California Conservative

It appears that the convergence between the Internet, traditional media, and politics is really heating up and taking new shape…

The Associated Press reports: “Al Gore has a plan for luring the Internet generation back to television: make it more participatory by having viewers contribute their own video.”

“The former vice president and longtime Internet champion joined investors Monday to announce the creation of Current, a cable TV channel that will target younger viewers with a blend of news, culture and viewer-produced video.

Hmm. Very interesting. We didn’t realize that “luring [young people] back to television” was a cause to be championed. We were under the impression kids were watching too much television, and needed more exercise. Maybe Al can talk to Arnold, who once served as Chairman of the President’s Council on Physical Fitness and Sports. (This is called a subtle plug for those of you following along)

Gore, dressed in a charcoal gray suit and no tie, stood on stage with Current’s creative team — a multicultural group of TV producers the same age as his children.

He said the venture was dedicated to giving young people a voice.

“We’re about empowering this generation … to engage in the dialogue of democracy and tell the story of what’s going on in their lives in the dominant media of our time.”

That sounds awesome. And how can anyone object to “empowering this generation?” In fact, social security reform and private accounts (HT: Kudlow) might be an even better place to start, since most young people like the empowerment of more money in their wallets.

Nevertheless, the greatest admission is when Gore proclaims (and he was probably saying this when the above photo was taken):

“We have no intention of being a Democratic channel, a liberal channel or the TV version of Air America,” Gore said, referring to the fledgling liberal radio network. “It is not in any way an ideological, much less partisan point of view in any respect. It will have the point of view of the young generation.”

However, Gore will serve as chairman of the board of the new venture, which will be based in San Francisco.

And he also promises not to be program director. Really.

Related Story: Google queues up video (April 5, 2005)

This entry was posted on Monday, April 4th, 2005 at 10:31 pm and is filed under Blogging, Hollywood, San Francisco. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.