back from Iraq, talk to one of your old high school teachers that now has to buy all their own school supplies, walk around your town with a video camera and show people where you come from.

It is a brilliant idea and I think that Gore is again a genius for coming up with it.

He was also fab on the tonight show.

Kick for Al Gore, the best president we never had.

[Rosco T.]

1. Bingo! People are finally getting the idea...

- stories on the Voting debacle in Ohio and everywhere else.

- stories on servicemen coming back to no benefits, to getting their pay cut, to what's happening in Iraq from the people that are there.

- stories on the decay of our infrastructre while Helliburton laps at the Iraqui trough..

and on.. and on.. and on...

Al Gore has just given us a national bulletin board, that will be see (at first) by the younger age groups... ie. new voters.

We've got about 16 months till the '06 elections... get busy.

[Melodybe]

2. I like that, a national bulletin board! What a great phrase, we are fools

if we don't take advantage of this.

My sister is getting her degreee in journalism and is already considering doing a piece here in Oxford, MS.

Damn, thank you Al Gore!

[Melodybe]

3. I wish DUers would pay attention to this!!!

For the love of god folks this really could be great, if some of us actually got off our asses and made it that way.

[tblue37]

5. Kick.

[Fridays Child]

6. I am. We have some real talent at this forum. I've seen it.

Who's the guy who put the coffin in front of the NYC recruiting office? Was it Symbolman? And what about our lala raw raw? And the DUers who did so much work on the Gannon story? Maybe Skinner, elad, and EarlG could put together a DU-TV piece?

[autorank]

4. Gore/Internet--Gore/Cable TV -- the guy's a winner, always was.

He has foresight. The internetn was sponsored by federal funds and legislation. Gore was behind that. Now, he's got his next big thing. I think it will work. People are sick to death of the majors' Look at the cable news ratings. Fox, 1.2 million viewers, max; MSNBC-CNBC .4 million; CNN, .7 million or less. These guy suck. Jon Steward competes well against them.

Well guess what, Gore's next big ting, will beat these losers quickly, just in the 18-34 group.

Rock on al.

:kick: and Recommend

[Fridays Child]

7. Another thought...

This isn't DU-based but I would love to see Eric Blumrich of Bushflash submit some stuff.

[parasim]

8. Thanks for your enthusiasm!

You can count me as one of the initial critics of Current TV, as I mentioned on a couple of threads around here my 1) disdain for the loss of NWI (the brilliant Canadian news channel it replaced) and 2) my skepticism about the channel being not much more than an HGTV for the younger set - just another vehicle to sell mindless ads. I griped about everything from the poor quality of the video to the unfinished current.tv website...

Ok, fine, I got that out of my system. After further investigation into what the point of this channel actually is and what it's potential is, I've turned the corner and totally agree that it can be what we the people make it to be.

If indeed they succeed with their charter to make it a truly national "public access" channel that enables those outside of the television/cable industry to actually get ideas important to us (and not the executives and shareholders) onto the television screens of millions then perhaps it will be revolutionary.

[Gloria]

9. Just caught the end of a clip on Gore on CNN Headline News....

saying it (I presume Current) was a way of keeping himself out there ....for a run for President if he want to do it.

Love to see the media speculating on Gore instead of obsessing on Hillary...

[Bombtrack]

10. where is there website or where can I find out what channel they're on in

my area or when they'll be available to me?

The publicity for him has been laughable. I'm as tuned in to media as a person can be and I have no clue how to find them

[Melodybe]

11. here is a link to the website and if you have direct TV they are channel

#366.

www.current.tv

[ithinkmyliverhurts]

12. As long as we don't try to represent all angles for a story.

Please, Current TV programmers: don't run video diaries young adults asking people about creationism, or diaries that show anti-Christian bias in schools. I really do hope Current TV develops a progressive slant to any and all stories run therein. If they do this, then the format really could be interesting.

We'll see soon enough if the "progressive disease" manifests itself. What is the "progressive disease"? Fairness. We believe all voices should be heard and duly refuted, but heard nonetheless. It's a great policy in theory--if all media adhered to it, we'd be OK (hell, we'd all probably have health insurance right now, and would be bemoaning the administration of that conservative president Al Gore right now).

I hope Current TV takes the Fox model: Fox convinces itself and its viewers that there is a liberal bias out there. This gives their programmers the freedom to run biased stories to counteract the liberal bias.

So I hope Current TV thinks of itself as a counterbalance to Fox and the current conservative slant in TV "news" when it decides which stories to run. Remember, Coulter boasted that the right owns the media now.

[rman]

14. "Fairness (...) great in theory" - Why do you think it is bad in practice?

If the problem with Fox (and to a lesser degree with other corporate MSM) is that it is unfair and unbalanced, then why would it be bad to counter it by being fair and balanced?

[rman]

13. Featured Uploads - this channel is made by you

http://www.current.tv/featured/

(in case anyone missed it)

[HootieMcBoob]

15. Kind of like a blog

eventually the audience will be able to rate the segments and the ones with the higher ratings will get more time on the channel. Yeah, I'm sure there are plenty of potential Michael Moores and documentary film makers with their own unique perspective on things out there in DU land that this would be a fantastic opportunity for.

I would like to see some longer segments though...especially for some things that require a bit more detail. But even so, given the short segments currently showing, they're much longer than you would typically see on a cable news program such as Fox, CNN or MSNBC. The only time those stations spend more than a minute on a particular subject is when it involves a celebrity, a missing girl or a disaster of some sort.

I also could do without the cheesy VJ type personalities that introduce the segments - trying way to hard to be MTV cool.

[Rosco T.]

17. A Video Blog.. the logical extension of the Internet to the 'masses' on TV

People dissed Gore for not making a 'liberal FOX'... I think he's giving us the possibility for a helluva lot more..

[KharmaTrain]

16. Hope This Is What You Say...

First, I already miss the news reporting from NWI...it was the only source for international news that wasn't filetered or edited. Sadly CBC and others couldn't make it go commercially.

Straight up, Current is not for me. I'm not into the MTV look, but then that's not who this channel is aimed at. As I had stated earlier, most of what I've seen (and I still am checking it out) reminds me of projects for college film class and other indie works. That's wonderful. These works do need an outlet. But this is will be a very difficult go if the network expects to live solely on advertising revenue.

The question will be is how this network survives. Too many great ventures starve on their idealism. Hopefully there's plenty of money behind this venture since it's going to be a very difficult sell...or may have to restort to viewer support or donations once the original "seed" money dries up.

To think is the a media savior is asking way too much from this network and hanging expectations they're not designed to meet.

The main thing is for this network to get onto more cable systems...especially the basic systems. Right now I get it on digital cable, but I am in the minority since that service either isn't available in many areas or is just too expensive for many.

Again, here's the best of luck to the new network...I hope I'm pleasantly surprise in the future on what I see.

[mzmolly]

18. Well hot dang! I'm up for "DU TV"

:toast:

Too bad I'm technologically impaired. ;)

[Lannes]

19. I would like to see a DU sponsored flash movie competition

Put it in a "best of" section on DU.We could mass mail the winners to let people know whats going on and let more people know about DU.