Al Gore Launches UK CURRENT

[RestoreGore]

Good show, Mr. Gore.
~~~
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/6441725.stm

Viewers star on Gore's TV channel

Al Gore promised content about "your world and your voice"

Former US Vice President Al Gore has promised to "democratise" television in the UK at the launch of a channel featuring programmes made by viewers. Current TV will broadcast non-fiction videos by "people making TV for the first time, and making it well", said Mr Gore, one of the channel's founders.

Available through Sky and Virgin Media, it claims to be the first channel created by and for 18- to 34-year-olds. In the US, Current TV gets about a third of its programming from viewers. The channel launched in the US in 2005 and is now available to about 40 million homes. The British version will be tailored to the UK, with Google, Lonely Planet and the British Library all signing up as partners.

Statistics from Google's search engine will be featured every half hour - "our version of the news", Mr Gore said. The "news" segment will include charts of the most-searched terms as well as video clips of popular Google news stories, he added. Every month, viewers will vote for one short film - or "pod", as Current TV is branding them - to be archived in the British Library.

'Global conversation'

Mr Gore said there was a need for "a global conversation" among 18- to 34-year-olds, adding that he hoped their contributions would help to make TV a more "democratic process". "A conversation that shuts out individuals begins to get a bit stale," he said.

He also promised the channel would not take a campaigning stance on issues like the environment, on which Mr Gore has been a prominent activist. "This is not going to be a political or ideological channel in any shape or form - we like to think it's more revolutionary than that."

UK CURRENT

Mr. Gore's Remarks

Excerpt:
Television for the internet generation


Al Gore, co-founder of Current TV, a network where content is user-generated, explains why it's important that the medium is harnessed by the many not just the few

Monday March 12, 2007
The Guardian


Today, Current TV, a network that I co-founded, and helped develop and launch in America launches here in the UK - and I hope it will help to revolutionise media consumption in the digital age. Current TV is part of an inexorable drive from viewers towards democratising the media.
Since the Mayflower left Plymouth in 1620 and arrived on the shores of what was to become the United States of America, the cultures of our two countries have been inextricably linked. America and the UK share a common language and much more besides - we share common ideals such as democracy and freedom.

But there are dangers. Democracy, the founding principle of the United States and a legacy of older European societies, is in danger. Democracy, or government by the people, depends on people being well-informed. As a means of communication, the media are one of the biggest, perhaps the single most powerful force that shapes our ideas about what really matters in our daily lives.

Isn't it strange, therefore, that three-quarters of Americans thought Saddam Hussein was responsible for bombing New York's twin towers in 2001? Isn't it odd that news channels and daily newspapers can obsess about a female pop star's decision to shave off her hair, when our global climate is changing at an alarming pace and people are still being routinely tortured in the 21st century?

Informed citizens are an essential part of a democratic society. Throughout the rich history of the US and the UK, ideas have been fomented by great writers and debated by the people. In the US, Thomas Paine started a revolution with his fiery essay, Common Sense.
~~~~~~~~~~
Now this is how you start a revolution.

[RestoreGore]

1. The only thing I'm not too keen on is the association to Rupert Murdoch

http://business.guardian.co.uk/story/0,,1889786,00.html

Even though I do understand the message of this is more important.

[Cha]

2. Good Luck with

this launch, Al Gore!

We do need a global news show that gives the whole truth on what's going on with the Planet and not just some corporate/slant.

[RestoreGore]

3. So true. This is how change is made

Too bad so many don't seem interested in his endeavors that don't have political hype attached to them. This endeavor is truly groundbreaking, and exactly what his new book The Assault On Reason is all about.

[RestoreGore]

4. kicking for the information revolution n/t