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Things got a little too warm when Al Gore took to the stage at the SXSW Interactive festival Saturday to talk about The Future — that is, his new book subtitled Six Drivers Of Global Change as well as the NRA, the internet and global warming, natch. AllThingsD editor Walt Mossberg took the opportunity to call the former VP on an inconvenient truth — not his movie, the hypocrisy of his sale of Current TV to Al Jazeera. “You sold your network to Al Jazeera, which is owned by a government that’s a big oil producer,” asked Mossberg. “How could you do that?” Gore eventually responded “I don’t ask you why you continue working for Rupert Murdoch.” Uh-oh. Mossberg parried, “Last I checked, he’s not in the oil business”. Gore retorted, “He’s also not strictly in the news business, either”.
Al Gore Squares Off With Walt Mossberg On Sale Of Current TV To Al Jazeera
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what does it matter? and btw – that’s how and why CNN was started back in the early 80′s. owning or funding media to influence the message is as old as the first billboard.
or as old as your misguided way of thinking,,,,or not thinking
It matters because Al Gore is a hypocrite – a pompous, smarmy, self-deluded hypocrite. That’s why it matters.
I’m a fan of Gore’s generally, but I think it’s clear this Current TV sale to Al Jazeera did a ton of damage not only to his personal credibility, but also to the philanthro-enviro movement in general. Even his rhetoric smacks of the worst kind of defensiveness–that of the entitled. I wasn’t there, so I’m reading this second hand, but this “I don’t ask you (so why are you asking me?)” response is disappointing on several levels.
Lately Gore has reduced himself to “I know you are but what am I ?”.
Why is everyone so surprised by him? He’s just another Leftist who enjoys capitalism for his own benefit while lecturing the rest of us on its evils.
How Gore ever had any credibility on green issues is astonishing to me. His ongoing personal conspicuous consumption, everything from his diet to grid power and fossil fuels, is both vast and infamous. How it took the sale of Current to make this clear to his supporters is perplexing.
I don’t believe in Gore’s political viewpoints anymore than say, Ralph Nader. But at least Nader walks it like he talks it. For that, and his overall consistency, he is worthy of respect. Al Gore is a conniving hypocrite, and therefore is not.
Well said, Glen!!
When the figurehead of a movement does something so hypocritical, so damaging to the cause he says he believes in — it could actually destroy the movement.
Al Gore either doesn’t actually believe that oil causes global warming or he doesn’t care.
I don’t see how you can translate his move in any way other than those two possibilities.
Hypocrite and fraud doesn’t even begin to describe Gore. He is a private jet-owning, limo-loving fat boy who lives very large in many giant mansions when is isn’t bouncing around the world collecting more money. But when he feels like you are not doing YOUR part to ‘combat climate change’ he will judge you, mock you and condemn you.
Notice his response to the question? “Well, what about you?” A complete embarrassment to those who saw his stupid movie and believed his sermons.
The “anti-global-warming” movement is a little too vast to be undone by one person. That’s a bit of ridiculous statement. Global Warming is now an accepted fact. The argument used to be that global warming isn’t happening. Now it’s what has caused global warming. It’s here. Besides, it’s been a while since anyone thought of Al Gore as one of the figure heads of the “movement”.
an accepted fact — by the quarter of the world that accepts it as fact.
And you pulled that number from…where exactly? Maybe you need to stand up to check. Science. It’s real. Believe it.
The US, Europe and Japan are taking action, or at least talking about taking action, against global warming. That’s less than a quarter of the world pop.
the rest of the world — it’s not even on their radar. don’t kill the messenger, that’s just true.
There are so many ways Al could’ve played this to his advantage, ie:
“Yes, I’m selling Current to Al Jazerra, but I’m going to take all of the profits and use them to invest in renewable energy advancements in America to even the playing field.”
…or something along those lines. I personally don’t care that he sold it to Al Jazerra, but he should’ve been ready with a better response to these questions other than to just sound defensive all of the time.
I didn’t know he owed you an explanation that’ll make you happy. He owes nobody anything.
If people need him to be something to believe in global warming, then it is not he who needs to re-think.
He owes an explanation if he wants to retain credibility among his followers.
I think he was ready for questions about the sale, but was preparing to be challenged on how he could sell to a network with a distinctly anti-US slant, not a network owned by a country big in the oil business. I think he was caught off guard because his answer might have been an acceptable retort to the question he was expecting, but was largely irrelevant to the one he was asked.
Gore is a sleaze. How come all politicians and presidents all have their own brand of stink. Maybe I’m a bit jaded, but to quote Frank Capra (Meet John Doe) “You don’t have to tell me that the world is being shaved by a drunken barber!”
Its quite simple,
Al Jazeera, have more coverage on global warning than any US News Network, by a large margin. Al Jezeera also acts quite independently from Saudi Arabia, who are our best middle east allies btw, Again, Al Jezeera have actually won more global journalism awards than most of the major US new channels. They certainly have more integrity than Fox News and CNN.
Also Gore has stated before that he constantly reinvests his money in global warming initiatives. So his global warming campaign will benefit on all fronts – greater exposure, and more money in the pot. PLUS, Saudia Arabia may be a big oil exporter but at least their government actually is in agreement that not only global warming exists, but it is ‘humanity’s most pressing concern’ and they are actually taking steps to help the situation – unlike our own government.
wait – is the argument that Al Gore cannot take this money because it came from a country whose main national resource is oil?
I thought people objected to Al Jazeera because its a fountain of anti-American hatred. When they’re not broadcasting beheadings of Jews, Al Jazeera can always be counted on to support our enemies.
Anyone who claims that Al Gore’s sale of Current damaged the environmental movement is talking bs. When a large chunk of american believe that there is a global conspiracy to fool them into believing that the globe is warming, then no sale of a little watched TV station is gonna do anything.
American’s in general contribute to the warming of the planet per capita than any other.
I’ll bet Al jazeera has done more on Climate Change than any other channel except the weather channel perhaps, and Qatar is in fact ACCEPTS the science of global warming, unlike the US.
You argument is that Al Gore didn’t hurt the movement cause the movement is already f*#k’d.
… you kinda have a point.
But of course, China and India and Russia are way, way worse than us, with pollutants, etc. Like- – by a lot.
Er, no.
Each American produces twenty five tons of CO2 a year, each Indian 2.7 tons (ref. World Watch 2010, as quoted in Popular Science). Americans are the hyper consumer here, still, and so by capita the producer of the most waste and greenhouse gas. Them’s the facts, bud. But let that not get in the way of your entitlement.
You quoted per capita consumption to defend your position that the U.S. is a greater consumer/offender than India. To quote Seth Myers, “Really?” Do you not want to take into account any difference in populations between the two countries? How ’bout them facts, bud?
And you know this because someone ran out with a little CO2 tester kit and measured people’s Co 2 emissions. These are phony number made up by people who believe the hoax. Thems is the facts.
I didn’t say per capita — I said India is a worse polluter. The population of india is almost 6 times the US — 1.17 BILLION.
And they burn twice over as much coal as us. (696 tons per year, the US burns 310.) that was in 2010 — India has built 400 new coal power plants since then.
Ever been there? I have. It’s tough to breath in a lot of the cities. Makes Gary Indiana look like Bora Bora.
So Al Gore is a hypocrite because he sold to AJ which is based in UAE, a large oil producer? Would anyone be making this argument if he had sold to Canadian Broadcast Corp? Canada is a larger oil producer than UAE… If we’re going to criticize the former VP it should be on the basis describe by Randy above…
His family made mega $ growing tobacco, he made mega $ selling a network no one was watching to big oil. Do you need any more proof he’s a total phoney?
For those who are not getting the gross, self interested hypocrisy of what Al Gore did, I will put it in terms that you may understand. I suspect the defenders of Al have a visceral hatred of the Koch brothers so you need to understand that this is FAR worse than if he had sold Current to Koch Industries. While their respective wealth comes primarily from oil, the Koch brothers aren’t a hereditary ruling class that refuses to give anyone but male muslims even a pale shadow of civil rights.
The above analogy was for illustrative purposes only and does not reflect any personal antipathy toward the Koch brothers, I actually rather admire their business acumen and tendency toward libertarianism. The people who’s money Al Gore so eagerly pocketed… very not so much.
It’s always about the money…..and Al went for it!
Davis Guggenheim, are you now regretting you drank the hypocrite al gore’s kool aid? I’m sure you are.
al-jazeera is the network that propelled Osama to stardom in the days after 9/11. his lackey is on trial in NY now for being a Goebbels of sorts… on al-Jazeera. what i want to know is: why isnt al-Jazz on trial?
Isn’t the US a major oil producer?
Yes. The U.S. was the third leading oil -producing country by 2005 (behind Saudi Arabia and Russia).
The U.S. might be the largest oil-producing country by 2020.
The article misses the biggest pieces of Gore’s hypocrisy at the talk with Mossberg:
He railed about internet privacy – tracking cookies, beacons, the stuff everyone is using to track you online – yet he’s a senior adviser to Google.
He then went onto say – almost directly contradicting his warnings about big data — that we need to put everything online.
Watching the interview was like getting whipsawed with contradictions, hypocrisy, and confusion.
Somebody should tell Al to STFU. There’s a point where your credibility is so shot to hell, that you become the issue rather than the causes. From a PR pov, he’s as bad as Lance Armstrong — and yes, he’s now undermining the credibility of climate change.
—How about facing the devastation
of his Globalist fronting for the RED China handover op?
—or his involvement with slave factories in that
Globalist diddled, EUGENICS ‘paradise’?
——-or his world bank fronting ‘Global Warming’ farce?
I used to believe in this man, but now he simply turns my stomach. We all felt he was the hope of the future and America when that election became a debacle. His bringing the global warming issue to a forefront issue was important…but how did he do it? Flying in private jets while having an affair behind his wife’s back, all while he’s telling us to unplug light cords at home. He owns huge homes that people have documented that he does not economize his use of energy on. He has gotten RICH of off marketing this issue. Now he sells his CurrentTV to Al Jazeera, home of Osama Bin Laden’s self taped messages, backed behind oil money, and some that despise our nation and threaten our security. Mr. Gore’s place in history is not a heroic one, but an “I’ve got mine, screw you” kind. Our founding fathers are rolling over in their graves…what a travesty.
Talk about shooting the mesanger! It won’t change the facts and the challenges we face. Al Gore is not the issue, the issues are how do we, individually and severally, respond to; global warming, genetic engineering and cashed up pressure groups distorting the democratic process.
The science is not complete on climate, I am not opposed to using genetics and I do know that individual interests should be balanced against the common good.
Sticking your head in the sand won’t see us thru the unprecedented challenges we face.
Look up the definition of elitist punk. You will be referred to see Gore, Al.
Wow, the flat-earthers are out in force today. It’s just so EASY to label AG a hypocrite for this sale to Al-J isn’t it? I’m glad most of you live in the south, which will suffer far and away more than the north as the climate continues to break record temps every year.
Gore has been exposed like all snake oil salesmen. He is only into his own self interest at the expense of those who want to believe in him as the champion for the green movement. The green movement will survive without him, but it is a teachable moment as far as placing to much faith in an individual who is flawed.
Now the rest of the world knows why Tipper tossed him out. He’s a hypocrite, through and through. Plus he probably did a little “deep diving” while trotting around the world with his inconvenient truths.
Well Qatar might except the facts but it doesn’t change the fact that most of their economy is based on oil profits and it doesn’t look like that will change anytime soon. Also Qatar produces the most CO2 emissions per capita at 44 metric tons per person per year, double that of the US.