Monday, July 25, 2005

Gore will reinvent TV

Beacon Journal

I'm livid that Al Gore et al will start a news network starting August 1st. It's not that I hate Al Gore, or his goal to aim the new channel towards that oft-ignored 18-to-34 demographic. The problem is that Current TV will replace Newsworld International, which for a couple years now has been my only source for television news. NWI plays news broadcasts from different countries: Canada, Mexico, China, Japan, the UK, even the US. They give hourly summaries where you can get more international news in ten minutes than you can through a full day of CNN. That Gore wants to let viewers submit news and information is novel but it makes me feel dumber just thinking about it. Would you rather hear about the London bombings by the UK's ITV news, or Bob Blogger in Portland? Thanks a lot, guys. When G4 bought Tech TV they focused on those 18-34s while boosting ratings with shows about Hot Chicks in Video Games. This looks like more of the same. I'll give Gore a week of my time and then probably watch Current TV as much as I watch E! or Headline News: in passing, regretting that I didn't have anything better to do. Right now I'm looking at Deutche Welle, a German news outlet. You can't beat that, Al. You just can't.

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