hvp05
Methodically disorganized
Most of you have probably heard of Current TV, the "new generation" of news television largely promoted by Al Gore. I happened to see a clip in The Source magazine regarding this about a month ago:
Gore dedicated the network at a free street concert in San Francisco that apparently featured a series of celebrities. This article gives this funny quote, "most of the 20-year-olds I talk to haven't heard of the network, nor do they know anything about Al Gore's involvement. 'We're here for the free concert,' they say."
I've watched a total of approximately 2.5 hours of their programming since their on-air launch on 1 Aug. and I think they can not honestly claim to offer "24-hour news". News, as it is traditionally known, is what our [or other] governments are doing, the latest U.N. scandal, or military or economic updates. Most of what Current delivers, however, is personal stories; like two that were on this morning, one about workers at a fish market and another about Iranian young people. The network strongly advocates independent video, in the belief that everyone has an interesting story to tell. Every half hour they have a segment called "Google Current", where they relay 30 - 60 sec. bits on several of the most popular news stories.
Now, I feel those 'human interest' stories have merit, as they can aid in putting the totality of a story in scope. But I don't think that stuff is news, nor should it subject traditional news.
I was curious how much of a Liberal slant the stories would have, and I was surprised that they are reasonably level-headed.
The producers do, apparently, have a problem with ADD, given the way mini video windows and ads are continuously popping up. This was particularly funny during a segment with Deepak Chopra discussing meditation... while the upper-right of the screen featured a coming segment of a skateboarder doing flips and jumps.
If you're interested, it's on DirecTV channel 366. Make Al Gore happy... check it out!
Gore dedicated the network at a free street concert in San Francisco that apparently featured a series of celebrities. This article gives this funny quote, "most of the 20-year-olds I talk to haven't heard of the network, nor do they know anything about Al Gore's involvement. 'We're here for the free concert,' they say."
I've watched a total of approximately 2.5 hours of their programming since their on-air launch on 1 Aug. and I think they can not honestly claim to offer "24-hour news". News, as it is traditionally known, is what our [or other] governments are doing, the latest U.N. scandal, or military or economic updates. Most of what Current delivers, however, is personal stories; like two that were on this morning, one about workers at a fish market and another about Iranian young people. The network strongly advocates independent video, in the belief that everyone has an interesting story to tell. Every half hour they have a segment called "Google Current", where they relay 30 - 60 sec. bits on several of the most popular news stories.
Now, I feel those 'human interest' stories have merit, as they can aid in putting the totality of a story in scope. But I don't think that stuff is news, nor should it subject traditional news.
I was curious how much of a Liberal slant the stories would have, and I was surprised that they are reasonably level-headed.
The producers do, apparently, have a problem with ADD, given the way mini video windows and ads are continuously popping up. This was particularly funny during a segment with Deepak Chopra discussing meditation... while the upper-right of the screen featured a coming segment of a skateboarder doing flips and jumps.
If you're interested, it's on DirecTV channel 366. Make Al Gore happy... check it out!
Whew! Those were probably two independent quotes but I laughed out loud at the way they were presented.